Coronavirus appeared to depress visits to Mount Rushmore in the first half of 2020, but after the costly Noem/Trump hate fest and protest crackdown on July 3, visits to the monument recovered, posting better-than-average numbers from August through November.
According to the latest data from the National Park Service, Mount Rushmore drew 2,043,923 recreational visits in the first eleven months of this year. That’s 7.9% better than the average January–November attendance from 1979 through 2019, but it’s down 8.1% from the average for the last ten years and lower than the total for every one of those years except 2019.
The exclusive, limited-seating July 3 event itself, which granted 6,187 tickets to the general public by lottery, appears not to have generated travel interest to make up for the visitors lost by closing the monument to the public for Emperor’s and Snow Queen‘s spectacle. July 2020 visits totaled 545,802. That’s only 2.7% better than the 1979–2019 average for Mount Rushmore’s peak month but 7.8% lower than the July average for the past ten years. As with eleven-month attendance, July 2020’s attendance was better than 2019’s but lower than every other year in the past decade.
But it is possible that Kristi Noem’s illegal use of CARES Act funds for tourism advertising, coupled with some travelers seeking relatively pandemic-safe outdoor recreation, helped salvage Rushmore attendance for the year. In March and April, as the pandemic caught fire, visits to Mount Rushmore dropped more than 40% from their previous ten-year averages for those months. In May and June, Rushmore attendance was down more than 25% from the past decade monthly averages. Rushmore attendance then beat the decade average by 3.7% in August, 7.6% in September, 26.0% in October, and 20.7% in November.
It’s difficult to interpret tourism numbers during a pandemic. The August–November rebound may have happened with or without Noem’s seeking the national spotlight for herself, following the curve we’ve seen in other activities as many people canceled travel plans in the spring, then got tired of being careful and hit the road later in the year. The August spike aligned with the pattern we’ve seen every five years this century (2015, 2010, 2005) of Rushmore attendance spiking in coincidence with a five-year anniversary of the Sturgis Rally (80th this year, 75th in 2015, etc.).
Overall, the pandemic appears to have shaved 8% off the recent historical average attendance at South Dakota’s most well-known tourist attraction. Let’s all get our shots so we can bring that number back up to par in 2021!
Mount Rushmore should focus more on exclusive events going forward, and shut down the parking and mass public millers-about. We don’t need to be attracting Iowegians and Minnesootians to mob here. They are welcome to visit West Minnesota, where the Falls of the Big Sioux are. Do not entice them further west.
It is good the attendance was down. We need it far more down.
Of course it’s down. Covid-19. Greenhouse gas is down also.