Slowing Down in Rapid City

Three weeks is a long time for us to stay anywhere during our summer travels. We didn’t stay in Rapid City, exactly, but at RV parks 10-15 miles south, in the foothills of the Black Hills. But we kept returning to Rapid City for this or that reason, be it shopping necessities, checking out what this second biggest town in South Dakota had to offer, or going out to eat. Rapid City itself lies in hilly country. One of the first unusual sights we saw as we drove into town was a long-necked brontosaurus statue on a far hilltop; another was life-sized statues of past presidents on street corners.

At the visitor center just east of town, we learned of the City Star Tour, a self-guided tour of 12 FREE Rapid City attractions. We visited 6 of them.
Stavkirke (Chapel in the Hills) is an intricately carved full-sized replica of 854 year old Borgund Church in Norway. On its forested grounds you’ll also find a visitor center and Norwegian log cabin/museum.
Pretty Canyon Lake Park lies behind Canyon Lake Dam in Rapid Creek. This large park around Canyon Lake offers plenty of space and lots of activities, including fishing, walking, paddle boating, and feeding ducks and geese. There are also three formal flower gardens in Rapid City. We visited Halley Park; besides flowers, it’s home to the reportedly oldest building (pioneer log cabin) in Rapid City, and the newly renovated Children’s Science Center.
We got a kick out of Dinosaur Park, a Depression-era WPA project that features five rather benign but full-sized bright green iron-boned, cement-skinned dinosaurs high above Rapid City. The Skyline Boulevard ride offers 360-degree views of Rapid City and vicinity.
Unbeknownst to many, Rapid City is in the process of becoming a City of Presidents, again combining a popular concept (think Mt. Rushmore) with the art medium of sculpting. Sixteen life-sized past U.S. presidents stand on downtown street corners; four more presidents will be placed on four more corners this Fall of 2004.

Fort Hays, only four miles south of Rapid City, is home to the "Dances with Wolves" Fort Hays of Kevin Costner fame, as well as some old-style pioneer shops, a family-style chuckwagon open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and Mount Rushmore Tours. It’s not on the Star Tour but it should be.

Quick Tips:

Your best bet is to visit the Visitor Center first to get a very broad overview not only of Rapid City but also of the entire Black Hills area. It’s a nice modern center with video presentations, brochures arranged by interest and region, and helpful, eager staff. Some of the brochures and booklets contain discount coupons for local events and places.

The Star Tour sites we didn’t visit were the Berlin Wall Memorial Park, Storybook Island, Cleghorn Springs Fish Hatchery, Dahl Arts Center, Museum of Geology, and New Gallery. Remember, all these places charge no admission! Of those that do, number one on our list next time will be the Journey Museum, with extensive collections including geology, archeology, Native American, pioneer, and forestry exhibits.

Best Way To Get Around:

Rapid City Regional Airport, 7 miles east of town on Highway 44, is accessed from Denver, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City. Northwest, Skywest-Delta, United Express, and Frontier Airlines service the airport. Car is the best way to get around here. Major, budget and local car rental agencies can be found here. RapidRide city busses drive 4 routes, making 150 stops, for fare, 50 cents for elderly and disabled. The city also has 7 miles of urban biking/hiking trails.

Clouds were thickening as we approached Stavkirke, subduing the spacious lawns and pine-forested landscape around it. My first impression of this very unusual chapel was of something organic, covered entirely by wooden scales. It’s not grand or overwhelming, as some churches, but rather small. Yet what it lacks in size is made up for by its intricate yet highly functional design. The scaled roof is multi-layered and topped with what looks like a Viking ship, with 4 fire-breathing dragonheads fore and aft. The highest point is crowned with a cross, and just beneath it flies a tiny whip-tailed dragon. A narrow covered porch encircles the chapel. Upon entering the chapel itself, one immediately notices the elaborate wooden carvings around the arched doorways and many other arches and diagonal crosses that decorate the walls and high open ceiling. Two cat-like creatures are carved on either side of the main entry door, one with O-shaped mouth open in surprise, the other with mouth set in toothy grimace. In front of the plain backless wooden benches is a stone alter with Bible and cross. A short audio-tape about the chapel plays continuously, admitting there are old pagan symbols present here, but adding that crosses outnumber them.

I was fascinated by the combination of ancient Norse paganism and Christianity all in the same place of worship. The Scandinavian countries were among the last of Europe to be converted to Christianity, beginning in 829, when a missionary was sent to Sweden. By the end of the 10th Century, Christianity was gaining a foothold, but not without struggle and periodic resurgences of old ways of worship. Borgund Church in Norway, of which Stavkirke is an exact reproduction, was built in 1150 and is the best preserved of the 30 remaining stave churches in that country.

The ingenious stave construction method was developed in response to rotting foundations of earlier Norwegian churches. The main support structure is vertical, rather than horizontal posts, and always atop a stone foundation. Cross braces and bent arches between the posts enhance stability. The wooden planks are dovetailed, pegged and wedged to allow for expansion and contraction during extreme changes in temperature and humidity. To learn more about stave churches, visit Norway.org.

Stavkirke was built by Arendt Dahl in 1969 in memory of his parents, Reverend and Mrs. Anton Dahl, pioneer Lutheran pastor. Vespers are still held every evening during summer at Stavkirke.

All sorts of Scandinavian furniture, tools, objects, cookware, musical instruments, and even manikins dressed in traditional Norwegian clothing are found in the Howard Nielsen cabin. Nielsen, a Norwegian, came to the Black Hills to prospect gold in 1876. His Palmer Gulch cabin was transported to Stavkirke grounds in 1987.

A sod-roofed stabbur serves as visitor center and gift shop. Stabburs are traditional Norwegian storehouses for cheeses, dried meats, and other food items. They are built on raised foundations to prevent rodent infestation. Imported Scandinavian goods (including lovely flower-painted Rosemaling plates), and local souvenirs are sold here.

There are plenty of city parks, some containing formal flower gardens interspersed throughout Rapid City, covering 1500 acres of land. We visited two of them, Canyon Lake Park and Halley Park. People were enjoying the many Canyon Lake activities you can do here, from paddle-boating, to watching or feeding the striped-neck Canada geese, to walking on the paths, across the bridge, to the gazebo on the island, to fishing from the shore. It’s a great place for a picnic too.

Canyon Lake was created in 1890 by building a dam across Rapid Creek where it passed through a canyon connecting Black Hills with prairie. The pretty, fertile country around Canyon Lake attracted many farmers and small businesses and the region grew steadily. Annexed to Rapid City amidst Canyon Lakers’ protests in 1947, it began attracting tourists, and cabins and motels sprang up to accommodate them.

During the infamous Rapid City Flood in June 1972, more than 10 inches of rain fell in 2 hours, bursting the aging dam, sweeping away entire neighborhoods, and killing 238 people. A federal grant paid for re-constructing the dam to handle more water, establishing a five-mile greenway along Rapid Creek, and tearing down or removing flood-damaged homes. The greenway serves the double purpose of allowing for some flooding without major damage as well as a beautiful grassy park that runs through town. Home-owners and businesses were wisely not allowed to rebuild in the floodplain.

Halley Park is located where Main and St. Joseph Streets converge, just west of downtown. We were surprised at how much is packed in this pocket-sized park! The flower gardens attract immediate attention with their blazing reds, yellows, blues and purples on a field of green grass. There’s also a rose garden. On the west end of the park stands the Pap Madison Cabin, reportedly the oldest building in Rapid City. Picnic tables and benches, shaded by tall spruce trees, have been placed near the renovated rustic Children’s Science Center on the east end of Halley Park. Constructed by the WPA (Works Project Administration) between 1936 and 1938, logs and local limestone blocks were used to construct this fine old craftsmen-style building.

Additional formal gardens can be found in Sioux Park on the banks of Rapid Creek, and across from Sioux San Hospital, also on Canyon Lake Drive. There are also baseball and softball parks, tennis courts, and five golf courses in Rapid City, plus 7 miles of biking and jogging paths. All in all, a good city for out-of-doors activities.

Since our arrival in Rapid City, we were curious about the dinosaur high on the hill above town. At the Visitor Center, we learned that this long-necked brontosaurus was but one of a small herd (five, actually) of dinosaurs residing at (what else?) Dinosaur Park, a city park on Skyline Boulevard, which divides east and west Rapid City.

We at first took a wrong turn, ending up on aptly named Tower Road, also high up, and home to many radio, microwave, and cell phone towers. Backtracking, we found where we’d missed the turn, which isn’t signed at all when you’re coming from the south off Highway 16, and proceeded to drive along the spine of the hill that is Skyline Boulevard. Quite a few nice houses have been built and are sprouting up amidst the pines here.

Soon we arrived at Dinosaur Park and pulled into the parking lot in front of the gift shop. Across the street steps lead up to the abode of five bright green dinosaurs: besides the 80 foot long, 28 foot high brontosaurus at the highest spot on the ridge, there are a trachodon, triceratops, stegosaurus, and not so ferocious tyrannosaurus rex. Several families were walking the paths and climbing and descending the steps leading from one dinosaur to the next. The younger kids were taking particular delight in climbing on the rather friendly-looking dinosaurs, looking more like those on "Flintstones" than "Jurassic Park".

Dinosaur Park was built in 1936 by the WPA (Works Project Administration), brainchild of paleontologist C. C. O’Hara. During his career, this retired president of the South Dakota School of Mines had discovered ancient dinosaur bones in the Badlands, and thought dinosaur sculptures might be just the ticket to put Rapid City on the map. Rapid City promoters were also hoping that this would be an additional tourism draw to their city, besides the famous Mt. Rushmore sculptures. The dinosaurs were constructed of iron pipe set in concrete. The steel skeletons were covered with wire mesh, and concrete skins applied. It must have been fun for WPAers to help create these giant creatures and see them take shape. When the park first opened, the dinosaurs were all gray; at some point, they were repainted green. Now that theories hold that dinosaurs may have been as colorful as birds, I wonder what Rapid City will do when the dinos are due for another paint job.

Rapid City businessman Don Perdue’s goal is to have all 42 U.S. past presidents’ statues standing big as life on downtown street corners of Rapid City, the sooner the better. Short of that, 4 presidents a year will do. He is joined in this effort by realtor and art promoter Dallerie Davis, and four local artists, each of whom sculpts one president per year. So that was why the likenesses of JFK and young John-John were standing hand-in-hand on the corner of Mt. Rushmore and Main as we first drove into town! When we spent some time downtown, we viewed some more of the 16 completed presidential statues, and happened to stumble upon the Presidents Information Center.

The guide at the center explained to us that this ambitious project began in 2000, and that it is funded by the private non-profit City of Presidents Foundation. Statue sponsorships cost $50,000 per statue. Selection of presidents began with the first two and the last two, so that the first four to be sculpted were George Washington, John Adams, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush (the father). Don and Joan Perdue donated the $50,000 for George Bush. The information center is dedicated to other members of the Perdue family. There has been some controversy over the project, concerning lack of city review process, use of public space, and question of artistic merit. But this appears to have died down somewhat, and every year 4 more presidents have been placed on additional street corners, and four more will be taking up street corners this fall. They will be William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Harry Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The information center is full of presidential busts, wall plaques describing each presidency, table top statues, and reading materials. You can buy ice cream, coffee, or soda at the "Presidential soda bar". Here you can also pick up a map that shows where each of the 16 presidential statues stands, currently on 6 street corners.

The Black Hills area abounds in presidential themes. There’s the Presidents Park Sculpture Garden, with larger than life busts of 43 presidents in a ponderosa pine forest southwest of Lead, created by sculptor David Adickes in 1995. There’s the "sneak preview" of three of the busts at the Presidents Park Information Center on Highway 16, next door to the Rapid Ride Go-Carts and Arcade. And the National Presidential Wax Museum on Main Street in Keystone, where presidents are captured in wax amidst historical settings. At the Presidents’ Alpine Slide, also in Keystone, you can also recall the presidents as you slide down a dry sled run after being chair-lifted to the top of the run, where you can eat a cheeseburger while viewing the Keystone angle view of the Mt. Rushmore presidential faces. OK, I get it now! That last one was a bit of a stretch. Did we do all these things? No way! Enough is enough, even when it comes to presidents.

We turned off at "Fort Hays" 4 miles south of Rapid City when we were trying to decide between the many chuckwagon dinner places, but found so much more. For one thing, many of the buildings used in "Dances with Wolves" were moved here in 1993 from 16 miles east of the Rapid City filming location. Actually, the REAL Fort Hays still stands in Kansas. "Dances with Wolves", released in 1990, helped the authentic Kansas site’s popularity as a tourist attraction as well. This Fort Hays replica contains the Fort Hays Headquarters Building, supply house, and sawmill, all used in the movie. Beyond that, you’ll find brick, tin, rope, and knife shops, where all these items are produced the old-fashioned, time-consuming, but much more interesting way. There’s an old authentic (but non-functional) post office from Provo, South Dakota, too, and a gift shop. Plus lots of whimsical creations and old pioneer tools scattered all around, a virtual treasure trove, and fun trying to figure out what some of these odd-looking contraptions could possibly have been used for.

The highlight of our wanderings around the old movie set, though, was at the Rope Shop. There, the friendly rope-maker took the time to teach timid Jake (small for his age due to his twinhood) the ins, outs, and twistings of winding slim fibers into hefty rope. It’s a long contraption with a lot of back and forth movement, and some muscle has to be put into it, but with a little help from his friends and relatives, Jake managed to come out the winner with a handsome loop of rope that he’ll probably hang on his bedroom wall or show off to his friends and siblings.

Although we eventually chose another chuckwagon feed, this one would probably have been comparably tasty and similar in show. Fort Hays Chuckwagon additionally offers breakfasts, all-you-can-eat cowboy pancakes for 99 cents starting at 6:30 AM daily, and noon lunch specials for $3.99 per person. Reservations are recommended for the nightly Supper and Cowboy Show, $17 for adults. The menu is BBQ’d beef, baked potatoes, baked beans, biscuits, applesauce, and spice cake, with choice of cowboy coffee or lemonade. The hour-long cowboy variety show following supper includes music and comedy.

Fort Hays also offers Mount Rushmore tours, 9 hours long and narrated. These include two meals and admissions, with stops at Mt. Rushmore, Lincoln Borglum Center, Custer State Park, and Crazy Horse Memorial. Whoa, a lot to see in 9 hours! But at $59 for adults, a good deal if you want to just kick back and leave the details to them.

As an added bonus, particularly of interest to families with children, when you buy a supper-show ticket, you also get free admission to Old MacDonald’s Petting Farm, six miles south on Highway 16. There, kids can watch goats feed and pass one another on the aerial goat bridge, pig races, take pony rides, and help bottle-feed baby animals.

Call 888-343-3113 for information.