Happy Birthday Teddy Roosevelt!

October 27, 2011 marks what would be former President Theodore Roosevelt's 158th birthday.  A great conservationist, adventurer and lover of the West, Teddy Roosevelt designated several national parks and played an instrumental role in paving the way for the protection our country's public lands. As president, Roosevelt used his authority to ...

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Oh, Ranger! Guide to the Black Hills, Badlands & Mount Rushmore

Our little, green Oh, Ranger! guide to the Black Hills, Badlands & Mount Rushmore highlights many of the stunning sites and adventures that await in Western South Dakota. The region is home to one of most famous monuments in the country. Mount Rushmore depicts four prominent Presidents in America’s history. ...

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A new assignment for Mount Rushmore superintendent Baker

Gerard Baker, the charismatic, sometimes-controversial superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, has a new assignment. National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis announced Monday that he has named Baker as his assistant director for American Indian Relations. “The National Park Service faces important cultural and natural resource issues with First Americans,” Jarvis ...

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Mount Rushmore fireworks canceled

Seth A. McConnell Pyrotechnics light the skies over Mt. Rushmore Thursday night during Sparkling Thunder the 11th annual fireworks display at Mt. Rushmore National Monument. (Journal file photo) The National Park Service has canceled the Independence Day fireworks display at Mount Rushmore National Memorial this year because of growing ...

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Greenpeace Activists Sentenced For Climbing Mount Rushmore, Hanging Anti-Global Warming Banner

Sentences for 11 Greenpeace members who climbed Mount Rushmore National Memorial in July to hang an anti-global warming banner range from jail time to community service. The activists were sentenced Monday in federal court in South Dakota. All pleaded guilty to illegally climbing Mount Rushmore while charges such as interfering ...

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Experience Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse Memorial, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is being sculpted in-the-round and is the world’s largest ongoing mountain carving. This massive memorial is meant to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of all Native American tribes. Once completed, it will be 641 feet long by ...

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Naming Mount Rushmore

In the 1880s Keystone, South Dakota was a booming mining town. James Wilson was a New York mining promoter examining mining claims in the area. Wilson hired Charles E. Rushmore, a young New York attorney, to check on mining titles. Mr. Rushmore arrived in the area in 1885 representing ...

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Environmentalists unfurl banner on Mount Rushmore

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Environmentalists using park service rock anchors scaled Mount Rushmore on Wednesday and unfurled a banner along President Abraham Lincoln's face challenging America's leaders to stop global warming. Eleven people were charged with trespassing and the misdemeanor crime of climbing on Mount Rushmore National Monument, U.S. ...

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Celebration Planned for Independence Day at Mount Rushmore

Visitors to Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3 can expect to experience a wide variety of educational programs, patriotic tributes, and musical entertainment in celebration of Independence Day.  The memorial has planned a full day of events as many visitors arrive early in the morning to secure a ...

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Minn. Man Files Appeal in Free-speech Case Against National Parks

A Christian legal group is appealing a federal judge's ruling that found Mount Rushmore National Memorial officials did not violate a Minnesota man's free-speech rights when they required him to get a permit before distributing religious materials at the memorial.Michael Boardley of Coon Rapids, Minn., sued the U.S. Interior ...

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Mount Rushmore National Memorial Superintendent Is Keynote Speaker

Superintendent Gerard Baker of Mount Rushmore National Memorial will speak at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center Auditorium in Rocky Mountain National Park on Thursday, Sept. 18 beginning at 7 p.m. The talk is open and free to the public. It is the second Randy Jones Memorial Lecture, jointly sponsored by ...

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Does Native American Exhibit Belong at Mount Rushmore?

There aren’t any signs pointing Mount Rushmore visitors to the newest exhibit. Superintendent Gerard Baker prefers that visitors explore the national memorial’s grounds and discover the Native American heritage village on their own. He isn’t going to tell them what to think of it, either, not like with the memorial’s ...

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Eye of the Warrior

For the Lakota tribe of South Dakota, no ancestor is as important as Crazy Horse, who defeated General Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. So in 1948, when the tribe wanted to carve a likeness of the warrior astride a horse into a mountain in Black Hills ...

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