Rapid City

Rapid City is the second most populous city in South Dakota in the US and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in the western part of the state, located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range.

The public discovery of gold in 1874 by the Black Hills Expedition, led by George Armstrong Custer, brought a mass influx of European-American miners and eventual settlers into this region of the Dakota Territory. Rapid City was founded in 1876 by a group of unsuccessful miners trying to create other chances.

Known as the "Gateway to the Black Hills" due to its location and the "City of Presidents" because of the life-size bronze president statues located downtown, Rapid City is split by a low mountain ridge that divides the western and eastern parts of the city.

Ellsworth Air Force Base is located on the outskirts of the city. Camp Rapid, a part of the South Dakota Army National Guard, is located in the western part of the city.

Rapid City is home to such popular attractions as Art Alley, Dinosaur Park, the City of Presidents walking tour, Chapel in the Hills, Storybook Island, Main Street Square, and more. The historic "Old West" town of Deadwood is nearby.

In the neighboring Black Hills are the tourist attractions of Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, the museum at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, and to the east of the city is Badlands National Park.

ARTS & CULTURE

Because of the importance of tourism in the area, and its extensive market area, Rapid City has many cultural resources usually found only in much larger urban areas. Among these are:

The Journey Museum
Museum of Geology
Dahl Arts Center
Suzie Cappa Art Center
Rushmore Plaza Civic Center
Black Hills Playhouse
Storybook Island Theater
Art Alley Gallery
The Performing Arts Center of Rapid City
Black Hills Community Theatre
Black Hills Symphony Orchestra
Black Hills Chamber Orchestra
Prairie Edge Art Gallery
Chapel in the Hills
Main Street Square

AIRPORTS

Rapid City Regional Airport provides flights to the airline hub cities of Denver, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Phoenix/Mesa, Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. The airport also has extensive General Aviation operations, including wildfire fighting activities, and medical flight support to Rapid City medical facilities and regional Indian Health Service operations.

ROADS & HIGHWAYS

Interstate 90 is the primary east–west route for Rapid City. The city is served by a series of 7 exits. I-90 skims the northern side of the city. The South Dakota DOT has been reconstructing most of these interchanges in the last five years. Interstate 190 is an Interstate spur linking downtown Rapid City to Interstate 90.

US Highway 16 is the main route to the southwest and the Black Hills from Rapid City. It links Rapid City to Custer and then west to Newcastle, Wyoming, where it connects to US Highway 85 for travel to Cheyenne and Denver. Reconstructed in the mid-1960s as a four-lane parkway connecting Rapid City to Mount Rushmore, since 2008 major segments have been rebuilt as three-lane, or "super-two" highways, to support increased tourist traffic.

South Dakota Highway 44 is a state highway that links the interior of the Black Hills to the southwest of Rapid City, and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and nearby areas in the Great Plains to the southeast.

South Dakota Highway 79 is a state highway that is multiplexed with I-90 northwest of Rapid City. SD Highway 79 extends to North Dakota. South of Rapid City to Nebraska, Highway 79 is being reconstructed as the Heartland Expressway, a high-speed, four-lane highway that will eventually connect to Interstate 80 in Nebraska and the Colorado Front Range near Denver.