The Gateway to the Black Hills is growing. Here’s an insider’s guide.
Rapid City’s official population is around 75,000, but adding the surrounding communities balloons that total closer to about 156,000. It’s growing, but not as fast as some would have you believe. The demonym is “Rapid Citian” and most people in the Black Hills just call it “Rapid.” If the median home price of $450,000 and the weekly take home pay of around $1,050 seem wildly at odds with each other, that’s because they are. While it may be a good place to break the bank for the kind of house you could never afford elsewhere, Rapid City is not an ideal place to then unbreak that bank.
The city lies on the eastern edge of the Black Hills. Interstate 90 runs east-west along the northern boundary of Rapid, but it doesn’t come directly into town. Much of the driving around Rapid City is on surface streets. Keep going east on I90 for about 20-30 minutes and you hit flat. What is beyond that, I don’t care to know. To the northwest is Sturgis at a 35 minute drive via Interstate 90, Spearfish about 45 minutes. Lead-Deadwood about an hour. To the southwest lies Custer about 60 minutes away; to the south, Hot Springs, also 60 minutes. Rapid City is ideally situated to commute to or from any of these locations.
There is one commercial airport, Rapid City Regional. It offers a handful of direct flights beyond the region (Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, Minnesota, etc.) There are seasonal flights direct to Orlando, for Disney World enthusiasts. These run from spring to fall. The nearest hub airline is Frontier at Denver International Airport.
Neighborhoods
There are, unofficially, a buttload of neighborhoods: Rapid Valley, West Rapid. Southside, Uptown (North Rapid), Downtown and Canyon Lake to name a few. Canyon Lake is so named because of the beautiful park and lake (dam) that sit on the southwestern edge of the city. Here also is the nexus of the city’s spillway, its central infrastructure solution to periodic flooding, the worst of which, in 1972, killed over 230 people.
North Rapid has become locally notorious for its vagrancy and general unsavoriness. The North side-adjacent Uptown features the Black Hills’ only shopping mall, which, sadly, is on life-support. Two of Rapid City’s three movie theaters are also in this area, as are restaurants like Olive Garden and Texas Roadhouse.
Generally, most of the commercial expansion seems to be on the south side where there is a large Walmart complex and several restaurants that have sprung up in the last decade or so. There is also significant retail development to the east, most notably Rushmore Crossing, a shopping center by way of a collection of mostly big box storefronts (Target, Scheels) and standalone corporate eateries, like Panera Bread and Old Chicago. There is also a Cabela’s, a Fleet Farm and a Tractor Supply across the interstate.
The city basks in its proximity to, and association with, Mount Rushmore, having taken the nickname City of Presidents. Downtown’s walk of presidents is a collection of statues depicting all of our nation’s elected leaders posed on street corners in seemingly no particularly discernible cogent arrangement. I’ve lived here nearly three years and when I drive through Downtown I still sometimes mistake the statues for pedestrians making ready to heedlessly bumble into oncoming traffic, which causes me to momentarily hover my foot over the brake. Then I remember, oh yeah, that’s just William Howard Taft bent like he’s about to throw a pitch for some reason. Balk!
The central feature of Downtown is the block of 6th street between main and St. Joseph, with Hotel Alex Johnson, Tally’s Silver Spoon Restaurant and Main Street Square. Rapid City has really done a nice job with Downtown. It’s worth visiting all year round. Plus, the city has a spectacular, modern library right up the street.
Rapid’s Rep
There is no singular industry that defines Rapid City, which may speak to its longevity, compared to some of the more tourism-dependent, former mining and logging towns in the Hills. There are many jobs available at any given time here; careers less-so. My anecdotal research suggests that young singles do not like Rapid City’s nightlife. There is an ever-building, unique restaurant scene that keeps threatening to explode, but it’s taking its time about it. There are plays, symphonic performances and an art hub for the culturally-minded. You must stay active and aware if you like to partake of such things, lest they disappear overnight, for they are seemingly always on some kind of bubble.
Adult interests here are mainly aimed at hunting and fishing. There is a massive rodeo and stock show each winter, which brings about 330,000 people from all over the place. But Rapid is no cow town, especially in comparison to say, Billings, Montana. This is reflected mainly in its youth, which have always exuded a sort of mild, mountain-urban affect, as opposed to the affably pugilistic teen cowboy-types in other small western cities. To be sure, Rapid City has its share of broccoli-hairs driving dangerously in far-too-large Fords, but it has always maintained a genuine undercurrent of cosmopolitanism. In short, it’s more Denver than Dallas.
Rapid’s Rec
The bike path, supposedly named the Leonard Swanson Memorial Pathway but called that by precisely not one person, is pretty amazing. It’s a recreational walk, jog and biking path that I will never in my life refer to as “the Swanny.” It mostly follows Rapid Creek’s south-north path. Rapid City is not a super-bike friendly city in terms of commuting, but for pure outdoor recreation, it slaps.
The city has many, many parks. The biggest draw is a confusing mash up of city-owned and non-profit parks/hiking/biking trails along the westside’s main thoroughfare, West Omaha Street. Called Founder’s Park or M HIll as a catchall, it includes Founder’s Park, Chuck Lien Family Park/M Hill, Hansen-Larsen Memorial Park, the Rapid City Executive golf course and finally, Memorial Park with its large, legitimately fishable(!) pond.
Hansen-Larsen is a mountain biking playground, with singletrack trails crisscrossing all over. The west-facing side has a semi-hidden dirt jump track and a flow trail. This is not to mention Skyline Wilderness or any of the several other bike park projects that are in the pipeline or, for that matter, the swim center. Rapid City goes hard for recreation.
Rapid Rising
The city anticipates steady growth, in part due to expansion of nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base. Numbers have been flying around, but an additional 50,000 people moving to the area over the next decade or so is a realistic possibility. There are mixed reactions to this news. The city as an entity and body politic, in my humble opinion, is thus far slow to react to the coming adjustments. Infrastructure, public services and property taxes seem poised to exist in a gridlock with no clear winner gaining favor. South Dakota prefers to adapt to new trends and realities about ten years after everyone else. I see no reason why Rapid City wouldn’t do the same in this instance.
Despite this, Rapid City remains a fantastic place to live.
Thanks for reading this very broad overview of Rapid City. Hopefully you now have a clearer picture of what goes on here. Stay frosty for more upcoming insight on Rapid City and the Black Hills.
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