Rapid City, SD

I'm sorry to say I don't have anything about Rapid City except a few pathetic drive thru photos. Hopefully one day I will return to explore the city itself. I added Rapid City because of two interesting places I visited there. The two places, which are presented below, are Dinosaur Park and the South Dakota Mines Museum of Geology. I visited both in July 2025.

Assurant 440 Mt. Rushmore Road

601 St Joseph St. Now Alex Johnson Hotel

The Rushmore Hotel

Dinosaur Park

The idea for Dinosaur Park was conceived as a way of attracting tourists headed for Mouth Rushmore to Rapid City. The park was built as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression. Dinosaur Park was dedicated on May 22, 1936. Today, the park has seven dinosaur sculptures on a hill overlooking the city, but originally there were only five. The sculptures were designed by sculptor Emmet Sullivan and built from iron pipe frames, covered in wire mesh, and finished with concrete skins. The original five dinosaurs were Apatosaurus (formerly Brontosaurus), Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Edmontosaurus (formerly Trachodon). Dimetrodon and Protoceratops were added later. "Then and Now" signs have been added for the original five dinosaurs comparing 1936 information to what we know today. Way cool. The park is free and has a nice visitor center with food and gifts.

Dinosaur Park

On the National Register of Historic Places

Visitor Center

Dimetrodon

Protoceratops

Trachodon

Trachodon Then and Now

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus Then and Now

Apatosaurus

Apatosaurus Then and Now

The park is located 400 feet above downtown Rapid City, allowing visitors to see as far as the Badlands to the east and Black Elk Peak to the west. See if you can match the buildings in the photo with the captions on the sign.

Western Skyline Map

Western Skyline

Downtown Rapid City

Tyrannosaurus rex

Tyrannosaurus rex Then and Now

Triceratops

Triceratops Then and Now

South Dakota Mines Museum of Geology

The Museum of Geology is located on the second floor of the O'Harra Building on the campus of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (aka South Dakota Mines) in Rapid City. The Museum has an excellent collection of plant and animal fossils from the Paleogene Era, and thousands of gem and mineral specimens.
Click the link below to visit the South Dakota Mines Museum of Geology.

SDM Geology Museum (may take a few seconds to run) Hover cursor over a picture to pause slideshow. Use arrows on picture to move to next or previous slide.

Museum of Geology

Brontotherium skeleton

Mosasaurus conodon

Sulfates

State Gem and Mineral

Stilbite with Gavansite