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Historic place

Roughlock Falls

Roughlock Falls Rd, Little Spearfish Canyon, Savoy, SD

Wagon drivers once had to chain-lock their wheels to inch safely down the grade here — giving this roughly 50-foot cascade in Little Spearfish Canyon its settler-era name.

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The story

Roughlock Falls sits in Little Spearfish Canyon, near the old sawmill hamlet of Savoy, reached by an easy one-mile trail. The name comes from "roughlocking" — chaining wagon wheels so they wouldn't spin freely on the steep grade nearby. The surrounding hills held mining and logging camps now used as hiking destinations, and the falls area is one of the few reliable Black Hills spots to see the American dipper, a songbird that forages underwater.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The name comes from a wagon-braking technique ("roughlocking"), not a person or Native name.
It sits in a side canyon (Little Spearfish), not the main canyon that carries the highway.
It's one of the few places in the Black Hills to reliably spot the underwater-foraging American dipper.

Connected places

Galena (silver camp)

Deadwood, SD
Black Hills

Nemo (Homestake timber camp)

Nemo, SD
Black Hills

Whitewood Historic District

Whitewood, SD
Black Hills

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Keystone, SD
Black Hills

Needles Highway

Custer, SD
Black Hills

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Dances With Wolves Winter Camp Site

Forest Service Road 222, Little Spearfish Canyon · 0 m away
In November 1989 a Lakota winter camp of real teepees was built in the snow north of Roughlock Falls for the closing sce

The Latchstring Inn

10619 Roughlock Falls Rd · 975 m away
Named for the frontier custom of leaving a latchstring hanging out as a welcome sign, this canyon inn has operated since

Savoy (canyon hamlet)

Jct US-14A & Roughlock Falls Rd · 1.1 km away
This unincorporated speck of a resort hamlet began as a sawmill town supplying the Black Hills timber trade, and survive

Homestake Hydroelectric Plant No. 2

Spearfish Canyon (near Spearfish Falls) · 1.1 km away
This second Homestake power plant literally dried up one of Spearfish Canyon's named waterfalls for decades by diverting

Cheyenne Crossing Stage Stop

21415 US Highway 14A · 8.4 km away
The last horse-change stop before the Cheyenne-to-Deadwood stagecoach made its final run into the gold camps is now a wo

Bridal Veil Falls

US Highway 14A (Bridal Veil Falls) · 8.9 km away
A 60-foot sheet of water cascading over limestone right beside the highway — Spearfish Canyon's most easily seen waterfa

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughlock_Falls_Nature_Area