Katie's Travels to South Dakota

Hi everyone! After some delays because of snow, I finally made it to Mt. Rushmore and South Dakota.

It's a long way from Raleigh to South Dakota. I had to take two airplanes -- one from Raleigh to Chicago, Illinois, and then a second plane to Rapid City, South Dakota. Rapid City is in the western part of South Dakota, on the edge of the Black Hills. The hills are really dark green because they are covered by Ponderosa Pine forests, which look black from a distance.

Rapid City is called the City of Presidents because there are life-size bronze statues of the Presidents of the United States on downtown street corners. There are four statues at an intersection. This statue is of President John F. Kennedy, 44th President, and his son John. It was fun to have my picture taken with them.

At the same intersection, there are statues of Andrew Jackson, our 7th President; Martin Van Buren, our 8th President; and James Polk, our 11th President. Did you know that Pres. Polk was born in North Carolina?

I found this sign just outside of Rapid City. Reptile Gardens has the world’s largest collection of snakes, lizards and crocodiles.

Because it gets very cold in South Dakota in the winter, the reptiles all live under a gigantic walk-through skydome.

I loved visiting Mt. Rushmore National Monument! Aren’t these the biggest statues you’ve ever seen? In 1924, a man named Doane Robinson wanted to be sure lots of people visited South Dakota. He thought that if there were enormous statues of famous people from the Wild West, visitors would come to visit his state. He imagined giant sculptures of Lewis and Clark, Buffalo Bill Cody, and the great Sioux warriors. He wrote a letter to a sculptor named Gutzon Borglum, who was busy designing a giant sculpture at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Has anyone seen the sculpture at Stone Mountain?

Mr. Borglum decided that it would be a better idea to carve sculptures of four of our presidents. He chose George Washington to be a symbol of the birth of the United States, Thomas Jefferson who expanded the country through the Louisiana Purchase, Abraham Lincoln who preserved the Union, and Theodore Roosevelt who built the Panama Canal and visited the Black Hills many times. President Coolidge helped dedicate the beginning of work on the monument in 1927, and it took 14 years for the crew to drill, blast and chisel the faces in the mountain. The flag of every state is on this walkway to Mt. Rushmore. Can you find North Carolina’s flag?

I found it - even though the wind was blowing hard and wrapped the flag around its pole.

This is the base for our state’s flag. It tells when North Carolina became a state. Did you know that North Carolina was the 12th colony to become a state?

You can see the faces of our presidents here. Thomas Jefferson was supposed to be carved on the left side of President Washington. The workers started Jefferson’s face there, but when they were almost finished, they found out the rock was too soft to carve his lips. That’s why President Jefferson is on President Washington’s right side.

Starting from the left, you can see President Washington, President Jefferson, President Roosevelt and President Lincoln:

This is Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who designed the monument. He died before the monument was finished, but his son Lincoln finished the job - and he also carved this sculpture of his father.

Mt. Rushmore is so beautiful. I hope you can visit it someday.

These sheep help cut the lawn at Mt. Rushmore. They came to South Dakota from Canada. Their coats are really warm. That’s a good thing because it’s very cold here in the winter.

At night, there are lights on the monument.



In my next post, I will tell you all about Custer State Park!