The last place we visited while we were still in the Black Hills was Rapid City. We drove there from Spearfish mostly just to take a tour of a jewelry factory where they make Black Hills Gold. We found the factory just fine and since it was well away from the main business district, they had a large parking lot. We took the tour which was surprisingly interesting and we learned a lot about what Black Hills Gold is and how they make the unusual design on the jewelry. All the steps involved, how many times each piece has to be fired, and all the time it takes many different people to hand craft all the intricate details is mind boggling.
Black Hills Gold has a unique design and color. If you remember seeing Black Hills Gold, it is always of leaves and grapes. The leaves are usually two, one with a green tint and one with a pink tint and the grapes are natural gold color. This style was started years ago when a French goldsmith went to the Black Hills to seek his fortune in gold. However, his gold prospecting did not work out so well so he decided to go back to making jewelry. He wanted to make something that was different than everyone else was making, so he came up with the leaves and grapes because he had seen many grapes growing in the wild while prospecting and it reminded him of his home in the wine country of France. To make the leaves green, they are alloyed with silver and the pink leaves are alloyed with copper. Then with a very fine precision instrument, the veins in the leaves are carved into the gold. By Federal Law, this design on jewelry can only be made in the Black Hills. So if you see any jewelry with the green and pink leaves and gold grapes, it was made in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It’s really beautiful, but quite expensive and we understood why after we took the tour. They wouldn’t allow us to take pictures during the tour. We had a good time there and enjoyed it very much.
That was before we went into the main business district of Rapid City. We wanted to find a visitors center and some parking but both eluded us. We could only find parking for a short time and we wanted to take a trolley tour of the city and see the presidential statues in the business district. We couldn’t find parking and it was late enough in the day that we had already missed the last trolley. We did finally find the information center for the City of Presidents but they didn’t know where we should park either. There was plenty of private parking but we couldn’t find any for visitors. We bought the postcards and a book that has a picture of each of the statues and a brief biography of each president. I found it very interesting and humorous. We took a few pictures from the book. Hope nobody sues us.
John F. Kennedy and his son, John, Jr. Kennedy is holding a toy airplane in his hand, about to give it to little John.
Back cover. The pictures are of Washington, J. Q. Adams, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt, Reagan, Polk, and Garfield
Lincoln has been reading the war report which is in his lap, informing him of all the lives that have been lost and he gazes at his young son playing with a toy cannon on the floor. Lincoln’s expression is one of great sorrow.
Teddy Roosevelt in his Rough Riders uniform
“Stonewall” Jackson in his defiant, no compromise stance.
FDR as he delivered his “day that will live in infamy” speech. The artist showed his leg braces peeking out from under his trousers. Apparently it was with great effort that FDR was able to stand and move to the podium, which he was griping tightly with his hands.
Different view of JFK and John, Jr.
The only way to see all of the statues is to take a walking tour and go up and down all of the blocks taking pictures, and hopefully shopping along the way. This is really quite an amazing place and we wished we could have spent more time there. Unfortunately, Rapid City is also the City of NO PARKING!!
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