This U.S. President Had A South Dakota Summer White House
Every president likes to 'get away from it all on vacation. Where that particular spot is depending, of course, on the president.
George W. Bush would go back to his ranch in Texas, maybe cut some wood or just take a leisurely drive around the ranch. Ronald Reagan would head back to his beloved California and saddle up his horse. Barrack Obama would spend some winter time back in Hawaii. Donald Trump would head south to Florida and Mar-A-Lago. If that time off came in the summertime, the vacation location would often be dubbed the 'Summer White House'.
Well, for one United States president that 'Summer White House' was in South Dakota.
Calvin Coolidge admittedly doesn't immediately spring to mind when you're thinking of the greatest U.S. President. Number 30 on the Presidential list, The Vermont-born lawyer became President on August 2nd, 1923, and was in the nation's highest office until March 1929.
And it was, in particular, the summer of 1927 that Coolidge put South Dakota 'on-the-map' as the 'Summer White House'. More specifically, the Black Hills (and more specifically still, Custer State Park) was home to the President in the summertime. Check out this cool film from 1927 of the President and his wife arriving in South Dakota and heading up to his 'Summer White House'.
In fact, it was in Rapid City in 1927 that Coolidge offered the nation an eloquent announcement: 'I choose not to run for President in 1928'. Yes, that's one of the many examples of why he became famously known as 'Silent Cal'.
How much the President helped bring South Dakota and the Black Hills to the attention of the country is unknown.
But it sure didn't hurt.
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