A new stagecoach came to Keystone in 1877 as the city was starting. It was the transportation and communications network of the day and without it the southern Black Hills of South Dakota could not have developed into the gold mining community it became famous for. Join Luke as he learns to build the Concord Stagecoach back east in the city of Concord and goes out west to find a new way of life struggling to establish the first stage coach in Keystone South Dakota.

In 1867 Fritz Wilcox was eight and came with his parents as pioneers to start a new life up the Saint Croix River by paddleboat. Learning his way in the new world presents him numerus youthful adventures with his friends that find themselves in all kinds of trouble. Somehow Fritz manages to live to be an adult and strikes out for the Black Hills with a friend to find their fortune in the gold fields. Imagine what it must have been like in the time of logging and primitive farming when Northern Wisconsin was just being settled. Through the eyes of the author, Fred A Brede the character come...

Fred J. Wyknott was the first prospector into this unexplored wilderness and one of the few who found his fortune in gold and later was a key figure in helping Keystone form and become a mining town that didn't fade off into history.

Kevin Bayard follows his dad to the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1891 to analyze the area around keystone for gems and minerals the mining companies were looking for. He also finds out about himself and a Pteranodon or a flying dinosaur that made him famous and attempts to uncover the mysterious rocks found with them. Tom Blake accepted his Dad's invitation to join him in Keystone, South Dakota in 1989 where he had opened his insurance agency to insure the risky business of mining. Tom's relationship with his dad grows as his knowledge in the Insurance business and becomes one of the...

The Boy Scouts of America had adventures years ago at their beginning. One of those journeys in the mind of the author Fred A Brede takes place in 1921 along the world famous "ICE AGE TRAIL" running through Wisconsin where he was born. Today the trail attracts thousands of people from all over the United States who explore glacial lakes, streams, eskers, wilderness and glacial deposits that mark the boundary where "The Glaciers Ended." A Boy Scout Troop from Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1999 hiked the entire thousand mile length of "The National Ice Age Trail" from Sturgeon Bay to Wisconsin...

For years men were finding gold where none should have been found near todays Mount Rushmore near the city of Keystone. The Black Hills of South Dakota were just being opened up and the miners spread out to find their fortunes. "The Ghosts of Spokane provides an explanation that only exists in the mind of the author Fred A. Brede. These first miners may not have been the first to discover the riches found in the rocks and streams of this spectacular country. Spokane is a Ghost Town that can still be found along the Iron Man Road near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's the...

Did you ever wonder what you would do if you found a mammoth under your back yard. Well that's just what happens to the Flom family when they found that the glaciers had buried a mammoth left under their farm during the last ice age. The Flom family dairy farm was typical for Northern Wisconsin in 1969. It was located near the current day Ice Age Trail that runs through Wisconsin and was responsible for the hills, forests, lakes and swamps that make up this part of the country. To the south of this line is some of the best farm land in the country thanks to the glaciers and to the north the...

Coming home from WWII Perry Wilcox thought he could come back and help his folks build a resort on a glacial lake in Northern Wisconsin. Times were good at first but ten years later the Great Depression forced him to live off the land with a new family and no money. "What the Glaciers Gave Me" is an account in Perry's own words of what it was like to start over and make a living off the land, logging, fishing, hunting and trying to farm. Author Fred A Brede has a personal inters in this story because Perry Wilcox was his grandfather. Some of the property Perry owned remains in his family...

"The Dam is Coming" is a fictional history novel about the largest wood-pile dams in the world, built in 1890, located just 12 miles north of Saint Croix Falls, Wisconsin on the scenic Saint Croix River. The story is told by Paul C. Wellington a twelve years old growing up a mile from Never's Dam in what is today Wild River State Park. With his friend Paul, they give a firsthand account of the Nevers Dam construction that finally tamed the wild Saint Croix River and how the lumber was delivered to the saw mills. Join Paul and Peter as they watch this historic Never's Dam become the most...