Be a Friend and Join Us for the 2014 Memory Walk

Nice, easy walk from west to east with plenty of stops to talk about what happened in 1972? Or a brisk ride from east to west?

You choose!

This year’s Memory Walk to commemorate the legacy of parks created by the 1972 Black Hills Flood will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 7, and conclude with a free picnic for all participants at the picnic shelter at Old Storybook Island. Expansion of the walk this year is thanks to the generosity of the Remembrance & Renewal 40th Anniversary Flood Committee.

Giles McGillick

Olivia Goodrich

We’ve also had help from two high school student volunteers, Olivia Goodrich and Giles McGillick. Olivia is a junior at Rapid City Christian and Giles is a junior at St. Thomas More. They came up with the kinds of ideas and energy that will help us reach new audiences with the story of our park system and the history of decisions that preserve the greenway.

Thanks to a mini-grant from the South Dakota Humanities Foundation, participants in the Memory Walk—and into the future—have access to mobile web pages that provide facts, figures, personal stories and community statistics with the flick of a smart phone. Friends of Rapid City Parks and the Rapid City Public Library collaborated on installation of QR codes that connect bike path users to mobile web content developed by the two organizations. A flick of a smart phone over interpretive signs along the Leonard Swanson Bike Path will take viewers to the past with first hand audio and video recollections of the 1972 Flood, or click them into the present with information and statistics about how Memorial Park is used today.

The history walk of about 3 miles begins at 10:30 a.m. at Braeburn Park and ends at the picnic shelter at Old Storybook Island. The 4-mile bicycle ride begins at the Fairgrounds interpretive sign at San Francisco Street and Cherry Street, also at 10:30. The Black Hills Cycling Nation members are riding from Dark Canyon as part of the commemoration. The public is invited to join the Memory Walk at any point along the 8-mile Leonard Swanson Memorial Bike Path. The picnic begins at noon at the Old Storybook Island picnic shelter and is open to all Memory Walk participants.