The other day I was taking a lunchtime stroll with my buddy Frankie (a little black pug who is our office dog) in Deadwood when we met a group of Segway riders zipping down the sidewalk on Sherman Street.
Even Frank, not easily impressed, stopped and stared. At first glance, a Segway seems an improbable form of transport. Riders seem to defy gravity as they stand on the platform between two large wheels. There’s a handlebar, which stands just above waist-high.
The riders were patrons of Rushmore Segway, a new tour business in Deadwood and Hill City. For $35 to $45, you can take a 90-minute guided Segway tour through town.
Owners Darrin and Yvette Gourde started the business after seeing Segway tours in Chicago and Washington, D.C., according to a story in the Rapid City Journal. In fact, there are Segway tours in about 200 cities worldwide, including Paris.
The Deadwood tour office is at the Days of ‘76 Rodeo Grounds. In Hill City the office is on Main Street downtown.
Jade Temple, marketing coordinator for the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce, told the Journal that he has seen Segway tours in larger cities. βItβs kind of neat to see that type of tour come to our area,β e said. βThey kind of give (visitors) a little different
perspective.β
Segways can go about 12 miles per hour, but for the tours they are slowed down a bit to accommodate rookie riders. But if you want a Segway of your own, the Gourdes are selling them as well. It’s the only Segway dealership in South Dakota.
After the Journal story ran, a minor controversy popped up because parts of the tours ran on the Mickelson Trail.
Motorized vehicles are barred on the Mickelson Trail, a.k.a. the “Big Mick.” But under South Dakota law, Segways are personal transport devices that are not considered motorized vehicles. And the no-motor rules have been relaxed a bit along the parts of the trail that run through towns.
Still, some Big Mick purists objected to sharing the trail with the electric-powered vehciles. Yesterday, when I talked to Darrin, he said they decided to voluntarily drop those sections of the tour that traverse the trail. Case closed.
I can kind of understand the purists’ point of view. But at the same time, Segways are quiet and slow. And though the middle of town — with cars and motorcycles on all sides — a few Segways can’t really do any harm.
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First the Segways, then electric wheel chairs and rascals! It’s a witch hunt!
Awesome technology! SmartAlec GPS Adventures is excited about another cutting edge technology coming to the Black Hills. In many ways the Black Hills are an escape for folks but unfortunately we get behind in the times when the old purists cry out for their horse and buggy days too much. It’s so great to have another entrepreneur in the Hills that brings a wonderful modern technology and combines it with an experience that makes our area an awesome place to visit. These customers not only experience it from a new perspective but they return with more people and even sometimes just move here. Glad your here Rushmore Segway!
I want to ride one of those things. I’m a fairly well-balanced individual, I hope, and I think it would be a gas.
For those of you following the story, the mayor of Hill City asked the GFP to relax its no-motors rule for the Mickelson Trail inside the city limits of Hill City. Last word is that GFP said, “We can’t do that.”