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STURGIS —
Attendance is definitely down at this year’s Sturgis motorcycle
rally, judging from the traffic in and around town and by the number
of vendors, according to rally and law enforcement officials.
“I would say
it’s definitely down a little bit,” Sturgis city rally
director Lisa Weyer said late Sunday afternoon. “It’s not
as crowded just driving around.”
Even traffic to
the east of town hasn’t been bad, Weyer said. Before the rally,
Weyer and other officials were concerned about potential traffic
bottlenecks on Lazelle Street and S.D. Highway 34 going east to the
big concert venues at the Buffalo Chip Campground, the new Rock’n
the Rally near Glencoe CampResort, the Full Throttle Saloon and
other attractions.
Weyer also noted
that, as of noon Sunday, about 780 vendors were licensed with the
city, down from the 901 licensed vendors last year. Although a few
more vendors might straggle in, most vendors who are coming had been
licensed by Sunday, she said.
Another concern
for law enforcement officials before the rally was possible conflicts
between bikers at new large campground and concert venues near Bear
Butte and American Indians protesting the campgrounds’ presence.
A number of tribes consider Bear Butte sacred, and many tribal
members go to the mountain to pray and to hold other religious ceremonies.
Meade County
Sheriff Ron Merwin said Sunday that there had been no serious
problems involving the protesters and the campgrounds.
But Merwin said
officials at Lone Star Campground at the base of Bear Butte had
complained that Indians at the main protest camp had stopped
rallygoers driving in to Lone Star from S.D. Highway 79. The protest
camp lies along the gravel road partway between the highway and the
Lone Star Campground. The protest group’s security is often
posted at the road.
Merwin said the
Indians asked people to slow down as they drove past the protest
camp. He said there were no complaints Sunday.
Few people were at
the Indian protest camp Sunday.
The sheriff also
said traffic was relatively light for the rally’s first weekend.
“There’s no problem getting around anywhere,” Merwin said.
The sheriff’s
office said it had made 99 traffic stops from Friday morning to
Sunday morning, compared with 131 over the same period last year, and
issued 41 citations, compared with 84 last year.
A total of 61
prisoners were booked at Meade County Jail, mostly on misdemeanor
charges, compared with 82 over the same period last year.
Merwin said his
staff hadn’t been able to focus on the rally as much as usual
because it was busy handling the Bear Butte protest Friday, and
deputies had been sent to assist with fires near White Owl in eastern
Meade County.
Merwin said a
lightning storm that blew through the area Sunday afternoon started a
few fires north of Sturgis.
One was a grass
fire that broke out midday east of S.D. Highway 79 three or four
miles north of Bear Butte. A lightning storm had passed through the
area moments before a cloud of smoke billowed into the air.
Firefighters and other emergency personnel responded, and they were
helped by a downpour soon after the fire started.
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