Coolidge In South Dakota

This article is from the August 2023 edition of SDPB Magazine. See past issues HERE.

South Dakota is chock-full of destinations that are a must-see for visitors and residents. National parks and monuments scatter the state from the Badlands to the Black Hills. Who is to thank for this? If we were going to associate a president with the state, we might think of the four busts that stand tall at Mount Rushmore before we think of the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. This president not only spent a summer in South Dakota but paved the tourism path we have come to love about our beautiful state.

Known as "Silent Cal," Calvin Coolidge became president of the United States on August 3, 1923, after President Warren Harding died of a heart attack. Coolidge spent most of his term in the White House, maintaining the status quo of America. During his final summer as president, Coolidge visited the Black Hills of South Dakota, where his three-week trip turned into a three-month vacation.

Notably, in 1924, Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act granting citizenship to all Native Americans. His Interior Department also authorized the Brookings Institution to conduct exhaustive surveys of federal programs for Native Americans.

SD Historical Society

During his final summer as president in 1927, he vacationed in the Black Hills of South Dakota, staying in Custer State Park at the State Game Lodge. When he arrived, the people of South Dakota gifted him a horse, a wide-brimmed Western hat, and boots. His wife, Grace Coolidge, spent her time knitting while Calvin spent his time fishing. Coolidge wasn't a natural-born fisherman, so the governor saw that fish from a local hatchery would be added to the ponds to help Coolidge enjoy his stay. One of the ponds is named Grace Coolidge Pond, after the First Lady.

Seth Tupper, a former employee of SDPB and author of Calvin Coolidge in the Black Hills, explains how strange this trip was for a president. "It was just a unique chapter of South Dakota history that a lot of people don't know about. It'll probably never happen again. It was something that was incredibly unique and quirky in sort of a fun way."

The Coolidge's had the time of their lives in South Dakota, and despite not being from the state, they fit in. Amity Shlaes, Chairman of the Board of the Coolidge Foundation and Coolidge biographer, shares, "He had an agricultural personality. What do you mean by that? Not that he was a farmer, he was an attorney, but he'd spent quite a bit of time in an agriculture place. So, he understood the way of life there and the attributes and habits. One habit is being a little low-key, perhaps under-promising and over-delivering, not bragging, which is very important."

Amity continues to say there was almost a recognition when he stepped off the train. "Imagine the train pulls up in Rapid City or Pierre, and the crowd is there, and they recognize each other. It's been said, I wrote that in my book, but I've heard others say it, that the South Dakotans said, 'Oh, this is familiar,' and so did the Coolidges."

SDPB

While there, President Coolidge met with representatives from the Rosebud Indian Reservation and was presented with Native American headdress. He was also given the honorary title of Wamble-To-Ka-Ha or "Chief Leading Eagle."

Coolidge worked out of the Rapid City high school in the summer of 1927. On August 2, Coolidge issued his famous statement to reporters on individual pieces of paper, stating, "I do not choose to run for president in 1928." Amity states this was not the standard action, saying, "It's a very lonely decision and feels perverse nowadays. It would be extremely perverse in politics not to run again when you could."

On August 10, Coolidge was invited to give a speech at the dedication ceremony for Mount Rushmore. During the ceremony, he gifted six drill bits to the artist who would start the project, Gutzon Borglum. Coolidge signed an appropriation bill for the building of Mount Rushmore as one of his final acts of presidency.

Seth Tupper explains how Coolidge's stay started South Dakota tourism. "He was his presence in the Black Hills, and his pledge of support for federal funding for Mount Rushmore helped get Mount Rushmore going. Mount Rushmore then became the linchpin of the entire Black Hills tourism industry. That was also a time when automobiles were becoming popular and spreading throughout the country, and this whole idea of jumping in your car and taking a road trip touring the country was a thing that was just getting started. So, having a president in the Black Hills every day for three months and having newspapers across the country running stories about how the president was fishing, sightseeing, and visiting all the beautiful things in the Black Hills, that was publicity that you couldn't buy."

We hope you will take advantage of the many resources available to learn about Coolidge and his impact on our iconic state. Destinations like the Rapid City high school and State Game Lodge are open for the public to start your journey learning about Coolidge. A book by previous SDPB employee Seth Tupper, Calvin Coolidge in the Black Hills, is available for an in-depth timeline of his summer in South Dakota. Additionally, you visit coolidgefoundation.org to experience the history of Calvin Coolidge from start to finish. Chairman and biographer Amity Shlaes has written a biography titled Coolidge, which can be found on the website along with Calvin Coolidge's autobiography.