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42 Corners, 42 Presidents

October 10, 2010

For decades, the civic leaders of Rapid City, South Dakota, have seen millions of tourists drive through town heading south to view the big heads at Mt. Rushmore. It seemed unlikely that people might also want to see life-size photo-op Presidents — until 1999, when a life-size bronze Lincoln was displayed in a local hotel lobby, and became a huge hit.

“We were surprised,” said Dallerie Davis, co-founder of the City of Presidents Project. “We thought, if they’re gonna get that excited about one statue of a President, why don’t we give them all of the Presidents?”

And now they’re all here — well, almost all of them.

Methodically, over the past ten years, life-size bronze statues of every President (minus Obama, who’s still in office) have been added to street corners in downtown Rapid City. The final three — Bill Clinton, Chester A. Arthur, and George W. Bush — were unveiled this weekend.

Dallerie said that the placement of the pose-with-me Presidents has nothing to do with whatever businesses happen to occupy the same corner, and that they’ve brought tourists and foot traffic into downtown. Even Richard Nixon is popular — finally — and the artists have gone out of their way to make each President worthy of a snapshot. The sculptor of George W. Bush, for example, at the last minute added him holding cuddly Barney the dog under one arm.

(Fans of W now have two statues to choose from.)

Since we’re so used to seeing our attraction Presidents at an epic scale, the street corner Presidents of Rapid City can seem unnaturally small. Dallerie said that people sometimes confuse the uniformed William Henry Harrison with Julius Caesar, and often ask where Benjamin Franklin is (despite his status as Mr. $100 Bill, he was never a President).

Only 42 of Rapid City’s 80 downtown street corners are now occupied by Presidents. We asked Dallerie if the “City of Vice-Presidents Project” might be next. She answered with an emphatic no, but said that the city was thinking about erecting statues of First Ladies, or, perhaps inspired by Barney, presidential pets.

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