If you like statues of the U.S. presidents, Rapid City, South Dakota is an exciting place to visit. There are presidents hanging out on every corner of the downtown streets!! Life-size, life-like figures of the presidents in bronze watch the tourists and citizens of Rapid City as they go about their daily business. If you're not sure about the identity of a particular president, just take a look at the plaque embedded in the sidewalk nearby.
The project of placing presidents on the street corners of Rapid City began in 2000, with four sculptures being placed there each year. Each bronze statue was created by one of the following South Dakota artists: Edward E. Hlavka; Lee Leuning; John Lopez; James Michael Maher; James Van Nuys. For more information about this noteworthy project, and for details about each statue and its sculptor, take a look at VisitRapidCity.Com.
If you would like to see enlarged images of the pictures that I took (in the slideshow above), just click on a picture, and it will take you to my Picasa web album site where you can see larger images and download them if you're interested. I took these pictures on a cold, windy day in November, so they are in no particular order and haven't been enhanced in any way. Somewhere among the photos, you will even see a dinosaur that overlooks Rapid City, seemingly guarding the presidents. I hope you enjoy the pictures and have a chance to see the presidents in person someday.
