Rapid City
You’re free to roam Rapid City’s beautiful parks, historic downtown and fascinating museums.
Who doesn’t like getting a great deal — namely something for free? Well, Rapid City serves up a long list of values in that department with its many free attractions designed to entertain kids of all ages.
One of the most popular is Storybook Island (1301 Sheridan Lake Road), a children’s park featuring fairytale characters such as Cinderella, Winnie the Pooh, Jack and Jill, and even a larger-than-life purple Barney. There are swings, slides and picnic areas to enjoy throughout the park, which was founded in 1959 by the Rapid City Rotary Club. Storybook Island is open Memorial Day through Labor Day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is always free (with donations gladly accepted), and from Tuesday through Saturday the McDonald’s Storybook Island Theatre Company performs several entertaining plays at the stage on the premises. Train rides are also offered for little tykes, but a small fee is charged.
Another beloved Rapid City attraction with free admission is Dinosaur Park (940 Skyline Drive). Open May to October and located atop Skyline Drive in the center of the city, this unique park features seven enormous replicas of prehistoric reptiles. The park was built in the 1930s and the super-size dinosaurs can be seen from many points in the city. While little ones clamor around these Jurassic cement creatures, adults can marvel at the breathtaking view of the city and surrounding area. The adjacent gift shop offers a variety of dinosaur items from books and toys to T-shirts. The park closes daily at 5 p.m., but evening lighting gives the statues an eerie glow on the hilltop until 10 p.m.
To continue the dinosaur theme, visit the Museum of Geology (501 E. St. Joseph St.) on the campus of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. This museum collection includes prehistoric mammals, marine reptiles and dinosaurs from the Black Hills and Badlands region, as well as fossils and mineral collections from around the globe. Kids will also enjoy the colorful rock collection — especially the fluorescent room which displays rocks that glow in the dark. The museum is open year-round and there is no charge for admission.
Learning made fun
If you seek an educational twist to your afternoon of touring, several Rapid City museums offer free admission and displays that make learning a fun family event. The South Dakota Air & Space Museum (located 7 miles east of Rapid City next to Ellsworth Air Force Base) brings aviation history to life with its display of 28 aircraft and missiles. At the Berlin Wall Exhibit (located in Memorial Park next to the civic center), you can witness two 12-foot segments of the Berlin Wall, accompanied by photographs and information from this historical occurrence. And, Dahl Arts Center (713 Seventh St.) features 200 years of U.S. history with a painted, panorama mural enhanced by lighting and narration. The adjacent art gallery showcases various works from regional and national artists. The Dahl also offers summer art classes and theater performances for children, but a fee is charged. For more information, go to www.thedahl.org.
More U.S. history can be enjoyed along the downtown street corners where the City of Presidents project pays homage to American presidents with life-size bronze statues of past U.S. leaders. Crafted by South Dakota sculptors, each presidential sculpture is the actual height of that man and is dressed appropriately for the period in which he lived — Ronald Reagan in Western attire, John Adams dressed in a waistcoat and vest. The project began in 2000 and will place four bronze statues per year until all 43 presidents stand on downtown street corners. An information center about the project is at the corner of Main and Seventh streets. Look for the two sculptures of American Indians on display along Rapid City’s Main Street as well.
Tours that teach
Continue your educational lessons with a couple behind-the-scenes tours. A visit to the Mount Rushmore Black Hills Gold Factory and Outlet Store (2707 Mount Rushmore Road) will give you a glimpse at how the region’s famous Black Hills gold jewelry is made. The distinct tri-colored leaf and grape design in rose, green and yellow gold is unique to the Black Hills and can only be manufactured in this region. The tours are complimentary, but are only offered Monday through Friday.
At Sioux Pottery (located on S. Hwy. 79) a self-guided factory tour allows you to watch Indian artisans designing and painting clay pottery, as well as creating dream catchers and other specialty items with bead and quill work. Children also receive a free piece of pottery that they can decorate as they sit with a Lakota artist.
Finally, for a relaxing end to your day of freebies, stop at Canyon Lake (off Jackson Boulevard and Chapel Lane) where you can stroll along the shore, watch the water flow over the spillway, picnic or feed the ducks. (A small fee is charged to rent a paddle boat.) Then, continue up Chapel Lane to visit Stavkirke (also known as Chapel in the Hills). The all-wooden structure is a replica of an 850-year-old Norwegian chapel. A small Norwegian museum and gift shop with a grass roof are open on site daily during the summer. Informal half hour vesper services are conducted every evening at 7:30 p.m. from June through August.
Rapid City, South Dakota Facts
There were two Rapid Cities back in 1876 when the Gold Rush was in full swing. On Feb. 15 of that year, restless miners left the Hill City area and laid out the first townsite at the eastern edge of present-day Rapid City (population 59,607; elevation 3,198 feet) with a few crude instruments.
“California Joe” Milner, a bewhiskered and hard-drinking scout who had accompanied Custer’s 1874 Black Hills Expedition into the Hills, found a gold claim near what is now the Canyon Lake Receptions and Catering and wrote his sons to join him. This site was referred to in the 1870s as “California Joe’s Rapid City.”
After a slow start, Rapid City quickly became a bustling town. Rapid City had fine hotels and restaurants, merchants, brass bands and all sorts of refinery by the 1880s. The School of Mines was built in 1885, and a year later, the first train came to town. By the turn of the century, Rapid City had become a regional supply center for miners, loggers and ranchers.
With World War II and the establishment of Ellsworth Air Force Base, Rapid City’s population nearly doubled between 1940 and 1948.
The explosion in growth in 1949 led Mayor I.H. Chase and other city leaders to commission the first comprehensive plan to provide for orderly growth and development.
The plan envisioned the city as a retail and wholesale trade center, drawing customers from as far as 200 miles away. The plan recognized the city’s role as the jumping-off point for tourists heading for the Black Hills. The plan also noted the need for a civic center, more downtown parking, new schools and paved streets.
On June 9, 1972, a devastating flood claimed 238 lives and ravaged much of Rapid City along Rapid Creek. The post-flood boom saw the fulfillment of many of the goals of the 1949 master plan, including the construction of Rushmore Plaza Civic Center and the new Rapid City Central High School.
Rushmore Mall was built in 1978 along Interstate 90, and Rapid City Regional Hospital moved to its new location in 1979.
In the mid-1980s, Rapid City voters approved a number of public and private projects that changed the city’s look. They included the City/School Administration Center, Community Care Center, the new terminal at Rapid City Regional Airport, Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn and the new Pennington County Jail.
In 1995, voters approved a special one-half cent sales tax to build a number of projects, ranging from renovations at Canyon Lake to a world-class museum called The Journey.
The Journey Museum, which opened in 1997, showcases the culture of the area from its first inhabitants to the present, and is just one of the city’s many excellent facilities dedicated to educating and entertaining the public.
In the new millennium, the 2012 Program funded new construction and renovations. In 2002, the $3.4 million 2012 program and private donations created 19,000 square feet of extra space in the Rapid City Public Library’s children section. In May 2005, the $10.3 million Roosevelt Park Pool Complex and park improvement joined its sister $5 million Roosevelt Ice Arena, thus providing recreational opportunities year-round.
In the just approved third round of the program, work has started on a $25 million addition to Rushmore Plaza Civic Center that will create a multi-purpose arena designed to seat about 5,000 people for hockey games, 5,700 for basketball games and nearly 7,000 for concerts or other stage events.
Other 2012 projects underway include the first phase of the Kansas City Street reconstruction and the long-awaited renovation and expansion of the Dahl Arts Center.