When members of the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club met in 1936 to race around a half mile fairground track in the sleepy town of Sturgis, South Dakota, no one could have imagined what their enthusiasm would spark. The race developed into an annual rally that, with the exception of some war years in the early 1940's, has convened the first full week of August ever since. Each year, the rally grew until a record was set in 1990 when more than 400,000 bikers were reported in the Black Hills for the 50th anniversary celebration. That year, Sturgis became the largest city in South Dakota, if only for one week.
Riding down Sturgis' Main Street for the first time in 1979, I was overwhelmed by the thought of more than 7,000 bikers in one place. There were nearly as many bikers as there were townfolk! It wasn't easy to serve everyone's needs. There were just a few restaurants, not many campgrounds and no organized events outside the official races and tours. An hour wait to get into Chef Rudi's truck stop or the Chat and Chew on Main Street wasn't uncommon. If you wanted to see drag racing, you had to ride to Bell Fourche. For music, the bars had juke boxes. The best place to camp was right in Sturgis' own City Park which the city generously converted into a temporary campground in an effort to accommodate the growing numbers. The bikers were left to police themselves. Much to the chagrin of the city, the park hosted some of bike weeks wildest times where anything imaginable seemed to take place. For many locals, the antics, which could sometimes be seen from a nearby street, were unmentionable. Eventually the numbers and the scene got to be too much and to the biker's dissappointment, city park was closed to camping after the 1982 rally.
Harley-Davidson, despite some rough financial times in the early 1980's rode the decade to success and eventually outpaced the national boom that was then underway. With the introduction of the new Evolution engine in 1984 and responsive styling by Willy G. Davidson's design team, the bikes came to be in high demand. By the end of the decade, movies, music videos and advertising all prominently featured the big twins. Sales skyrocketed, prices soared, and the whole industry took off with a roar.
Bike Week's popularity parallelled Harley Davidson's growth. As new riders got into the biker lifestyle, they heard stories about the thundering V twins in the hills, the smell of rubber burning into asphalt, tearing eyes from nitro fueled Harley dragsters, and headliners like ZZ Top, the Doobie Brothers, Steppenwolf and the Kentucky Headhunters. They also heard the wild tales of all night parties at the Buffallo Chip and other campgrounds that replaced city park. Perhaps encouraged by the tall stories and feeling nostalgic for the Wild West, bikers were drawn to the Black Hills like to a free-wheeling magnet. Sturgis became their Mecca. They had to make the pilgrimage if just to say they had been there.
Vendors and promoters followed the record crowds. I remember thinking it was great in 1979 to find an unofficial T-shirt that somebody was selling out of a booth in the Fireside. Now, hundreds of vendors offer countless officical and unofficial designs. Sturgis has taken on the air of a carnival. Events are continuous. There is always somewhere to go and something to do.
Long ago, Native Americans recognized a magical quality about the Black Hills and the land surrounding them. Perhaps bikers have discovered the same quality and that is what draws them back. Nothing has dampened their spirit. They still come to ride the "S" curves in the hills, the straight roads of the plains and to experience the Great West. For many, including myself, August wouldn't be August without Sturgis.