Architecture

Over 50 years have passed since the Black Hills flood swept through western South Dakota in 1972, leaving tragedy in its wake.  This book explores the extent of the damage through images that highlight Rapid City, Keystone, and the surrounding Black Hills. Dignitaries, including Sen. George McGovern, visited the Black Hills in the aftermath; these visitors, along with the actions taken for recovery, make an appearance in the story. Today, the Black Hills are a tourist destination, with Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Custer State Park being the most well-known attractions. /Corey Christianson has spent years researching the 1972 Black Hills flood. She was a part of the 50th commemoration of the flood, for which she, along with a team of talented individuals, created an award-winning exhibit about the flood and the recovery of the Black Hills. The images in this book are from the Rapid City Public Library, US Air Force, Keystone Area Historical Society, and other organizations that strive to remember, honor, and commemorate the flood. / 

With the opening of the Black Hills region of South Dakota due to the discovery of gold in 1874, the business-savvy founders of Rapid City, in 1876, saw the potential of this area as a focus for urban development. It was nestled within the beauty of the Black Hills, rich in natural resources, adjacent to a viable water source and in line with major trade routes. Thus, a thriving commercial district evolved, the architecture of which reflects the distinctive periods of a community's growth from a frontier hay camp town to a regional metropolitan center. The built environment of Rapid City embodies and exemplifies the skill of local craftsman in interpreting the prevailing stylistic trends, the utilization of local materials, and other cultural influences. All of these elements provide Rapid City with an identifiable character and sense of place that is, clearly and uniquely, South Dakota.

Ghouls of the Glacial Lakes and Prairie Region

 

Buried in the annals of the region are torrid tales, disasters and the unexplained. At historic Fort Sisseton, the old hanging tree and a phantom buffalo soldier are just a few of its spectral stories. Partygoers from over a century ago still linger at Aberdeen’s Easton Castle. De Smet’s historic Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead attracts thousands of visitors annually, many unaware of its familial spirts. Locals in Watertown still debate whether the apparition at the Goss Opera House is that of a traveling performer named Annie or murder victim Maud Alexander, who was set on fire by her own son. Victims of a 1940 train wreck between Milbank and Marvin seemingly never left the scene of the accident. And Captain Luff of The Muskegon disaster can be seen mourning on the banks of Big Stone Lake. Author Deborah Cuyle chronicles the area’s most fascinating and perplexing lore. 

Buried under layers of limestone and sandstone hundreds of feet thick, Jewel Cave is more ancient than South Dakota's Black Hills, which adorn the landscape above. The cave lay undiscovered until 1900, when two brothers, miners and part-time cowboys, felt a strong wind coming from a small hole in the ground at the base of a cliff. When they enlarged the opening, they found passages filled with the glittering calcite crystals that give the cave its name. Although its discoverers marveled at the cave's natural beauty, few believed the find to be significant. Even after Pres. Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Jewel Cave a national monument in 1908, the government was unwilling to fund development. Americans then took up motoring, roads improved, and tourists flocked to the once remote Black Hills. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps created facilities to accommodate the influx. Yet it was not until an adventurous couple from the East received permission to explore and map the cave that its true importance was realized. They and fellow cavers who accompanied them or followed in their footsteps discovered a massive multilayered labyrinth. Jewel Cave now is the second-longest cave in the world, and the exploration continues.

Wallace L. Dow's enduring legacy is visible throughout Sioux Falls and across South Dakota. His distinctive structures, whether civic buildings or private residences, are beholden to no single architectural style. A New Hampshire native, Dow was brought to the Dakota Territory in the 1880s by Governor Nehemiah Ordway. Dow quickly established himself as the preeminent architect of the Dakota prairie, designing iconic structures like Sioux Falls Courthouse and the penitentiary, as well as many beautiful private residences. Using local Sioux quartzite, Dow's buildings gave the emerging Dakota Territory an identity. Yet the architect himself remains something of a mystery. Join author and Dow documentarian Jennifer Dumke as she uncovers Dow's story, recounting the life and work of a true Sioux Falls original who left his mark statewide.