Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 125­142, 2003
 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
0160-7383/03/$30.00
www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(02)00035-X
TOURISM AND NATIONALISM
Michael Pretes
Australian National University, Australia
Abstract: The viewing of heritage sights by domestic tourists is a key aspect in the formation
and maintenance of a national identity, especially when nationalism is understood as an
"imagined community." Tourist sights may function in the same way as do museums in
Benedict Anderson's classic study of nationalism: as places presenting the defining character-
istics of nationhood and displaying historical evidence of its existence. Using three examples
from the American state of South Dakota--Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Wall Drug
Store, and Rapid City Dinosaur Park--this article argues that, despite their recent creation,
each provides a foundational history and "archeology" upon which a national identity can
be built. Keywords: American West, South Dakota, nationalism, heritage, monuments. 
2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Résumé: Tourisme et nationalisme. La visite des attractions touristiques du patrimoine
national par des touristes du pays est un aspect clé de la formation et du maintien d'une
identité nationale, surtout quand le nationalisme se comprend comme une "communauté
imaginée". Les attractions touristiques peuvent fonctionner de la me^me fac¸on que les musées
dans l'étude classique du nationalisme par Benedict Anderson: ce sont des lieux qui présent-
ent les caractéristiques déterminantes d'un nationalité et qui font une preuve historique de
son existence. En utilisant trois exemples de l'état américain de Dakota du Sud: le Mémorial
National du Mont Rushmore, le Wall Drugstore et le Parc des Dinosaures de Rapid City,
l'article soutient que, malgré leur création récente, chacun offre une histoire fondamentale
et une "archéologie" sur laquelle on peut construire une identité nationale. Mots-clés: Ouest
américain, Dakota du Sud, nationalisme, patrimoine, monuments.  2003 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
One of the odd things about the arrival of the era of the modern
nation-state was that for a state to prove it was modern, it helped if it
could also prove it was ancient. A nation that wanted to show it was
up to date and deserved a place among the company of modern states
needed, among other things, to produce a past (Mitchell 2001:212).
Heritage sites, representing a nation's past, are an important
element in the construction of a national identity (Johnson 1995). Sites
of significance help to create a common identity, or "imagined com-
munity," among a diverse population. A shared identity is an official
goal of countries comprised of many different immigrant cultures. A
Michael Pretes is with the Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific
and Asian Studies, Australian National University (Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. Email
<mpretes@coombs.anu.edu.au>). His research focuses on the development problems of mar-
ginal regions, with a particular interest in the role of tourism in development and on the
invention of touristic sights. His fieldwork on these topics extends to North and South Amer-
ica, Australia, and Africa.
125
126 NATIONALISM
hegemonic discourse of nationalism may manifest itself in tourism
sights, both public and private, encouraging tourists to embrace
national goals. These sites may be official government-sponsored con-
structions with such clear aims, but may also be privately-established
enterprises that play on tourists' own national feelings. In the United
States, both government and private resources helped shape a com-
mon "American" identity from diverse immigrant backgrounds. Heri-
tage sites have played an important role in this identity formation.
This article explores the links between nationalism and tourism by
examining three sights in the American state of South Dakota: Mount
Rushmore National Memorial, Wall Drug Store, and Rapid City Dino-
saur Park. Each attraction disseminates a hegemonic discourse of
national identity and imagined community. They date from the 20th
century, yet are analogous to ancient ruins (such as Egyptian Pyramids,
Angkor Wat, and Parthenon) in that they represent an earlier, Ur-
civilization that is still partially present. The analysis follows the views
of scholars of nationalism, including Anderson (1991), Nairn (1977),
and Kammen (1991), who argue that there exists a common urge to
create a national identity to overcome diversity and difference within
the nation-state.
The article begins by reviewing the meaning of nationalism, drawing
especially on Benedict Anderson's concept of the nation as an
"imagined community" and the role that tourism plays in creating this
community. After a brief overview of tourism in South Dakota, the
focus shifts to the three attractions, each of which represents a parti-
cular facet--political, economic, and scientific--of American national-
ism. The conclusion notes how a hegemonic discourse of nationalism
is an essential feature of each of these ostensibly tourism sights, and
how visiting them may help to create and strengthen a national ident-
ity.
TOURISM AND NATIONALISM
Heritage ... is the chief focus of patriotism (Lowenthal 1998:2).
Nationalism, specifically in the form of state-building, is "the attempt
to assimilate or incorporate culturally distinctive territories in a given
state" (Hechter 2000:15). It is the result of the conscious efforts of
central rulers to make a multicultural population homogenous, and
to form a single "nation" out of this diversity.
Anderson's classic study of nationalism defines the nation as an
"imagined community":
It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nations will
never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear
of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion
... it is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual
inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is
always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship (1991:6­7,
emphasis in original).
127MICHAEL PRETES
Nairn argues that the development of nationalism brings with it an
attachment to custom and tradition. It encourages societies to:
Propel themselves forward to a certain sort of goal (industrialization,
prosperity, equality with other peoples, etc.) by a certain sort of
regression--by looking inwards, drawing more deeply upon their
indigenous resources, resurrecting past folk-heroes and myths about
themselves and so on (1977:348).
The creation of this imagined community requires the establishment
of national institutions to disseminate a feeling of common identity.
Anderson identifies three key institutions used by nationalist move-
ments to achieve their aims: censuses, maps, and museums. Censuses
define aspects of the population, determining who is included in the
nation and who is defined as an outsider. Maps delimit the territorial
extent of the nation. Museums, giving the nation a history and sense
of common heritage, present the defining characteristics of nation-
hood and display historical evidence of its existence. They also mani-
fest the foundation myth of the nation, as do archeological sites and
reconstructions, with which they are closely connected (Anderson
1991:178­185). Sights are likewise agents for disseminating a sense of
national identity. As Lenoir and Ross note, "Tourism, in effect, makes
a place into a museum" (1996:374).
Archeological sites give each nation a deep history and connection
to the land, thus performing the same function as museums. Anderson
suggests that archeological practice takes four steps: first, the writing
of reports; second, the production of illustrated books; third, logoiz-
ation or the display of the archeological image on postcards, postage
stamps, and so forth; and fourth, the market or the use of the image
as a marketing device (1991:182). Tourism is perhaps a fifth stage,
when tourists begin to make pilgrimages to "archeological" sites. The
United States had no "American" archeological sites (Native American
sites were not considered as carrying an appropriate national message
to a domestic audience, though used as American symbols overseas).
Therefore, "archeological" sites had to be created. Sites such as Mount
Rushmore become analogous to the Pyramids in Egypt, the Parthenon
in Greece, or the Borobudur in Indonesia as expressions of national
identity, heritage, and foundation. These monuments are likewise
depicted on currency, postage stamps, and other official products, as
well as in commercial advertising, entertainment, and the media, and
represent something shared by all citizens, helping to popularize a
hegemonic nationalist message of inclusion. An especially detailed
analysis of the role of archeological sites in the formation of national
identity can be found in Zerubavel (1995).
Tourism sights, like censuses, maps, and museums, may project a
hegemonic, or official, discourse of nationalism. As Smith notes, forms
of economic development, including tourism, can serve the interests
of a national elite by:
Stabilizing their dominant position through the creation or expansion
of the popular affiliation to an historically "real" national identity and
[by] encouraging socioeconomically "divergent" groups to adopt life-
128 NATIONALISM
styles embedded in and geared to world system commoditization
(1997:200).
In the United States, nationalism is a goal of the hegemonic political
elite; it reflects the "political exigencies of the moment" (Levinson
1998:5). Spillman's (1997) study of nationalism shows how centers of
cultural production promote a central value system (1997:34­47). In
the 19th century, these centers of cultural production were the "well
educated Eastern industrial elite," though in the next century they
became increasingly associated with the national government
(1997:39­49). Spillman's discussion of the American bicentennial cel-
ebrations notes how the four themes of the founding moment, political
culture, diversity, and spectacle dominated the hegemonic discourse
of nationalism and national identity. A unified national identity can
be created in a diverse country because diversity itself becomes an aspect
of national identity (1997:126­130). The sharing of a common spec-
tacle helps transcend subnational difference. In the United States, cul-
tural production--in such forms as celebrations, monuments, and
sights--is essential in creating a national identity because the country
had no real nationalist political movements, unlike places such as Fin-
land or Greece, or in the post-colonial world. Though the United
States had unifying-nationalist goals and policies, beginning especially
with the presidency of James Monroe in 1817, this was not the same
as in Europe, where "nations," such as the Finns or the Greeks,
struggled for statehood against a dominating "foreign" power, and
where the basis for nationhood was a shared ethnic and linguistic
identity.
The creation of a national identity operates through the use of "guid-
ing fictions", which are commonly held beliefs that shape people's
attachment to the nation. According to historian Shumway, "The guid-
ing fictions of nations cannot be proven, and indeed are often fabri-
cations as artificial as literary fictions. Yet they are necessary to give
individuals a sense of nation, peoplehood, collective identity, and
national purpose" (1991:xi). These "official" fictions are disseminated
in schools, textbooks, public statements, monuments, festivals, and
official documents, and include the American ideals of the melting
pot, the American dream, progress, manifest destiny, westward expan-
sion as a civilizing process, and representative democracy. Guiding fic-
tions provide a sense of self, purpose, and community. When produced
by an elite, they reflect a hegemonic discourse of power:
Privileged members of the American hierarchy, bent on maintaining
their economic and social class advantages, attempted to appropriate
the symbols of America almost from their inception and use them to
stimulate an illusion of inclusivity (Boime 1998:8).
Boime's study of American icons shows that they "tend to be
mediated by, and emblematic of, the operation and circulation of the
ideological practices of dominant economic and political formations"
(1998:xiii). While a unifying nationalism may be contested, sights that
reflect and support national ideology still contain the nationalizing
129MICHAEL PRETES
guiding fictions of their creators. This article considers attractions rep-
resenting political, economic, and scientific guiding fictions.
In the American West (typically defined as that part of the United
States lying to the west of 100° W), despite great diversity and differ-
ence, a common national identity was shaped--albeit sometimes
resisted--because of shared history and geography, and despite differ-
ent readings of the same history. As historian Limerick (1987:292)
notes, "Western groups, for all their differences, took part in the same
story." Aquila observes how the American West as depicted in popular
culture helps unify national identity, despite its earlier association with
Anglo-Saxon hegemony:
The pop culture West also served as a mirror and a matrix for Amer-
ican attitudes toward gender, race, ethnicity, and class ... The pop
culture West frequently served as a metaphor for the superiority of
white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture, idealizing middle-class Anglo
males at the expense of women, new immigrants, Hispanics, Indians,
and other people of color ... [yet] the pop culture West was never
monolithic. The malleability of the mythic West guaranteed its con-
tinued success ... The pop culture West has survived, providing a unifying
symbol for Americans divided by race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, or region
(1996:12­13, emphasis added).
Anthropologist Bruner's examination of the New Salem Historic Site
in Illinois is also of interest. He notes that tourists in New Salem are
involved in five activities: "(1) learning about their past, (2) playing
with time frames and enjoying the encounters, (3) consuming nostal-
gia for a simpler bygone era, ... (4) buying the idea of progress, of
how far we have advanced, ... [and] (5) celebrating America"
(1994:398). While each individual tourist is free to construct and apply
his or her own meanings on the sight, Bruner notes that certain pat-
terns recur, notably the consumption of nostalgia, the idea of progress,
and an image of traditional America--in other words the guiding fic-
tions of the nation. These patterns are also those found in the three
South Dakota attractions.
Tourism in South Dakota
The whole settlement of the Black Hills might well come under the
head of tourist business, for it consisted of a series of incursions by
strangers (Clark 1952a:196).
The state of South Dakota, located in the northcentral United States,
contains virtually all the elements of American Western mythology.
Most of these elements--cowboys, Indians, miners, fur trappers, the
steam railroad, saloons and casino gambling--are represented in
South Dakota's two most touristic regions, the Black Hills and the Bad-
lands, both in the western part of the state. The landscape itself is
typically "Western"; at least it is in accordance with the depiction of
the American West in film and other media. This part of South Dakota
was one of the last parts of the conterminous United States to be
130 NATIONALISM
explored by whites--not only was it remote, but until the 1870s it was
Indian land. It was not until gold was discovered in 1874 that an influx
of Euro-Americans began.
Railroads, which were essential in introducing tourism into the
American West, came late to this part of South Dakota: "Railroad travel
in the West manifested the power of American wealth, creating a pat-
tern in which the act of tourism affirmed American society" (Rothman
1998:43). The status of Indian lands made access by rail difficult. With
the dispossession of increasingly large tracts of Indian land, the western
parts of South Dakota were slowly developed for tourism. One of the
most important early sites was the town of Hot Springs, which was fam-
ous for the eponymous mineral baths and as a center for divorce
(Miller 1994). This early tourism was largely the preserve of the wealthy
classes and reflected their tastes: hotels and resorts were modeled after
those of the East and of Europe (Pomeroy 1957:3­30). It was later,
with the rise of the automobile, that Western tourism began to assume
its "Wild West" form (Pomeroy 1957:31ff.). The automobile made tour-
ism accessible to the middle classes, and their tastes became established
(Jakle 1985:140­145).
The tourism boom in western South Dakota began with the auto-
mobile (Athearn 1986:143). The Great Depression coincided with
increased automobility on the part of Americans, and prominent South
Dakotans, such as Governor and later Senator Peter Norbeck, realized
the automobile's potential for increasing tourism. Aggressive pro-
motion on the part of the state did indeed have the desired effect,
beginning with the visit of President Calvin Coolidge in 1927. Tourism
in western South Dakota is today heavily dependent on automobile
and bus traffic, while rail based traffic is non-existent. As middle (and
later working ) classes are the primary targets of nationalist messages,
the tourism discourse was closely tied to the rise of the automobile.
Mount Rushmore: Politics
It started as an idea to draw sightseers (Mount Rushmore Home
Page 2001).
The single largest attraction in the state of South Dakota, and the
engine that drives the image of the state, is the Mount Rushmore
National Memorial in the Black Hills, a monumental sculpture of four
American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham
Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. So dominating is the monument
that it is essentially on its own, accountable for most of the tourism in
South Dakota. The spin-off effects of Mount Rushmore, in the sense
that it lends its aura to other attractions and makes them desirable
and touristic in the first place, cannot be over-emphasized.
The genesis of Mount Rushmore took place in the 20s, when state
authorities, realizing the potential benefits to be derived from touristic
automobility, decided to create a spectacular attraction that would
bring attention, and tourists, to their state (Fite 1952:9). Establishing
131MICHAEL PRETES
an attraction was only part of the overall strategy: in 1925 South Dakota
constructed the State Cement Plant in Rapid City, which provided
material for the roads that would bring in the tourists (Schell
1975:383). The original concept for Mount Rushmore is attributed to
South Dakota State Historian Doane Robinson, who in the 20s
espoused the idea of a monumental sculpture of Wild West figures in
the Black Hills. Such a monument would become a major destination
for out-of-staters. In 1924, the state invited the renowned Idaho sculp-
tor, Gutzon Borglum, to undertake the project. Borglum, who had
been working on the Stone Mountain Memorial in Georgia, but who
was having artistic and other differences with the sponsors of that pro-
ject, accepted the invitation. He rejected, however, the Wild West ima-
gery suggested, and proposed a more national theme, namely that of
great United States presidents (Karolevitz 1975:273; Smith 1985:32).
This theme would help to de-marginalize the West, strengthening its
links with the rest of the nation (Fite 1952:26).
The selection of the four presidents whose visages grace the moun-
tainside was relatively uncomplicated. George Washington, as Revol-
utionary War hero, the nation's first president, and "the father of his
country," was an obvious choice. Likewise Abraham Lincoln, who held
the nation together during its most devastating internal conflict, the
Civil War, and whose abolition of slavery made moves towards equality
among all Americans. Thomas Jefferson, the architect of the Declar-
ation of Independence, and the prime mover behind the Louisiana
Purchase (which doubled the country's size) and the Lewis and Clark
expedition (which helped initiate westward expansion), was also
accepted with little debate. More controversial was the selection of
Theodore Roosevelt. Both Gutzon Borglum and Senator Norbeck were
enthusiastic supporters of Roosevelt, despite criticisms that his status
did not measure up to the other three presidents. Borglum and Nor-
beck were ultimately successful by arguing that Roosevelt's sponsorship
of the Panama Canal (which linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans),
his more general role in the country's imperial expansion, and his
championship of the "average" citizen against the corporate trusts
earned him a place on Mount Rushmore. The four selected presidents
would thus represent the nation's foundation, preservation, and conti-
nental and imperial expansion. (The mountain itself was named after
Charles E. Rushmore, a New York attorney and "representative of East-
ern capital" (Clark 1952b:221)).
South Dakota state officials accepted the "great presidents" idea, and
work began on the monument shortly thereafter. Progress was slow,
primarily due to a shortage of funding. A big boost came in 1927,
when President Calvin Coolidge, at the invitation of Senator Norbeck,
established his "Summer White House" at the State Game Lodge in
Custer State Park, very near to Mount Rushmore. Coolidge's presence
had an instant effect: "the presence of the President of the United
States in the park and at his working offices in Rapid City high school
focused national attention on the Hills. In effect, the emergence of
the state's vital tourism industry can be traced to that historic visitation"
(Karolevitz 1975:251). Coolidge promised federal financing for the
132 NATIONALISM
project, which, together with increased private funding, allowed the
finishing touches to be placed on the memorial by 1941. As Bedeau
(1994:34) points out, several of the private donors were railway and oil
companies with vested interests in fostering tourism in South Dakota.
Coolidge himself was impressed by the Wild West ethos, at least by
its sartorial and millinerian aspects:
... he wore a ten-gallon hat at the Belle Fourche roundup and an
Ogalala Sioux headdress at The Deadwood Days of `76 show. Six thou-
sand people watched his adoption into the Sioux as "Leading
Eagle".... The press reported that the West had taught the President
how to play and how to enjoy the wide-open spaces, that he enjoyed
wearing boots and ten-gallon hat in the living room.... (Pomeroy
1957:181).
The taste expressed by the president was disseminated through the
media, and further popularized Western fashion. In essence, Mount
Rushmore worked according to plan:
In 1939 ... a potential new source of revenue--the tourism industry--
seemingly blossomed overnight as Americans everywhere indicated
their intention to make up for the unlamented stay-at-home years. An
estimated one million auto travelers came to the state, with their pri-
mary destination being the Black Hills and a phenomenal attraction
called the Rushmore Memorial (Karolevitz 1975:271).
Historians have generally praised the monument as vital to the interests
of the state. Schell, whose History of South Dakota is perhaps the stan-
dard text, grandiloquently notes that "the mountain sculpturing, high
up among the clouds, may be regarded as a symbol of greatness and
durability which embodies the dreams, ambitions, and accomplish-
ments of the American people" (1975:398). Smith's The Carving of
Mount Rushmore describes Mount Rushmore as "not only America's gre-
atest and most enduring monument, [but] all of mankind's as well"
(1985:13). Pomeroy is a bit more sober in his assessment:
There was no reason why Gutzon Borglum should have carved the
faces of four presidents on Mount Rushmore ... except that South
Dakota was willing not only to interpose no objection but to help raise
the money in order to attract tourists ... (1957:211­212).
Pomeroy, a Californian, was aware that Mount Rushmore could have
been carved anywhere and that it did not particularly reflect the history
or heritage of the West. Nevertheless, it helps to unify national and
regional identities and establish the West as the quintessential "Amer-
ican" region: "The West alone seems to be a national possession. Its
experience speaks for all Americans, not just for those who live there"
(Athearn 1986:271).
Sculptor Borglum himself perhaps best stated the meaning and sig-
nificance of Mount Rushmore to Americans. The monument would be:
... so inspiring that people from all over America would be drawn to
come and take a look and go home better citizens .... My dream has
come true ... There, on the mountain top, as near to Heaven as we
could make it, we have carved portraits of our leaders, that posterity
133MICHAEL PRETES
and civilization may see hundreds of thousands of years hence what
manner of men our leaders were, with a prayer and a belief that there
among the clouds they may stand forever, where wind and rain alone
shall wear them away (quoted in Karolevitz 1975:274­275).
This is, even by American standards, laying it on a bit thick. The paral-
lels with totalitarian art are striking: Mount Rushmore was state-sup-
ported and financed, monumental in size and ambition, portrays
"great leaders," and--as even Borglum admits--is supportive of state
ideology and values and contains theological appeals. It also functions
as a national shrine. As Golomstock (1990:plates) notes, "The cer-
emonial portrait of the leader (in painting and in monumental
sculpture) occupied the most important position in the hierarchy of
genres of totalitarian art." Mosse also considers stone monuments to
be the most important public manifestation of national myths, helping
to condition the populace to new political forms (1975:8, 47­72).
That an average of 2.5 million people visit, via car or bus, Mount
Rushmore each year suggests that its image resonates strongly with
American tourists. Why is this so? Mount Rushmore acts as a national
icon. To emphasize this purely symbolic function, the memorial must,
like Barthes's (1979:4) Eiffel Tower, be useless; that is, it must have
no productive function. The meaning of Mount Rushmore is socially
dictated and is projected onto the sculpture; the meaning is not
inherent or fixed: it can change over time and be understood differ-
ently by different groups.
The Mount Rushmore visitors' center is an important part of the
overall memorial. It provides viewing decks (both indoor and outdoor)
and sundry amenities (restaurants, restrooms, gift shops, and film
sales) and interpretation (which is really symbolification, or encoding of
a guiding fiction). Very little of the interpretive material at the center
focuses on the presidents memorialized: it is sufficient to know that
they were "great leaders." Conversely, its interpretive materials are
relentless in explaining the history of the monument, rather than the
monumentalized (in semiological terms, one could speak of an emphasis
on the signifier, rather than the signified). The display text focuses on
the vision and construction of the monument: the subjects themselves
are less interesting. Tourists learn that the faces depicted are 60 to 70
ft (18­20 m) high, and that if the sculptures had bodies they would
be nearly 470 ft (143 m) in height. They learn all about the number
of person-years it took to complete the project, the risks involved, the
tons of rock hauled away (450,000 tons). Mount Rushmore, like other
shrines, has become a place where "the memorializing structures were
equal to if not more important than the history remembered" (Jakle
1985:291). The emphasis on the memorializing structures points to
Mount Rushmore as a triumph over nature, as evidenced through the
focus on engineering, the obsession with the difficulties of the project,
and the beauty of nature improved.
Mount Rushmore is clearly a shrine and repository of signification,
but what exactly does it signify? President Franklin Roosevelt called it
the "Shrine of Democracy." The monument can be read differently by
each viewer, but in the intentions of its creators and sponsors, Mount
134 NATIONALISM
Rushmore signifies American Values and the American Way: it transforms
these intangible fictions into a somatological, visual, and consumable
form. It becomes an icon, a shrine, an object of pilgrimage allowing
the viewer to consume a nationalist understanding of what it means
to be an American. The monument becomes a focus for American
collective memory. A visit to Mount Rushmore can make the tourist
feel proud and happy about America, though the monumentality of
the sculptures can dwarf the tourist, making him or her feel tiny and
insignificant in the face (literally) of the "great leaders," who are also
father figures. Monk has noted how a message of male power is
expressed through monuments (1999:154­155). The meaning of
Mount Rushmore is constructed by carving the visages of known "great
leaders," endowing them with values disseminated through popular
culture. The stories of George Washington chopping down cherry trees
and crossing rivers to attack enemy mercenaries are but two examples
of how values such as honesty and fortitude are associated with the
person, then with his monument, and then with the nation in general.
The same applies to the values and attributes associated with the three
other presidents.
Not all tourists to Mount Rushmore accept its hegemonic discourse.
That the monument is constructed on land originally belonging to
Native Americans, notably the Lakota (Sioux), and which was uncer-
emoniously alienated, is rarely mentioned. It is certainly not celebrated
in interpretive displays. It is doubtful that Native Americans have the
same impressions of Mount Rushmore. They are, however--in an
excellent example of mimesis--fighting fire with fire: another, much
larger, sculpture of the Lakota Chief Crazy Horse is under construction
not far away. In a further irony, the sculpture will be sited just north
of the town of Custer. The Native American reading of Mount Rush-
more is quite different from that of white Americans. Likewise, Asian-
Americans may take differing views of the monument. The contempor-
ary artist and Hong Kong immigrant Tseng Kwong Chi, for example,
in his photo Mount Rushmore, South Dakota (1986) depicts himself as a
tiny figure in the foreground of the monument, perhaps referring to
"the powerlessness of Asian Americans" (Lippard 1999:35). Though
tourists are presented with a hegemonic discourse of nationalism,
emphasizing inclusion in the American polity, they are free to reject
this discourse and construct their own reading of the site. These con-
flicting discourses are not part of the interpretative displays.
Borglum himself thought that Mount Rushmore would rank with
the great works of Egypt, Greece, and Rome (Fite 1952:188). Though
the monument was completed only in 1939, the sculptor and his back-
ers understood Mount Rushmore as an "archeological" site, as a place
representing a foundational myth that can be used to create an
imagined community. As the historian Fite noted, "The one who views
this monument sees more than four stone faces. He sees and feels
independence, freedom, justice, equality, self-reliance, individuality,
and other qualities which have characterized America ..." (1952:235).
Further, as Smith observes, "monumental architecture has, for
millennia, enhanced the prestige of the elite and serves as visible
135MICHAEL PRETES
representations of progress, prosperity and power" (1997:204). At
Mount Rushmore, the tourist is brought face to face with the guiding
fictions of America.
Wall Drug Store: Economics
The name Wall Drug strikes a familiar note of horror with anyone
who's driven the interstate system west of the Appalachians or east of
the Rockies with a back seat full of screaming children. "Mommy,
Daddy, lookit the funny signs! Can we stop huh please huh can we
just for a minute puh-leeeeeze?" Those who have been denied this
experience may still have heard of Wall Drug if they've visited the
North or South Poles, for even at the ends of the earth, Wall Drug
has posted signs advertising the mileage to itself
(Roadsideamerica.com 2002).
Wall Drug Store (commonly known simply as Wall Drug) is probably
the best known drug store (a "chemist shop" outside North America)
in the Midwest, perhaps the best known in the country, and just poss-
ibly the best known in the world. The store is one of the most
important attractions in South Dakota, and certainly one of its most
influential commercial enterprises. As Kirby, Smith and Wilkins
humorously note, "Over fifty Minuteman missile silos surround Wall,
making Wall Drug the best-defended tourist attraction in the world"
(1992:269).
Wall Drug is located in the small town of Wall (population 800), not
far from Badlands National Park. It is indeed a drug store, though it
is also much more than that. Ted and Dorothy Hustead founded it in
1931. As Bryson observed:
Buying a drugstore in a town in South Dakota with a population of
three hundred people at the height of the Great Depression must be
about as stupid a business decision as you can make. But Hustead
realized that people driving across South Dakota were so delirious with
boredom that they would stop and look at almost anything. So he put
up a lot of gimmicks like a life-size dinosaur, a 1908 Hupmobile, a
stuffed buffalo, and a big pole with arrows giving the distances and
directions from Wall Drug to places all over the world, like Paris and
Hong Kong and Timbuktu. Above all, he erected hundreds of bill-
boards all along the highway between Sioux Falls and the Black Hills,
and filled the store with the most exotic and comprehensive assort-
ment of tourist crap human eyes have ever seen, and pretty soon
people were pouring in (1989:291).
The Husteads were able to turn their "stupid business decision" into an
entrepreneurial success through clever use of image and signification.
When the federal highway system was organized, US Highways 14 and
16 (the principal routes from the East to the Black Hills), were routed
through Wall. The Husteads put up signs saying "Free Ice Water" to
encourage people to stop in. This was a phenomenal success--not too
surprising given the dry, dusty, and desolate landscape of western
136 NATIONALISM
South Dakota--and business boomed. Wall Drug still serves free ice
water, to the tune of 20,000 glasses per day in summer. Following the
success of their ice water promotion, the Husteads advertised coffee
for 5 cents per cup--a price that remains in effect even today. The
Husteads further expanded their use of signage not only by placing
signs along South Dakota highways, but also by encouraging their cus-
tomers to carry signs and bumper stickers to exotic places, giving the
distance in miles or kilometers to Wall Drug. Such signs have been
placed in Antarctica, on Easter Island, on 20 London double-decker
buses, in 6,000 Paris bistros, at every major railway station in Kenya,
and there were 127 signs in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War
(People Weekly 1986; USA Today 1985). Wall Drug signs and billboards
once blanketed large tracts of America before Lady Bird Johnson's
Highway Beautification Act, and many still remain in South Dakota
itself. Most of these signs are of painted wood, for as Ted's son Bill
once noted, "Painted wood isn't as fun to shoot as enameled metal"
(Roadsideamerica.com 2002).
From its humble beginnings, Wall Drug has expanded to include,
among other things, and within the same structure, a number of res-
taurants, a soda fountain, a Western art gallery, several Western cloth-
ing stores, a number of jewelry stores, a book store, card shop, shoe
store, camera and photo supply store, chapel, harness shop, poster
shop, pottery and iron shed, rock shop, museum, and several "sou-
venir" shops. Interior corridors and an outside yard area contain
covered wagons, antique automobiles, stuffed animals, music boxes,
sculptures (including a scale replica of Mount Rushmore), a mechan-
ical cowboy orchestra, wooden Indians, a six foot high rabbit, at least
17 other (sic) "life size historical figures," and even a large fiberglass
specimen of that perennial Western favorite, the Jackalope (Jennings
1990). Wall Drug even has a museum to itself, consisting of a replica
of the original 1930s store. The Husteads have resisted opening more
stores and instead prefer to concentrate all their operations in one
place: "Once you branch out, you lose your uniqueness. Our main
drive has been to make Wall Drug a tourism center," noted the late
Bill Hustead (USA Today 1985), who possessed a canny understanding
of hyperreality.
Wall Drug is located on Main Street and it maintains a decidedly
Western theme throughout, which also predominates on the remain-
der of Main Street. The street sports a Wild West Historical Wax
Museum, Black Hills Gold Emporium, Badlands Bar and Lounge,
Trading Post, The Tumbleweed, Dakota Mercantile, Cactus Cafe, and
Buffalo Gift Shop. The folksy image cultivated by Wall Drug ideally
captures the regional perceptions of the American West. The projected
image (of Americans) of the West is a happy one, where small busi-
nessmen prosper, everyone has fun, and the occasional "bad guy" is
run out of town or justifiably shot down by the local sheriff. One would
search long and hard in a Sergio Leone film--which presents an alter-
native, and notably non-American, vision of the West--for a "Cactus
Cafe" or a "Badlands Bar and Lounge".
Wall Drug is a successful, privately-owned business. It has turned its
137MICHAEL PRETES
original disadvantages--isolation and small town locale--into advan-
tages through the marketing of image. Tourists who visit Wall Drug
see much more than a drug store and the actual products they pur-
chase. Whereas Mount Rushmore evoked the political guiding fictions
of America, Wall Drug evokes economic ones: free enterprise, small-
town America, prairie pioneers, survival through the Great Depression,
the Protestant work ethic, success and prosperity through hard work
and perseverance (as well as the more recent guiding fiction of the
ability to consume and shop). By combining American charm with
Wild West imagery, Wall Drug portrays itself as a repository of Amer-
ican family values. Time magazine observed that Ted Hustead "looks
like a kindly drugstore man out of Norman Rockwell" (1981:8). As in
the case of Mount Rushmore, these values encapsulate a nationalist
hegemonic discourse.
Rapid City Dinosaur Park: Science and Nature
Dinosaurs are the most American animals that ever lived. They were
big, strong, he-man animals who ruled the earth during a time of free-
market ecology, and they didn't take flak from anyone. Every patriot
loves and identifies with dinosaurs ... (Kirby, Smith, and Wilkins
1992:28).
Life-size and scale model dinosaurs crafted out of concrete or similar
materials are not unique to South Dakota, but they do assume a certain
expressive function there. The western half of the state contains
numerous specimens of concrete animals, of which dinosaurs are per-
haps the most important and notable. The "brontosaurus"
(Brachiosaurus) and similar genera appear to be the most popular,
though one can find representations of other forms as well. Dinosaurs
seem to go in and out of fashion, perhaps reflecting societal views of
Science and Nature. Evidently a phase of dinosaur interest took place
in Depression-era South Dakota, and continues intermittently to this
day. The success of such films as Jurassic Park in 1993, The Lost World
in 1997, and Dinosaur in 2000, and of the television series Walking With
Dinosaurs, suggests that dinosaurs are currently "in".
Dinosaurs as a taxonomic order are a relatively recent "invention."
They were first identified as an order in the fossil record by Richard
Owen in 1838­1841. His organization of the Crystal Palace Exhibition
in London in 1854 featured the newly "discovered" dinosaurs, and
already myths and legends about these creatures were being formed.
Owen thought that viewing the recreated dinosaur models--there were
no fossils in the exhibition--would have a moralizing effect on the
populace (Lenoir and Ross 1996:376­379, 385). The dinosaur is "the
totem animal of modernity" in that "it is a symbolic animal that comes
into existence for the first time in the modern era" (Mitchell 1998:77),
bestowing an historical importance and sense of grandeur on those
lands, like the United States, fortunate enough to have had dinosaurs.
The dinosaur holds a special place in American culture, and is typi-
138 NATIONALISM
cally seen as a very American animal. For example, Thomas Jefferson
saw dinosaurs as patriotic representations of America and its scientific
superiority to Europe. America was a land where mighty creatures once
roamed, whereas Europe was not--and its plentiful fossils were proof
of this. "The dinosaur image serves as a monument to the prestige of
modern states and nations" (Mitchell 1998:113, 19) because modern
nations "needed ... to produce a past," especially an ancient past
(Mitchell 2001:212). As dinosaurs are no longer living creatures, recre-
ated versions of them, in concrete and other materials, form part of
the "archeological" record made manifest. Like Mount Rushmore, the
dinosaur parks across the western United States serve a nationalist
archeological function similar to that of the Pyramids or the Par-
thenon:
The American obsession with bones, especially with big fossil bones
left by gigantic creatures, has a history going back to the founding
fathers, and is woven inextricably into an emergent sense of national
identity from the beginning (Mitchell 1998:111, emphasis in original).
Rapid City's Dinosaur Park contains a number of life-size concrete
dinosaurs of various types. The park was the brainchild of Dr Cleophus
C. O'Harra, a paleontologist and retired president of the South Dakota
School of Mines (Bedeau 1994:16). As in the case of Wall Drug, the
Chamber of Commerce wanted to capitalize on the increased auto
traffic in the Black Hills region stimulated by Mount Rushmore. The
dinosaur theme seemed to fit in well with the region, as some
important fossils had been discovered nearby. In 1936, once the dino-
saur theme was agreed upon, Emmit A. Sullivan, a local sculptor and
lawyer, was commissioned to design the dinosaurs and supervise their
construction (Bedeau 1994:16). Sullivan did not see the project
through to completion, although he did return to operate a concession
stand until 1968. As Bedeau notes:
Sullivan did not get along with the WPA [Works Progress Adminis-
tration] and resigned from the project in 1937. When he quit he ref-
used to turn over the set of teeth he had made for the Tyrannosaurus
Rex, claiming that he had made them on his own time. A compromise
was eventually worked out and the teeth were installed in 1938
(1994:16).
The American Museum of Natural History also assisted and provided
the correct measurements for the dinosaurs (and provided the models
with scientific legitimacy), and the project was funded through the
Works Project Administration (WPA project #960). The park was dedi-
cated in 1936 but not completed until 1938. In addition to containing
the model dinosaurs, it contains a privately-operated gift store.
Dinosaur fossils are fairly common throughout the western part of
the United States, and help to signify the antiquity of the American
past. This is especially critical in a nation that views itself as having a
rather brief past, especially when contrasted with European nations as
is usually the case. Dinosaurs lend an air of grandeur to American
history; they were big animals in a nation obsessed with bigness
(Marling 1984). They also function as an ideal nature symbol,
139MICHAEL PRETES
especially evocative of the terror of nature and the "desart wildernesse"
so castigated by the Puritan Cotton Mather and his ilk. Dinosaurs give
pause to reflect on the world before humans, but their presence as
physical and contemporary symbols, albeit in concrete form, contains
an element of terror. Of the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1854, accord-
ing to Lenoir and Ross: "The exhibits were massive, distant, frightening
in the controlled way that a roller coaster at an amusement park is
frightening: offering no real danger, just a tantalizing thrill"
(1996:379). Human beings can feel satisfied that dinosaurs no longer
exist, that in this sense they have posthumously triumphed over nature,
which is imagined as hostile and brutal. Though not contemporary
with human beings, dinosaurs help validate the claim that the Amer-
ican wilderness was more terrible and dangerous than it really was, a
belief that lends a greater glow to the achievements of pioneers and
settlers. Settlers could conquer a "desart wildernesse" where dinosaurs
once roamed (Bowden 1992).
Gigantic concrete dinosaurs may help with fears of the unknown
and terrors of nature. These physical manifestations may induce cath-
arsis, in that actual dinosaurs no longer exist. According to Chatwin,
one etymology of "catharsis" derives the word from the Greek katheiro,
meaning, "to rid the land of monsters" (1988:242). Dinosaurs can be
enjoyed as a pleasing fantasy or as a terrible, but fortunately unreal,
nightmare. As Chatwin asks, "... has not the whole of history been a
search for false monsters? A nostalgia for the Beast we have lost?"
(1988:285).
CONCLUSION
Tourism sights, like censuses, maps, and museums, may contain a
disourse of nationalism, allowing hegemonic cultural producers to pro-
ject their values of national identity and national inclusivity. Such sights
may function in the same way as museums, guarding national heritage
and history and preserving it for public display. Tourists receive mess-
ages sent to them by the creators of the sites they visit. Whether the
sites are public monuments, private businesses, or science parks, each
encodes a shaping of a common national identity. These sights,
presented as aspects of a national heritage, help to construct an
imagined community.
The three South Dakota attractions--Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug,
and Rapid City Dinosaur Park--are vehicles for creating a supra-pri-
mordial identity in a country of great diversity. That Mount Rushmore
was created simultaneously as attraction and national shrine is clear
from its history. Mount Rushmore speaks to the political guiding fic-
tions of the United States, presenting, in gigantic and permanent form,
the images of four great presidents associated with historical moments
and values such as the nation's foundation, preservation, and continen-
tal and imperial expansion, and more generally with such "national"
values as independence, freedom, and equality. Less obvious, though
equally powerful, is the simultaneous purpose of the two other sites as
both attractions and vessels for a hegemonic nationalist discourse. Wall
140 NATIONALISM
Drug embraces national economic guiding fictions of free enterprise
and pioneering, expressing these through a recreation of an idyllic
small town institution, the drug store. Wall Drug also cultivates its links
with the American West by simultaneously celebrating the region as a
national treasure and veiling the conflicts inherent in its settlement.
Rapid City Dinosaur Park, with its life-size models of prehistoric crea-
tures, depicts guiding fictions of the antiquity and grandeur of the
American landscape. Each of these attractions helps to disseminate
national guiding fictions, promoting a discourse of national inclusion
and a past shared by all Americans.
Using site-based readings of three attractions, this article has
explored the links between them and the construction of a national
identity. Future research might explore in greater depth the signifi-
cance of individual attractions and extend the analysis to other sites.
Of special interest is the role that recently constructed sights may play
as "archeological" sites, in which the nation's past is uncovered,
restored, and displayed. Because the United States had no "American"
archeological sites (apart from Native American ones), such sites had
to be invented as a way of providing a deep history and connection to
the land. When imbued with national values, modern attractions may
serve the same purpose as the Egyptian Pyramids, the Greek Par-
thenon, or the Indonesian Borobudur in shaping the conception of a
glorious shared past. The guiding fictions of America are made mani-
fest in many places, each of which is a kind of "archeological" site in
which lies buried layers of meaning. A
Acknowledgements--The author thanks Matt Berman, Malcolm Cook, Gary Copus, Kevin
Cross, Lesley Crowe-Delaney, Brad Cullen, Tina Jamieson, Peter Ives, John Lea, Juliana
Mansvelt, Monika Mitášová, Mark Nuttall, Dan Oakman, Regina Scheyvens, Paul Starrs,
Tim Wareham, and Carolyn Ybarra for helpful comments. An earlier version of this
paper was presented at the Western Regional Science Association conference, San Diego
CA, February 1995.
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24 February 2002. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Dean MacCannell