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MOUNT RUSHMORE STATE AREA: 199,730 sq km (77,116 sq mi). POPULATION: 721,000. CAPITAL: Pierre, pop. 13,200. ECONOMY: Industry: food processing, machinery, lumber and wood products, tourism. Agriculture: cattle, hogs, wheat, soybeans, milk, corn. PCI: $19,580. ADMISSION: 1889 as 40th state.
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Ranchers raise cattle and sheep on the Great Plains west of the Missouri; east of the river, where most South Dakotans live, farmers grow corn and other grains. Sioux Falls, with 106,000 people, is the state’s largest city. The mineral-rich Black Hills, spiritual homeland of the Sioux, contain one of North America’s largest gold mines, the Homestake. Rapid City, once the gateway to mining camps, now channels tourists to Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, which protects a publicly owned herd of 1,400 buffalo. Nearby Badlands National Park preserves fossils in ancient floodplains.
Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World Revised Sixth Edition, 1995
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