Custer

Discover vacation gold in the heart of the Black Hills

The heart of Black Hills National Forest is where gold miners sought their fortunes, building a town that to this day offers priceless adventure.

Custer, a peaceful community of about  2,000 residents, sits just minutes away from some of America’s most coveted national treasures, including Wind Cave National Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, the Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park.

Custer is surrounded by the Black Hills National Forest, a vast expanse of federally protected land covering 1.2 million acres. It’s home to stunning scenery and world-class attractions.

Located seven minute east of town, Custer State Park is a hiker’s and horseback rider’s dream, offering more trails to challenge than there is time to take them on. You can try to tackle them all with the park’s Trail Challenge, running May through July. Anglers can take their pick of fishing spots that include French Creek, Legion Lake and Stockade Lake.

For a completely different perspective, take a half-hour ride south from Custer to visit Wind Cave National Park, one of the oldest —and longest—caves in the world. Tours of Wind Cave allow visitors to experience first-hand what early explorers first discovered—that the wind inside the cave literally changes direction based on the difference in atmospheric pressure between the cave and surface.

No trip to Custer is complete without seeing Mount Rushmore. Some three million visitors go each year to see the chiseled faces of American Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington looming 60-feet high.

Standing 564 feet high, Crazy Horse Memorial is named for the Lakota warrior who defeated Custer and the US Calvary in 1876 in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The memorial is the world’s largest mountain carving in progress.

For More Information

Visit Custer

800-992-9818

www.visitcuster.com

South Dakota Department of Tourism

800-SDAKOTA

www.travelsd.com