Rapid City, SD

James Madison and Chris Hiker

On my way to Mt Rushmore from Devils Tower, I stopped in Rapid City to get some gas and pick up some groceries.  Passing through the downtown area, I noticed statues of presidents on the corners.  I was reminded that this city has statues of every president on the corners of its streets.

The first one I noticed was Harry Truman.  He's one of my favorite presidents and the statue of him holding the "Dewey defeats Truman" newspaper cover happened to be my favorite.  Other good ones were Thomas Jefferson signing the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln with his son Tad, Howard Taft with a baseball (Taft started the ceremonial first pitch before the start of a game) and JFK with his son.

"Dewey defeats Truman"

Thomas Jefferson

Signing the Declaration of Independence

Abraham Lincoln and son Tad

Howard Taft

JFK and John Jr.

Another great one was Hudson Valley native Martin Van Buren sitting on a bench.  One can sit down and have a cup of coffee with the first president to be born an American citizen (the previous were born British subjects before the revolution) and the only president to speak English as a second language.  He grew up in Kinderhook and interestingly enough, Dutch was spoken there.  He married his wife in Catskill and she also spoke English as a second language.  Imagine today having a president that spoke English with a foreign accent.

It's not often you can have a seat with a president

Some presidents I missed were FDR, Eisenhower, Polk, Dubya (can't say I missed that) and Grant.  It was a pretty cool place to stop on the way to Mt Rushmore, it was just too bad it was noon and the sun was awfully bright.