🗿South Dakota

Mount Rushmore State · The Coyote State

South Dakota shares a statehood date with North Dakota — November 2, 1889 — and shares the Great Plains with its northern twin. But its Black Hills and badlands give it a rugged character all its own. Mount Rushmore, carved into the granite face of the Black Hills between 1927 and 1941, draws more than two million visitors a year to see 60-foot heads of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Lakota Country

Most of South Dakota west of the Missouri River was part of the Great Sioux Reservation established by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The 1874 Custer expedition reported gold in the Black Hills, triggering a rush of miners in violation of the treaty. The ensuing Great Sioux War included Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn (Montana) and ended with the forced removal of the Sioux onto smaller reservations. Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa Lakota leader, was killed at Standing Rock in 1890; two weeks later, U.S. troops killed 250 to 300 Lakota at the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Mount Rushmore

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began work on Mount Rushmore in 1927, carving 60-foot faces of four presidents into the granite cliffs of the Black Hills: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The work was completed in 1941, just after Borglum's death, and cost about $1 million. Critics have long pointed out that the monument sits on land sacred to — and promised to — the Lakota under the 1868 treaty.

The Black Hills and Badlands

The Black Hills, an isolated mountain range rising out of the plains, contain ancient granite, dense ponderosa pine forests, and Wind Cave and Jewel Cave — two of the longest caves in the world. East of the Black Hills lie the Badlands, a dramatically eroded landscape of spires, buttes, and canyons that preserves one of the richest fossil beds in the world. Crazy Horse Memorial, begun in 1948, will be the largest sculpture in the world when completed.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

The author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in De Smet, South Dakota as a teenager. Her family's experiences there inspired several of her "Little House" books, including The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years. De Smet is now a pilgrimage site for fans of the books and the television series.

South Dakota Facts

• South Dakota has the most shoreline of any landlocked state, thanks to the Missouri River reservoirs.
• The Corn Palace in Mitchell is redecorated each year with thousands of bushels of corn.
• Pierre (rhymes with "peer") is the second-smallest state capital by population.
• Tom Brokaw was born in Webster, South Dakota.
• The state is one of only seven with no personal income tax.

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