Tuesday, July 2, 2024

City of Presidents ~ Rapid City, South Dakota

Last summer on our trip out West we drove through Rapid City and took a little time to find all of the President statues. They stand on downtown street corners all within a few blocks of each other.

Back in 1999 a local man named Don Perdue proposed the idea and formed a nonprofit foundation "City of Presidents" whose sole purpose is to raise funds for each sculpture. In 2000 the first four presidential statues were installed. Over the next 10 years six different artists created the remaining presidents (43 total to date).

With a combination of driving and walking, we found each one, except for Nixon who was off site at the time due to construction. (His photo was pulled from the internet.)
Here they are in alphabetical order.

Adams, J
Adams, JQ
Arthur
Buchanan 
Bush, GHW
Bush, GW
Carter
Cleveland
Clinton
Coolidge
Eisenhower
Fillmore
Ford
Garfield
Grant
Harding
Harrison, B
Harrison, W
Hayes
Hoover
Jackson
Jefferson
Johnson, A
Johnson, LB
Kennedy
Lincoln
Madison
McKinley
Monroe
Nixon
Obama
Pierce
Polk
Reagan
Roosevelt, F
Roosevelt, T
Taft
Taylor
Truman
Tyler
Van Buren
Washington
Wilson
Each bronze sculpture is life-size. matching height and weight of each president (except for Taft who was slimmed down). Some likenesses are better than others, and some photos are better than others due to the sunny weather. But it was great fun finding them all.
The Foundation decided to not install the next president until he or she is out of office or not politically active.

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