American Gam

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Rapid City, South Dakota, considered by some to be the “Miami Beach of the Dakotas,” offers a two-hour driving tour that takes folks around the city to see all the highlights the city has to offer.

We met the trolley and started off at the The Rushmore Hotel, bobbing and weaving our way around the Main Street area, with the driver and the shuttle’s audio program pointing out any historical significances while simultaneously plugging the local businesses that have obviously sponsored this shuttle program.

We saw some of the presidential statues that you saw on a previous post, some beautiful local parks, a few restaurants that were “recommended,” a historic grain mill, among other sites.

Then we headed to the outskirts of the city to see a replica of a stavkirke. This Norwegian stave church, built in 1969, and bell tower are patterned after the Borgund stave church, near Laerdal, Norway. 🇳🇴

This is a functioning church with regular weekly services and special services like weddings. As you can see the landscaping is beautiful. There’s also a prayer or meditation walk behind the church that meanders into the forest that is lined with several limestone statues that depict the Life of Christ and benches that provide a peaceful place for visitors to relax and reflect in quiet contemplation.

They also have a log cabin museum that depicts the life of a Norwegian family in 1877. Full of Scandinavian antiques, this original log cabin that was built by a Norwegian immigrant was relocated here, restored, and filled with artifacts.

After the church we headed up into the nearby hills to Dinosaur Park for some lofty views of the greater Rapid City area. 🦕

There are many beautiful parks in Rapid City. Many of them were created after the Rapid City Flood of 1972 that dumped fifteen inches of rain in less than twenty hours. Rather than rebuilding businesses and neighborhoods in the same area the mayor at that time designated the area as a flood plain and opted instead to create city parks along Rapid Creek to prevent future damage and death.

The following pictures are from Canyon Lake Park, where in 1972 the Canyon Lake Dam collapsed overnight under the deluge of rain, destroying thirteen hundred homes and killing two hundred and thirty-three souls.

It sure is beautiful now…

It was kind of a hot day but…

I hope you enjoyed your trolley tour today. We sure did enjoy having you here with us and hope you’ll come back and see us again real soon!

The gam continues…