South Dakota Archives - Golden Age Traveling

US Presidential Statues 1969-2017 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD

On a road trip in May of 2022, we found ourselves in Rapid City, South Dakota. We had visited Mt. Rushmore on a previous visit but had never checked out what they call the City of Presidents. This is a series of life-sized bronze statues located among the city and streets of downtown Rapid City. According to their site, The City of Presidents project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency. Each sculpture is privately funded, and the pattern of placement was chosen to maintain an orderly structure and eliminate any sense of favoritism or political gain. The City of Presidents is part of the Rapid City Historic District Tour. This is the final post of a 5 part series on these amazing statues and includes US Presidential Statues 1969-2017. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I enjoyed learning a lot about our former Presidents while doing research. Continue reading “US Presidential Statues 1969-2017 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD”

US Presidential Statues 1913-1969 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD

On a road trip in May of 2022, we found ourselves in Rapid City, South Dakota. We had visited Mt. Rushmore on a previous visit but had never checked out what they call the City of Presidents. This is a series of life-sized bronze statues located among the city and streets of downtown Rapid City. According to their site, The City of Presidents project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency. Each sculpture is privately funded, and the pattern of placement was chosen to maintain an orderly structure and eliminate any sense of favoritism or political gain. The City of Presidents is part of the Rapid City Historic District Tour. This is part 4 of a 5 part series on these amazing statues and includes US Presidential statues 1913-1969. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I enjoyed learning a lot about our former Presidents while doing research. Continue reading “US Presidential Statues 1913-1969 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD”

US Presidential Statues 1877-1913 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD

On a road trip in May of 2022, we found ourselves in Rapid City, South Dakota. We had visited Mt. Rushmore on a previous visit but had never checked out what they call the City of Presidents. This is a series of life-sized bronze statues located among the city and streets of downtown Rapid City. According to their site, The City of Presidents project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency. Each sculpture is privately funded, and the pattern of placement was chosen to maintain an orderly structure and eliminate any sense of favoritism or political gain. The City of Presidents is part of the Rapid City Historic District Tour. This is part 3 of a 5 part series on these amazing statues and includes US Presidential statues 1877-1913. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I enjoyed learning a lot about our former Presidents while doing research. Continue reading “US Presidential Statues 1877-1913 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD”

US Presidential Statues 1841-1877 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD

On a road trip in May of 2022, we found ourselves in Rapid City, South Dakota. We had visited Mt. Rushmore on a previous visit but had never checked out what they call the City of Presidents. This is a series of life-sized bronze statues located among the city and streets of downtown Rapid City. According to their site, The City of Presidents project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency. Each sculpture is privately funded, and the pattern of placement was chosen to maintain an orderly structure and eliminate any sense of favoritism or political gain. The City of Presidents is part of the Rapid City Historic District Tour. This is part 2 of a 5 part series on these amazing statues and includes the US Presidential Statues 1841-1877. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I enjoyed learning a lot of history while doing research. Continue reading “US Presidential Statues 1841-1877 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD”

US Presidential Statues 1789-1841 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD

On a road trip in May of 2022, we found ourselves in Rapid City, South Dakota. We had visited Mt. Rushmore on a previous visit but had never checked out what they call the City of Presidents. This is a series of life-sized bronze statues located among the city and streets of downtown Rapid City. According to their site, The City of Presidents project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency. Each sculpture is privately funded, and the pattern of placement was chosen to maintain an orderly structure and eliminate any sense of favoritism or political gain. The City of Presidents is part of the Rapid City Historic District Tour. This is part 1 of a 5 part series on these amazing statues and includes the US Presidential Statues 1789-1841. I hope you enjoy the series as much as I enjoyed learning a lot of history while doing research.

Continue reading “US Presidential Statues 1789-1841 – City of Presidents Tour Rapid City, SD”

Rapid City Restaurants – 4 Unique Restaurants in South Dakota

Living in Denver, we have now been to Rapid City, South Dakota several times to visit such landmarks as Mount Rushmore National Monument, Crazy Horse Memorial. and the Badlands National Park. While visiting these attractions are always exciting, another fun part of traveling is trying new restaurants. Thus, we always like to try some non-chain restaurants or at least chains that are not in our area. Of course, we had to hit a few of those while out and about but we were able to find a few unique restaurants. Here are four Rapid City restaurants that I decided I would like to share from some of our visits. Hope you enjoy reading about these and try them the next time you find yourself in the area. Continue reading “Rapid City Restaurants – 4 Unique Restaurants in South Dakota”

Berlin Wall Exhibit – Rapid City, South Dakota

Last week Gene and I took to trip to South Dakota and decided to do a few things that some visitors may not have time to visit or experience. One of these places was visiting a memorial and piece of the Berlin Wall. It is called Memorial Park and is located on Rapid Creek adjacent to The Monument (formerly known as the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center). The park holds one of America’s largest Berlin Wall exhibits (two large slabs of the wall), Memorial Pond, Flood of 1972 Memorial fountain, several other sculptures, a band shelter, and Legacy Commons. It is a very special and touching exhibit. Along with the wall exhibit, there are many interpretive monument stations explaining why the wall was built, and how it was eventually taken down.

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Rapid City, South Dakota – My Top 7 Free Things on Our to-do List

We have had a few fun times exploring Rapid City, South Dakota and the area since living here in CO. Of course we had to do the big attractions like Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse, but we also look forward to doing some more historical and local attractions on our next trip in May of 2022. With a budget in mind, I also wanted to do a few free things while in the area. Thus I did some research and found 7 free things around Rapid City that I think would be fun to do. Here is my list (alphabetically): Continue reading “Rapid City, South Dakota – My Top 7 Free Things on Our to-do List”

South Dakota State Capital in Pierre – The Land of Infinite Variety

While in South Dakota for the LWMS Convention, we decided to check out the South Dakota State Capitol building in Pierre. It is a wonderful capitol and I really liked all the marble. The capitol features a copper dome, Corinthian columns, rusticated walls of granite and Bedford limestone, and a decorative interior with English and Italian Renaissance features. It was constructed between 1905 and 1910. The plans for the building were designed by the Minneapolis architectural office of C.E. Bell and M.S. Detwiler, who gave the building similar features to the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Montana. The planning and construction cost was almost $1,000,000. I have to say, it was well worth it.

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Sturgis, South Dakota – Home of the Annual Motorcycle Rally

While in the area visiting Mount Rushmore National Monument and Crazy Horse Memorial in June of 2015, we decided to check out the interesting city of Sturgis. It was founded in 1878 and was originally named Scooptown. It was named this because many of the residents “scooped up” their pay from nearby Fort Meade. Its name was later changed to Sturgis in honor of the Civil War Union General Samuel D. Sturgis. Today that is approximately 6,800 residents. Continue reading “Sturgis, South Dakota – Home of the Annual Motorcycle Rally”