Rapid City, S.D. — Visitors from around the globe stand in reverence in the shadows of America's Shrine of Democracy, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt once called Mount Rushmore.

They have come to salute one of America's most recognizable icons and four of our most famous presidents — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Few who visit this colossal carving on a cliff in South Dakota leave unaffected.

South Dakota Tourism (ENLARGE)

Presidents depicted in stone at Mount Rushmore are, from left, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The sight brings tears to peoples' eyes.

T.D. Griffith / Special (ENLARGE)

Deadwood, of gun-slinging fame, isn't far from Rapid City.

South Dakota Tourism (ENLARGE)

Badlands National Park is a scenic moonscape once described by Gen. George Armstrong Custer as 'hell with the fires burned out.'

RELATED LINKS: • Photos: See more of South Dakota • South Dakota's rich history • More places to go in the U.S.

"These sculptures represent America, and their backdrop is the sacred Black Hills," says Mount Rushmore superintendent Gerard Baker, one of the few American Indian park superintendents in the country. (His brother, Paige Baker, is superintendent at nearby Badlands National Park.)

"Visitors are affected by this place, this solitude, which cannot be found in the halls of Congress or the many monuments of Washington, D.C. You find it here because of this beautiful natural cathedral and this powerful monument," he says.

Baker, who has spent the past 30 years at National Park Service posts in nine states, concedes that his heart is drawn to the Black Hills. He is a Mandan-Hidatsa and a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation), all of whom once used the Black Hills for hunting and ceremonies.

"The most moving thing for me is seeing a visitor look up at this Shrine of Democracy and watch the silent tears fall from their solemn face," he says. "You can see in their eyes, and feel in their persona, how much they love this country and treasure their freedoms."

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum carved from the ageless granite of the Black Hills between 1927 and 1941; he sought to preserve in stone the four presidents who contributed so much to the birth, growth, preservation and development of the United States.

The landmark's night lighting ceremony is among the most popular Park Service programs anywhere and it takes place nearly 70 years after Borglum died and the drilling and blasting stopped at Mount Rushmore.

Baker has worked to expand the interpretive offerings at the memorial, providing visitors with unfettered access to members of the Plains Indian tribes who visit the memorial, set up their tepees and tell their personal stories, as well as the heritage of their tribes.

"This provides an opportunity to reflect on the diverse cultural heritage of our nation, and visitors greet these stories with open arms and open ears," he says.

At the movies

America's appetite for one of its best-kept secrets — the Black Hills — was whetted again in December with the release of "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," another movie that uses the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore as a location. In fact, when the director and producers of "National Treasure" arrived, they rewrote portions of the script to allow for more filming in the Black Hills.

In their off hours, Baker said the film's cast and crew explored the Black Hills, a million-acre playground filled with its own national treasures. In a mountain range roughly the size of Delaware, some 4 million annual visitors encounter what is arguably the highest concentration of parks, monuments and memorials in the world, as well as dozens of private attractions touting everything from raptors, rattlesnakes and reptiles to mountain lions, wolves and grizzly bears.

Explore underground

Far below the ponderosa pine forests and grassy mountain meadows lies an underground wilderness so vast that contemporary explorers are only now beginning to understand its scope and complexity.

In an age when orbiting satellites have mapped the topography of the Earth's surface, from the tallest mountain peaks to its deepest watery recesses, the subterranean labyrinths of the Black Hills have become one of the last bastions of mystery in an uncharted terrain.

The first cave ever protected by the federal government, Wind Cave National Park, is in the southern Black Hills. Its companion, Jewel Cave National Monument, is 19 miles north near the town of Custer. Both NPS units offer caving tours for all skill levels.

With 140 miles of explored passageways, Jewel Cave ranks as second-longest in the world. Wind Cave, with 127.1 miles of explored corridor, is fourth-longest. But, in reality, no one truly knows where their passages end. In fact, studies indicate that mapped passageways constitute less than 5 percent of what exists in the two caves.

As many as 80,000 visitors enter Jewel Cave during a typical year, taking part in tours ranging from nature talks and lantern walks to four-hour Wild Cave adventures. Along the way, cavers are treated to some of the most rare specimens in the world, as well as more common stalactites, stalagmites and calcite crystals. Dozens of exceedingly rare hydro-magnesite balloons, "fragile, silvery little bubbles" that would pop from the mere touch of a finger, are found within Jewel and Wind caves.

Badlands National Park

Flanking the eastern slope of the Black Hills is Badlands National Park, a 244,000-acre moonscape that the native Lakota called "mako sica" or "land bad" a couple of centuries before white men first gazed upon it. When Gen. George Armstrong Custer first encountered the Badlands, he described them as "hell with the fires burned out."

With ragged ridgelines, chiseled spires and deep canyons ravaged by eons of wind and rain, this may be the most unusual terrain in the world. And its air is among the cleanest.

On the opposite side of the Black Hills, which spill over into extreme northeastern Wyoming, stands Devils Tower National Monument. This core of an ancient volcano was exposed by millions of years of erosion. It had its own time in the limelight with Steven Spielberg's 1977 release of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," starring Richard Dreyfuss.

Far earlier, Devils Tower was designated America's first national monument by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. American Indian legends tell of a giant bear that chased young maidens up a rock, leaving its claw marks in the ancient stone tower. Today, the tower is a favorite among experienced rock climbers.

Crazy Horse takes form

Nearly six decades after sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began carving the massive tribute to the legendary Lakota warrior known as Crazy Horse, his widow, Ruth, and seven of their 10 children carry on the work.

In 1948, Chief Henry Standing Bear asked Ziolkowski to create the Crazy Horse Memorial because, "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too."

When completed, the 641-foot-long, 563-foot-tall statue will rank as the largest work of art in the world and will depict Crazy Horse pointing over the head of his stallion to the Black Hills.

The mission of the memorial, which honors the culture, tradition and living heritage of all American Indians, recently was bolstered by a $5 million grant from South Dakota philanthropist T. Denny Sanford.

The Crazy Horse Memorial will mark the 60th anniversary of the first dynamite blast on the mountain on June 3. The memorial also will pay homage to the late sculptor on the 100th anniversary of his birth, Sept. 6, the day that Crazy Horse was killed in 1877.

Buffalo roaming

Just 20 minutes south of Crazy Horse, east of the town of Custer, is one of the largest buffalo herds on Earth. The 110-square-mile Custer State Park is so impressive that it likely would have been another national park if the state had not beaten the feds to the punch in 1919.

The park's scenic drives, including Iron Mountain Road and the Needles Highway, wind through ponderosa pines and pass giant finger-like granite spires that rise like sentinels from the forest floor.

Motorists will encounter gurgling streams and alpine lakes and discover four mountain resorts, campgrounds, naturalist programs, hiking trails, rock climbing, horseback riding and the largest buffalo herd — 1,500 bison — outside of Yellowstone National Park. And along the way, mountain tunnels will perfectly frame the faces on Mount Rushmore.

T.D. Griffith spent four years helping to raise $25 million for Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society, a nonprofit organization that is one of the country's oldest Park Service friend organizations.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

The Black Hills are in extreme western South Dakota and can be reached via I-90. The region is served by Rapid City Regional Airport, with direct daily flights from Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and Salt Lake City via United, Northwest, Delta and Frontier. For flight information, visit www.rapairport.org. Expect to pay about $375 round-trip airfare from Atlanta to Rapid City.

Information

Mount Rushmore National Memorial: 605-574-2523, www.nps.gov/moru.

Crazy Horse Memorial: 605-673-4681, www.crazyhorse.org.

Badlands National Park: 605-433-5361, www.nps.gov/badl.

Devils Tower National Monument: 307-467-5283, www.nps.gov/deto.

Wind Cave National Park: 605-745-4600, www.nps.gov/wica.

Jewel Cave National Monument: 605-673-2288, www.nps.gov/jeca.

Rapid City Convention and Visitors Bureau provides information on special events, local and regional attractions, package vacations and a downloadable visitors guide. 1-800-487-3223, www.visitrapidcity.com.

Other sites with travel information include www.blackhillsbadlands.com , www.travelsd.com and www.travelsd.com/onlyinsd.