SOUTH DAKOTA

PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA

THREE MAJOR CITIES

SIOUX FALLS

RAPID CITY

ABERDEEN

THREE PLACES TO VISIT IN SOUTH DAKOTA

MOUNT RUSHMORE

• Mount Rushmore, also known as President’s mountain, is located in the black hills of Keystone, South Dakota.
• The sculpture of four famous presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, was carved into the granite face.
• According to the national park service, the monument is visited each year by more than three million people.

CORN PALACE

• The corn palace is a popular tourist destination, visited by between 200,000 squared and 500,000 cubed people each year.
• The corn palace is actually made of concrete but is covered in corn decorations and is redecorated each year.
• Today the corn palace is used as a sports arena, music venue, and convention center.

CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL

• The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota, between Custer and Hill city, roughly 17 miles from Mount Rushmore.
• The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet high by comparison, the heads of the four presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet high.
• The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion. If completed, it may become the world’s largest sculpture as well as the first non-religious statue to hold this record since 1967.

FIVE GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES

COTEAU DES PRAIRIES

• The Coteau des prairies is a plateau approximately 200 miles in length and 100 miles in width.
• The southeast portion of the Coteau compromises one of the distinct regions of Minnesota, known as Buffalo ridge.
• The plateau is composed of thick glacial deposits, the remnants of many repeated glaciations, reaching a composite thickness of approximately 900 feet.

JAMES RIVER VALLEY

• James River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 710 miles long.
• The James River drops approximately five inches per mile and this low gradient sometimes leads to reverse flow.
• At Columbia, it is joined by the Elm River. Flowing southward across eastern South Dakota.

CUSTER STATE PARK

• Custer state park is a state park in South Dakota and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills, United States.
• The park is home to 1500 free roaming bison.
• Elk, Coyotes, Mule deer, white tail deer, Mountain Goats, prairie dogs, bighorn sheep, river otters, pronghorn, cougars, and feral burros are also inhabitants to the state park.

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK

• The Badlands wilderness protects 64,144 acres of the park as a designated wilderness area and is the site of the reintroduction of the black footed ferret.

WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK

• Wind cave national park is located 10 miles north of the town Hot Springs in western South Dakota.
• It was the seventh U.S. national park and the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world.
• Approximately 95 percent of the worlds boxwork formations are found in the Wind Cave.

FOUR REASONS I CHOSE SOUTH DAKOTA

• I went there in the summer and I thought it was awesome.
• I liked the places to visit there.
• The scenery was beautiful all over.
• It was almost perfect to me. Nothing was bad, it was all fun.