Before leaving the area, I once again stroll along the streets of Rapid City to admire the statues of the presidents. “People are surprised at some being small men as the statues represent their same girth and height while in office,” I recall Sutterer telling me. “Except for one,” she quipped. “President Howard Taft was a rather large man, and we had to put him on a small diet to put him on the street corner.” The statue was intentionally trimmed to lower production costs.
For more information visitrapidcity.com nps.gov/moru/index.htm nps.gov/thro/index.htm trlibrary.com
Visit Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickock was shot in 1876
National Forest. Follow the footsteps of notorious gunslingers and outlaws to Saloon No. 10 on Main Street, now an Italian restaurant and steakhouse, and the very spot where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down during a poker game in 1876. He’s buried alongside frontierswoman and sharpshooter Calamity Jane in the nearby Mount Moriah Cemetery. During late spring and summer, reenactors take to Main Street for three daily shootout skits. “Each one is based on a true story that happened here,” explains actor Jake Fogle with the Deadwood Alive troupe. One skit is called “Showdown on Gold Street.” “It’s about a couple of guys who got into a disagreement over a card game and got into a shootout. And that event happened just about two weeks after Wild Bill was killed,” continues Fogle. A less than two-hour drive on Interstate 90 West leads to Wyoming’s Devils Tower National Monument, a giant volcanic rock plug with striated, peeling sides and a flat top. This unusual geographic landmark was formed 50 million years ago when molten magma crept into a large gap within sedimentary rock. For centuries, it spawned Native American folklore but is perhaps best known as the mysterious rendezvous point for UFO landings in the 1977 science-fiction movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park has many colorful buttes
THE DAKOTAS CELEBRATE JULY 4
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2026 | 17
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