Rapid City, South Dakota City of Rapid City Rapid City is positioned in the US Rapid City - Rapid City Rapid City (Lakota: Mni Luzahae Ot uewahe; "Swift Water City") is the second-largest town/city in South Dakota (after Sioux Falls) and the governmental center of county of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, on which the town/city is established, it is set against the easterly slope of the Black Hills mountain range.
The populace was 67,956 as of the 2010 Census. Known as the "Gateway to the Black Hills" and the "City of Presidents", it is split by a low mountain ridge that divides the and easterly parts of the city.
Camp Rapid, a part of the South Dakota Army National Guard, is positioned in the part of the city.
5.1 Rapid City Area Schools Rapid City was founded, and originally known as "Hay Camp", in 1876 by a group of disappointed miners, who promoted their new town/city as the "Gateway to the Black Hills." John Richard Brennan and Samuel Scott, with a small group of men, laid out the site of the present Rapid City in February 1876, which was titled for the spring-fed Rapid Creek that flows through it.
By 1900, Rapid City had railwaya boom and bust and was establishing itself as an meaningful county-wide trade center for the upper midwest.
The town/city benefited greatly from the opening of Rapid City Army Air Base, later Ellsworth Air Force Base, an Army Air Corps training base.
In 1949, town/city officials envisioned the town/city as a retail and wholesale trade center for the region and designed a plan for expansion that concentrated on a civic center, more downtown parking places, new schools, and paved streets.
The new Central High School opened in 1978, with the graduating class in that year straddling both the initial Central (housed in what is now Rapid City High School and improve theater) and the new Central.
In 1978, Rushmore Mall was assembled on the north edge of the city, adding to the city's position as a retail shopping center.
The court decision offered cash, but the Sioux declined on principle that the theft of their territory should not be validated, and still demand the return of the land. This territory includes Rapid City, which is by far the biggest undivided settlement in the Black Hills.
Today, Rapid City is South Dakota's major city for tourism and recreation.
On June 9 10, 1972, extremely heavy rains over the easterly Black Hills of South Dakota produced record floods on Rapid Creek and other streams in the area.
Canyon Lake Dam, on the west side of Rapid City, broke the evening of the flood, unleashing a wall of water down the creek.
In 2007, the Rapid City Public Library created a 1972 Flood digital archive that collects survivors' stories, photos and news accounts of the flood.
Rapid City is positioned at 44.076188 N 103.228299 W.
The downtown altitude of Rapid City is 3,202 feet (976 m) and Rapid City sits in the shadow of Black Elk Peak; which at 7,242 feet (2,207 m), is the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains.
Rapid City is positioned on the easterly edge of the Black Hills, and is split in half by the Dakota Hogback.
Rapid City's "Westside" is positioned in the Red Valley between the foothills of the Black Hills proper and the Dakota Hogback, so titled for the red Spearfish formation soils and the way the valley completely circles the Black Hills.
Rapid City has grown up into the foothills, with both ridges and valleys developed, especially in the last 20 years, and wildfire is a distinct threat to these residentiary areas, as shown by the Westberry Trails fire in 1988.
Skyline Drive follows the summits of the Dakota Hogback south from near Rapid Gap (where Rapid Creek cuts through the Hogback) to a large high plateau which forms the current south edge of Rapid City.
The Central and Eastern portions of Rapid City lie in the wide valley of Rapid Creek outside the Hogback, which includes a number of mesas rising a hundred feet or more above the floodplain.
Rapid Creek flows through Rapid City, emerging from Dark Canyon above Canyon Lake and flowing in a large arc north of Downtown.
View of southern Rapid City from the east after a rainstorm, including a view of Black Elk Peak and the Black Hills.
Rapid City features a steppe climate (Koppen BSk), and is part of USDA Hardiness zone 5a. Its locale makes its climate unlike both the higher elevations of the Black Hills and the Great Plains to the east.
However, Rapid City still sees an average of twenty clear to partly cloudy days and 67 percent of its possible sunlight in June. This is the traditional "flood" season for Rapid and other creeks in the Eastern Hills.
There is an average of 34 days with 90 F (32.2 C)+ highs and 5.1 with 100 F (37.8 C)+ highs. Due to the altitude and aridity, lows rarely remain at or above 70 F (21.1 C) and amid July and August fall to or below 50 F or 10 C on an average 7.6 days. Rapid City records an average of nine thunderstorm days in August, but only 1.56 inches or 39.6 millimetres of precipitation in that month.
Fall is a precipitous transition season, with the average first freeze in Rapid City is October 4 and late August through September in the Black Hills.
The Rapid City area's first snow flurry is usually in October, although higher elevations sometimes receive momentous snow in September.
Rapid City holds a record for an extreme temperature drop of 47 F or 26.1 C in five minutes on January 10, 1911, from 60 F or 15.6 C to 13 F or 10.6 C. Official extreme temperatures range from 31 F or 35.0 C on February 2, 1996 up to 111 F or 43.9 C on July 15, 2006; the record low daily maximum is 18 F or 27.8 C on February 2, 1989, while the record high daily minimum is 75 F or 23.9 C on July 8, 1985 and July 28, 1960. Climate data for Rapid City Regional Airport, South Dakota (1981 2010 normals, extremes 1942 present) Rapid City is a primary medical care center for a five-state region, centered around the Rapid City Regional Hospital and the Indian Health Service's Sioux San Hospital.
Other smaller, autonomous medical facilities have been established in the area, including the Black Hills Surgery Center, The Heart Doctors, The Spine Center at Rapid City, Setliff Sinus Institute, Black Hills Eye Institute and Regional Behavioral Healthcare.
Emergency medical services (EMS) are provided by the Rapid City Fire Department.
Rapid City is also home to a number of non-profit enhance health organizations that engage in survey and clinic research, epidemiology, and area-based community promotion disease prevention.
Rapid City Public Library Rapid City establishments of college studies include the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Oglala Lakota College's He Sapa College Center, Black Hills State University - Rapid City University Center (includes classes and degrees through five other South Dakota post-secondary Institutions), National American University, Western Dakota Technical Institute, Black Hills Beauty College, John Witherspoon College, and a several small sectarian preacher training schools.
Black Hills State University is positioned in close-by Spearfish and offers a several classes in Rapid City.
The South Dakota state nurse training program is also based in Rapid City.
The town/city also has at least four Christian high schools including Saint Thomas More, Rapid City Christian High School, Liberty Baptist Academy and Open Bible Christian School.
In 2013, 26.6 percent of Rapid City inhabitants 25 years or over had earned a bachelor's degree or higher. This is on par with the average educational attainment in the United States.
The highest rates of educational attainment in South Dakota can be found in urbane areas of Rapid City and Sioux Falls.
Rapid City Area Schools The small-town enhance schools fall under the Rapid City Area Schools school district.
They are Central High School, Stevens High School and the newly renovated Rapid City High School, which also homes the Performing Arts Center.
The Rapid City Flying Aces is an indoor football team that competed between 2000 and 2006 in the Indoor Football League, United Indoor Football, and National Indoor Football League, changing names from season to season.
The Rushmore Hockey Association is the home of youth hockey in Rapid City, competing in the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association.
Because of the importance of tourism in the area, and its extensive market area, Rapid City has many cultural resources usually found only in much larger urban areas.
The Rapid City Public Library Rapid City also has a large amount of enhance sculpture on display in many parts of the city.
Rapid City has three sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International: Of particular note, Rapid City is the center for the manufacture of Black Hills gold jewelry, a prominent product with tourists and Westerners in general.
Rapid City is also the locale of the only manufacturer of stamping machines used for the labeling of plywood and chipboard products.
Although most gold quarrying has ceased in the Black Hills and was never done in or near Rapid City, quarrying of sand and gravel, as well as the raw materials for lime and Portland cement (including chemical-grade limestone, taconite iron ore, and gypsum) remains an meaningful part of the economy.
The biggest zone of the Rapid City economy is government services, including local, state, and federal.
The Rapid City Regional Hospital Healthcare System covers one of the biggest expansions of territory in the United States.
Tourism is also a primary portion of the Rapid City economy, due to the adjacency of Mount Rushmore, Sturgis, home of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Deadwood, and other attractions in the Black Hills.
Rapid City is the primary source of services for the Motorcycle Rally, and the Rally's demand for motel rooms, camp sites, and other services for tourists amid the first week of August means that Rapid City has the capacity to host large conventions and large numbers of tourists year-round.
Various minor tourist attractions, including wildlife parks, specialty shops, caves, water parks, private exhibitions, and other businesses are found in and near Rapid City.
Rapid City is the command posts for Assurant Insurance's pre-need division and Rapid City has a strong medical services sector, and establishments of higher education.
Rapid City is also the primary market town for much of five states, drawing commerce from more than half of South Dakota, and large portions of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and the Nebraska Panhandle.
The real compound annual expansion rate of the gross domestic product of the Rapid City Metropolitan Travel Destination was 2.6% for 2001 2013. Rapid City Regional Airport provides flights to the airline core cities of Denver, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Phoenix/Mesa, Houston, Atlanta and Chicago.
The airport also has extensive General Aviation operations, including wildfire fighting activities and medical flight support to Rapid City medical facilities and Indian Health Service operations in the Dakotas.
Presently, the town/city is served by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad (RCP&E).
In addition to Rapid City, the RCP&E serves the Northern Black Hills and run east to Minnesota and south through Nebraska to connect with primary transcontinental barns s Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific.
Rapid City's central locale allows easy transport of products to both coasts, and trucking is a primary company activeness in the city.
US Highway 16 is the chief route to the southwest and the Black Hills from Rapid City.
South Dakota Highway 44 is a state highway that links the interior of the Black Hills to the southwest of Rapid City, and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and close-by areas in the Great Plains to the southeast.
South Dakota Highway 79 is a state highway that is multiplexed with I-90 northwest of Rapid City.
South of Rapid City to Nebraska, Highway 79 is being reconstructed as the Heartland Expressway, a high-speed four-lane highway which will eventually connect to Interstate 80 in Nebraska and the Colorado Front Range near Denver.
Rapid City's locale on the boundary of the Western and Eastern power grids, together with the hydroelectric plants of the Mainstem Dams on the Missouri River and the large coal fields and power plants of the Powder River Basin of Wyoming make it one of the points where the two nationwide power grids connect with each other, allowing switching of electrical power from east to west and vice versa.
Rapid City previously had its own coal-fired power plant before Federal regulations forced it and many other coal plants in the region such as power stations near Gillette, Wyoming, to shut down.
National Guard officer candidates take part in a tactical road march through a west Rapid City neighborhood Rapid City obtains most of its waterworks from Rapid Creek and the alluvial aquifers associated with the creek, owning momentous water rights in Pactola Reservoir positioned some 15 miles (24 km) west of the city, but does also obtain water from some springs in the vicinity, and has the ability to draw water from deep formations which receive water from recharge in areas of the Black Hills where the formations come to the surface.
Rapid City has limited city-to-city bus service along I-90, but many charter bus services operate in the area, and connect Rapid City and Deadwood with metros/cities in Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa.
Rapid City does have a municipally-owned bus service with multiple bus stops and a command posts in the city.
Main article: Rapid City urbane region The estimated 2013 populace of the Rapid City Metropolitan Travel Destination (Pennington County, Meade County and Custer County) was 141,131. Most metros/cities and suburbs in the Black Hills and the encircling plains have a momentous percentage of their populace who commute to and from Rapid City, and many inhabitants of Rapid City work in outlying towns.
810 AM KBHB Five State Ranch Radio Farm Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Sturgis Rapid City 920 AM KKLS Smash Hits Classic Hits Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City 1340 AM KTOQ ESPN Rapid City Sports Haugo Broadcasting, Inc.
Rapid City Rapid City 1380 AM KOTA News Radio KOTA News/Talk Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises Rapid City Rapid City 88.3 FM KLMP The Light Christian Bethesda Christian Broadcasting Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City 89.3 FM KBHE South Dakota Public Broadcasting NPR SD Board of Directors for Educational Telecommunications Rapid City Rapid City 89.9 FM KJRC Real Presence Radio Catholic Radio Real Presence Radio Rapid City Rapid City 90.3 FM KASD American Family Radio Christian American Family Radio Rapid City Rapid City 91.3 FM KTEQ-FM K-Tech Alternative South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Educational Radio Council Rapid City Rapid City 92.3 FM KQRQ-FM Q92.3 Classic Hits New Generation Broadcasting Rapid City Rapid City 93.1 FM KRCS Hot 93.1 Top 40 Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Rapid City Sturgis 93.9 FM KKMK 93.9 The Mix Hot AC Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Rapid City Rapid City KJRC Translator Real Presence Radio Rapid City Rapid City 95.9 FM KZZI The Eagle Country Duhamel Broadcasting Rapid City Belle Fourche KZZI Translator Duhamel Broadcasting Rapid City Rapid City 97.1 FM KFND-LP Religious Calvary Chapel of the Black Hills Rapid City Rapid City KRCS Translator Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Rapid City Rapid City 97.9 FM KTPT The Breeze Christian Contemporary Bethesda Christian Broadcasting Rapid City Rapid City 98.7 FM KOUT Kat Country 98.7 Country Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Rapid City Rapid City KRKI-FM booster Bad Lands Broadcasting Rapid City Rapid City 100.3 FM KFXS 100.3 The Fox Classic Rock Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Rapid City Rapid City 101.1 FM KDDX X-Rock Active Rock Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises Rapid City Spearfish KFMH-FM booster Bad Lands Broadcasting Rapid City Rapid City KDDX-FM translator Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City KKLS-AM Translator Home - Slice Media Group, LLC Rapid City Rapid City 105.7 FM K289 - AI ESPN Rapid City Sports Haugo Broadcasting, Inc.
Rapid City Rapid City Duffy Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City 107.1 FM KSLT Power 107.1 Christian Contemporary Bethesda Christian Broadcasting Rapid City Spearfish 107.9 FM KXZT TBD JER Licences, LLC Rapid City Newell Rapid City Public Library Main article: List of citizens from Rapid City, South Dakota People who have lived, resided, or were born in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Official temperature and rain records for Rapid City kept at the old municipal airport from August 1942 to 11 October 1950 and at Rapid City Regional since 12 October 1950. Snowfall and snow depth records date to 1 September 1942 and the move to Rapid City Regional, in the order given. a b c d "Station Name: SD RAPID CITY RGNL AP".
"Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Rapid City, South Dakota, United States of America".
"Enumeration Demographic Profiles, Rapid City" (PDF).
"Rapid City Area Schools".
Rapid City Area Schools.
Rapid City Arts Council.
"Rapid City Public Library Homepage".
"Performing Arts Center of Rapid City Homepage".
Visitrapidcity.com, Rapid City South Dakota Convention & Visitors Bureau, Rapid City, 2010.
"Rapid City: Economy".
Rapid City, South Dakota
Categories:
Rapid City, South Dakota - Black Hills - Cities in South Dakota - Cities in Pennington County, South Dakota - County seats in South Dakota - Populated places established in 1876 - Rapid City urbane region - 1876 establishments in Dakota Territory
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