Preparations for Trump and Mount Rushmore fireworks include First Amendment area for protesters

The National Park Service is designating an area for protesters as the agency prepares to welcome thousands of attendees, including President Donald Trump, to a Friday fireworks display at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in western South Dakota.

The display is the first at the mountain carving in six years. In 2020, the Park Service approved a fireworks show after then-Gov. Kristi Noem asked Trump in his first term to reinstate the event — despite concerns about potential wildfires sparking from falling fireworks embers, pollution and litter from exploded fireworks, and the opposition of Lakota people from whom the surrounding Black Hills were taken through broken treaties.

A Native American-led protest along the road leading to Mount Rushmore during the 2020 event resulted in physical clashes with law enforcement, ending in arrests of protesters. Charges were later dropped.

This year, the Park Service has designated a 100-foot-long First Amendment area for protesters along Highway 16A at the edge of the town of Keystone, about 2 miles below the entrance to the memorial.

The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office will have an increased law enforcement presence throughout Keystone and other towns near Mount Rushmore. It’s also increasing patrols throughout the Black Hills, according to Patrol Capt. Casey Kenrick.

“We always increase our staffing in those areas,” Kenrick said. “Obviously, with the fireworks and it being the 250th anniversary of the country, we’re expecting a bigger draw of people to the area.”

Most of the agency’s focus is on the influx of visitors to nearby towns and traffic control. The memorial will be closed to the public starting late Thursday night. Only the 4,800 ticketholders for the fireworks show — who obtained their tickets months ago in an online lottery — can get into the memorial Friday.

“We’re expecting that to cause some traffic delays and traffic headaches, just because we all know about it, but people from outside of the area might not necessarily know that it’s going on or be aware of where the roadblocks are,” Kenrick said.

The department will also monitor protests.

Nick Tilsen, CEO of Rapid City-based Indigenous advocacy group NDN Collective, was a leader of the protests in 2020 and was one of the people arrested. He said his group is “boycotting” the Trump visit this time.

“We’re not participating in any of that,” Tilsen said.

Since 2020, Tilsen said, Native American activists in South Dakota and elsewhere have “chalked up wins” through community organizing. He pointed to a jury trial victory in a lawsuit against owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City who were accused of discriminating against Native American guests, a company’s withdrawal from an exploratory graphite drilling project in a Black Hills meadow used for spiritual ceremonies, and a 20-year ban on mining activity in the Pactola Reservoir and Rapid Creek watershed area of the Black Hills.

“It’s one of the reasons, strategically, that we’re not doing a flashy action when Trump comes to the Black Hills,” Tilsen said. “Quite frankly, we don’t need to feed into his narrative.”

Separately, Tilsen has also helped launch the Day One Movement, described as “the beginning of a new future” on Sunday, the day after the nation’s 250th birthday. The movement includes advocacy for returning lands taken from Native Americans and providing reparations to African American people for slavery, among other goals.

Wildfire risk

Law enforcement authorities are also preparing to help with evacuations in the case of a wildfire.

Wildland firefighting personnel are at full staffing, working seven days a week to support fire suppression, according to Krista Landreneau with the Black Hills National Forest, which surrounds Mount Rushmore.

Landreneau also said there will be “robust aerial support” in the form of two helicopters and an airplane, to help with spotting wildfires and access points for ground crews, fire retardant deployment and coordinating aircraft in the airspace above a wildfire.

Wildfires can start when fireworks embers fall on dry vegetation. Parts of Pennington County — where Mount Rushmore is located — are in severe or extreme drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

South Dakota’s Department of Tourism entered into a $700,000 contract in April with California-based Pyro Spectaculars to produce the fireworks show, and for “lighting elements that can be utilized if environmental conditions require an alternative to fireworks,” according to the department.

Few details about that alternative have been publicly released.

“If an alternative to fireworks is required, the lighting presentation is designed to illuminate Mount Rushmore National Memorial in a patriotic display, providing visitors with a meaningful visual experience accompanied by an Americana soundtrack,” Department of Tourism Public Relations Director Katlyn Svendsen said in an emailed statement.

A drone light show was considered, but the National Park Service dismissed it from further study as an alternative to the fireworks display, according to the service’s environmental assessment for this year’s event.

Livestreams available

The fireworks event is officially known as South Dakota’s Freedom 250 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration, in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday. The fireworks show is expected to start at 9:30 p.m. Mountain time, preceded by keynote remarks from Trump. A Freedom 250 press release said Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum — the former governor of North Dakota — and South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden will also speak. U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Mike Rounds, both of South Dakota, have said they will attend.

Livestreams of the event will be available on C-SPAN and on the Travel South Dakota website. Watch parties are planned in Rapid City at Main Street Square and the Hotel Alex Johnson, and at the Custer Beacon in Custer.

Trump also visited the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, on Wednesday.

South Dakota Searchlight’s John Hult contributed to this report.