Founders Park – Art on the Land
Visited on site: [10/01/2025]
Location & Moment
Founders Park sits where Rapid City first took shape along Rapid Creek. The creek’s flow beneath Skyline Drive once supplied water to early camps and continues to define the city’s rhythm today. The park lies in a natural corridor that survived the 1972 flood and was reborn as open space linking the city back to its source.
Historical Background — Pioneers & Native Nations
This ground rests within the ancestral homelands of the Lakota (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ), for whom the Black Hills (Pahá Sápa) are sacred. Before settlement, Rapid Creek served as a travel and camp route used by Native families and traders alike. In 1876, freighters and prospectors established a supply camp here known as “Hay Camp,” which grew into Rapid City as homesteaders and merchants arrived. Tensions rose as treaties were broken and lands were claimed, yet trade and coexistence persisted along the creek. After the devastating 1972 flood, the damaged properties along the floodplain were cleared, and this section became Founders Park — a living reminder of the city’s beginnings and its relationship with the land.
Artist’s Reflection
Rapids below, traffic above — the city between them.
Cottonwood shade turns the water into a moving field.
I paint the place where first camps stood —
listening for what the creek still keeps.