President Statues- Rapid City, South Dakota

I had read about the statues of our various presidents on the streets of Grand Rapids some time ago and thought that it sounded cool, but I dismissed it a bit. 

When we arrived in town, however, I saw just how cool they are.

I was actually very impressed with the likenesses.  These are all well done, nice statues.  They look right.  They look lively. 

We walked around looking at them for a while, and then we realized that the statues actually have their own visitor center!

The visitor center itself was great.  They have small models of many of the larger president statues.

The very friendly guy running the visitor center talked for a long time with us about the statues, presidents, Grand Rapids, etc.  He gave us some great tips on things t see in the area.

He also told us about a scavenger hunt that the visitor center promoted.  On the back of their visitor guide, there are 10 photos showing small parts of the statues of the presidents.  If you correctly identify each of the photos, you win a prize!

We had just arrived in Rapid City on this early afternoon.  Shops do seem to close a bit early in the area, and our only plans in town at that time were to walk around and explore the town.  We figured we might as well visit each statue and do the scavenger hunt as we explored the town!

I hope that the visitor center doesn't get mad at me for revealing a couple of secrets...  First off, if you do the scavenger hunt, one of the photos literally gives away the identity of the president pictured.  Still, you will want to visit that statue anyway, as the president pictured is one of the all time most popular.

You should be able to visit each of the statues and complete the scavenger hunt in a bit under an hour.

We completed the hunt and headed back to the visitor center.

We celebrated our accomplishment with our new friend at the center with our prizes.  Again, not to give too much away, but my prize was a grape soda in an Abe Lincoln labelled bottle.  My partner in crime picked ice cream as her prize.

As a side note, this was one of the best pops I have had in my life.


I am going to say that the president statues in Rapid City are among the "must sees" in this region.

Again, we really enjoyed Rapid City in general and there is so much to do in the area.  The statues on the street add to this town's character.