Forgotten Presidents in the Black Hills Forest
These towering concrete presidential busts sit hidden in the woods near Lead, South Dakota—remnants of a once-ambitious roadside attraction called Presidents Park. Conceived by Texas artist David Adickes and opened in 2003, the park showcased forty-three sculptures, each roughly 20 feet tall, depicting every U.S. president from Washington through George W. Bush. The attraction struggled to draw visitors and closed by 2010, leaving the massive heads stranded in the forest. Over time, nature reclaimed the site, with fallen branches, moss, and pine needles collecting around the statues. Today, the figures stand as haunting relics of early-2000s Americana tourism and the impermanence of grand civic art in private hands.