Thomas Jefferson in Rapid City

Rapid City, South Dakota, has become the "City of Presidents". It is not far from Mount Rushmore , with its four giant presidential images, which we visited at the beginning of our trip.

Inspired by that, and a life-sized statue of Lincoln seated (in the heart of downtown), in 1999 city residents had the idea to place statues of all the presidents in that area, and in the next ten years, bronze sculptures of all 42 presidents, all standing, were erected at 12 intersections in the city center (Barack Obama, the 43rd, will get his "when he has completed his term of office). It is an impressive idea; we have so far seen about a dozen of them and will try to see most of the rest tomorrow.

As is pretty obvious from my blip, Thomas Jefferson is portrayed with pen poised over the Constitution of the United States, although he was only one of many involved in drafting it.

We drove to Rapid City this morning from our friend's house in Kyle in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Tomorrow we will visit the Devil's Tower, a massive geological formation just over the Wyoming border.