Sturgis/Fort Meade
www.sturgis-sd.gov

Only a few years before the first skyscrapers were being built in New York and Chicago, the first white settlers were descending upon the Black Hills. It was a virgin and untouched territory, the last unexplored and uncharted region in the continental United States. Even American Indian tribes, who regarded the Black Hills as sacred, came here only occasionally to worship. Almost a century before the starship Enterprise was dashing into warp speed across television sets, these pine forests and granite peaks were the true final frontier.

But the rush for gold spurred the creation of major settlements in the Black Hills almost overnight. White prospectors, appropriately worried that they might have annoyed the resident Lakota and Cheyenne tribes by exploiting their giant mountain range of a cathedral, demanded that the federal government build a fort nearby for protection from raids. Since one of the major roads into the Black Hills passed by Bear Butte, a landmark visible for miles, the military opted to construct their installation there. Initially christened Camp Sturgis, the ramshackle post was renamed Fort Meade when it was clear the fortification would become permanent. But while the army decided to change names, the town that sprang up next door figured the first name suited them just fine.

And so it was that the city of Sturgis got its start in 1878. George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry, all but decimated two years earlier at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, was assigned to Fort Meade in due course. The enterprising inhabitants of Sturgis were all too happy to cater to these young soldiers posted on the frontier, offering them all the comforts of home. Poker Alice, perhaps the most famous madam in town, had a particularly thriving business.

Eventually the Seventh Cavalry moved on, but Sturgis didn’t give up its riders so easily. Soon enough the city traded in its horses of flesh and bone for horses of steel. The Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club was founded in 1936 by local cycle enthusiasts, and in August of 1938 the first races were held just outside town. A handful of spectators watched nine racers that year, but the club decided to make it an annual event anyway. It proved to be a wise choice.

By 1940 the Black Hills Motor Classic was so popular that the event incorporated. Local businesspeople, as enterprising as they were when the soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry wandered their streets, decided to help with the annual motorcycle event, helping to promote the races across the region. As the decades passed, the annual races and bike show evolved into the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, eventually attracting people from throughout the world. By the 1980s the rally had become one of the largest gatherings of motorcyclists on the globe.

Today more than half a million bikers make the annual pilgrimage to the Black Hills, carrying on a long line of Sturgis riders. The townspeople continue to welcome them, whether it’s August or April, with broad smiles and kind words.

Sturgis, at an elevation of 3,644 feet, claims about 6,400 permanent residents. Although the town has its own busy commercial areas, many Sturgis inhabitants work in nearby Rapid City or Spearfish, which are only a few minutes away on Interstate 90. Sturgis is the largest city in Meade county, of which it is the county seat.