800-S-DAKOTA
www.travelsd.com

www.state.sd.us

 

 

 

#   Entered Union   Year Settled

40th       Nov. 2, 1889        1859

 

Nickname

Mount Rushmore State

 

Rank      Population

46th       804,194

 

Rank      Square Miles

17th       77,116

 

State Bird

Common Pheasant

 

State Flower

Pasque Flower

 

State Tree

Black Hills Spruce

 

State Motto

Under God the people rule

 

A Great Plains state, South Dakota was named for the Dakota division of the Sioux Indians, and is known as the Coyote State. Admitted simultaneously with North Dakota after the Dakota Territory was divided along the 46th parallel, South Dakota is mainly a rural state. Today, just less than 10 percent of its population is American Indian.

 

South Dakota is known for two monumental sculptures carved into the Black Hills--Mount Rushmore, which honors presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, and the Crazy Horse Monument, still under construction, which honors the Oglala Sioux war chief. The state flower, the pasque flower, also called the May Day flower; its blooming is one of the first signs of spring in South Dakota.

 

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Can you name the presidents carved on Mount Rushmore?

 

Carving started on the amazing Mount Rushmore National Memorial in 1927. It continued for 14 years, with the help of more than 350 people. The faces of four presidents are carved into the mountainside: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

 

At first, there was a suggestion to carve famous western figures, people like Buffalo Bill, Lewis & Clark, and Sacagawea. But a special group, a "commission," instead chose these presidents because they best represented the "foundation, expansion and preservation" of the United States.

 

A sculptor named Gutzon Borglum was asked to design Mount Rushmore. He chose the dramatic setting for this sculpture in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He decided that the best way to remove large pieces of rock from the mountain was to use dynamite. He and his workers became skilled at carving Mount Rushmore using carefully placed dynamite. In fact, more than 90 percent of the mountain was carved by dynamite! The rest was finished using air hammers.

 

The faces of the presidents were finished one by one, Washington in 1930, Jefferson in 1936, Lincoln in 1937 and Roosevelt in 1939. Today, Mount Rushmore is one of the most recognized monuments in the United States, with more than 2.7 million visitors each year.

 

Black Hills

The Black Hills is a hilly region of pine forests, caves, lakes, canyons, and prairies that, from a distance, looks black. American Indians such as the Lakota considered the Black Hills to be a sacred area and hunting ground. By the late 19th century, however, the U.S. government drove the Indians out after white miners discovered gold in the hills.

 

Today, large parts of the Black Hills are park areas that tourists enjoy. They are also home to various wildlife, including bison, elk, coyotes, and prairie dogs.

 

This is a special refuge for bison in particular because white men slaughtered so many in the 19th century that they almost became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then efforts have been made to protect them. Now bison herds have increased to the hundreds of thousands.

 

Custer State Park

Do you know what an endangered species is? It's a plant or animal that is in danger of extinction. The bison, or buffalo, was an endangered species in the United States. Before Europeans came to America, huge numbers of bison roamed free on the prairies -- about 30 million! European settlers hunted them eagerly, believing that there would always be a continual supply of wild bison.

 

Unfortunately, they were wrong. So many bison were hunted that by 1890 there were only 750 animals left. A law was passed to protect them, and today most bison live in parks and wildlife reserves.

 

Custer State Park was the first state park created in South Dakota, in 1897. It's also South Dakota's largest state park, covering 73,000 acres. The park contains lakes, prairies, and pine forests.

 

These settings are the perfect homes for many kinds of wildlife, such as elk and bighorn sheep. Herds of bison also live in the park. Today, there are about 80,000 to 90,000 bison, thanks to efforts to preserve the species.