The story
Storybook Island opened August 16, 1959, a project of businessman Merle Gunderson and the Rapid City Rotary Club, built and funded through community donations rather than a commercial developer — and free to enter ever since. Its creekside setting nearly destroyed it in the June 1972 flood, which washed away most of its structures — the only time the park has ever closed. Volunteers rebuilt it, and it still runs seasonally on donations.
Everything that was here
- 1959–present · still open
Storybook IslandPark
A free storybook-themed children's park built entirely on donated labor in 1959 has closed only once in its history — when the 1972 flood washed away most of its play areas.
See the map in 1960 →
Did you know?
Founded in 1959 as a civic/volunteer project, not a commercial theme park.
The only year it has ever closed was 1972, after the flood.
It has been free admission since 1959 and still runs on visitor donations.
Nearby history
Rapid City Indian School (now Oyate Health Center)
3200 Canyon Lake Drive · 783 m away
A campus built in 1898 to strip Lakota, Cheyenne, and Crow children of their language and culture spent the mid-20th cen
Dinosaur Park
940 Skyline Dr · 1.5 km away
West Boulevard Historic District
803 West Boulevard · 2.2 km away
Rapid City's gold-boom elite platted a 190-foot-wide boulevard with a landscaped median in 1885, and more than 600 of th
Canyon Lake Dam & the 1972 Rapid City Flood
Canyon Lake Park, Canyon Lake Drive · 2.7 km away
On the night of June 9, 1972, a debris-clogged dam above downtown Rapid City gave way and sent a wall of water through t
Art Alley
Alley between 6th & 7th St (Main to St Joseph) · 2.9 km away
What began as unsanctioned canvases hung on downtown brick walls in the early 2000s grew into a permit-managed, constant
Hotel Alex Johnson
523 6th Street · 2.9 km away
A railroad executive's Tudor-Revival skyscraper hotel broke ground one day before work started on Mount Rushmore, and it
Know something about Storybook Island? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?
Add it on the mapSourceshttps://storybookisland.org