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Buried under layers of limestone and sandstone hundreds of feet thick, Jewel Cave is more ancient than South Dakota's Black Hills, which adorn the landscape above. The cave lay undiscovered until 1900, when two brothers, miners and part-time cowboys, felt a strong wind coming from a small hole in the ground at the base of a cliff. When they enlarged the opening, they found passages filled with the glittering calcite crystals that give the cave its name. Although its discoverers marveled at the cave's natural beauty, few believed the find to be significant. Even after Pres. Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Jewel Cave a national monument in 1908, the government was unwilling to fund development. Americans then took up motoring, roads improved, and tourists flocked to the once remote Black Hills. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps created facilities to accommodate the influx. Yet it was not until an adventurous couple from the East received permission to explore and map the cave that its true importance was realized. They and fellow cavers who accompanied them or followed in their footsteps discovered a massive multilayered labyrinth. Jewel Cave now is the second-longest cave in the world, and the exploration continues.

With the opening of the Black Hills region of South Dakota due to the discovery of gold in 1874, the business-savvy founders of Rapid City, in 1876, saw the potential of this area as a focus for urban development. It was nestled within the beauty of the Black Hills, rich in natural resources, adjacent to a viable water source and in line with major trade routes. Thus, a thriving commercial district evolved, the architecture of which reflects the distinctive periods of a community's growth from a frontier "hay camp" town to a regional metropolitan center. The built environment of Rapid City embodies and exemplifies the skill of local craftsman in interpreting the prevailing stylistic trends, the utilization of local materials, and other cultural influences. All of these elements provide Rapid City with an identifiable character and sense of place that is, clearly and uniquely, South Dakota.