Colorado-based Xanterra, which runs concessions at Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Death Valley, and Grand Canyon, will take over the Custer State Park lodging, retail, and other visitor services on February 1:
Beginning February 1, 2027, Xanterra Travel Collection® will welcome guests to Custer State Park Resort as its next concessionaire.
Spanning 71,000 acres across South Dakota’s rugged Black Hills, Custer State Park is a place of extraordinary beauty, abundant wildlife and enduring history. We’re honored to become part of its story and to bring Xanterra’s legacy of legendary hospitality and stewardship to this remarkable destination.
For 150 years, we’ve had the privilege of welcoming travelers to some of the world’s most remarkable places. As we begin this new chapter at Custer State Park, we look forward to caring for this extraordinary destination and helping ensure its wild beauty can be experienced for generations to come.
We look forward to welcoming you to Custer State Park Resort in 2027 [Xanterra, company website, retrieved 2026.10.14].
To secure this ten-year contract, Xanterra beat out Kansas-based ExplorUS, which operates park businesses across the country and wrested concessions at Badlands National Park from Aramark last year; Rapid City-based LIV Hospitality, whose exclusively South Dakota portfolio includes the Alex Johnson in Rapid City and Cadillac Jack’s in Deadwood and but apparently no state or national park facilities; and U.S. Hotel and Resorts, part of the Sioux Falls-based Ramkota juggernaut that held the Custer State Park contract for 20 years.
In approving the switch from Ramkota to Xanterra, Game Fish and Parks Commissioners tried to avoid saying anything bad about the current operator… which leads to admin-speak absurdity:
Rissler said in the September commission meeting that she believes the department and evaluation team fairly looked at all proposals before deciding which company to go with.
“They (U.S. Hotel and Resort) have built a strong foundation, but as a commission, we have to look to the future, and I hope that we can come out of this feeling content,” Rissler said.
Commissioner Julie Bartling said in the September meeting that the decision is not a criticism of the past but a thank you for what’s been done.
“I’m just generally appreciative of all that they’ve (U.S. Hotel and Resort) done, and I look forward to what’s out there for Custer State Park,” Bartling said [Emily DeCock, “Custer State Park Concessions Going to Out-of-State Operator,” South Dakota News Watch, 2026.10.08].
Yes, I’m sure Ramkota feels thanked and not criticized at all, just like Kristi Noem felt when Trump replaced her with Markwayne Mullin, or just like Ivana when Trump replaced her with Marla.
A cynical observer might wonder how pay to play influenced the commissioners.
Early in my food life I worked for Fred Harvey Inc. at the Grand Canyon. FHI was bought out by Amfac in 1968 and changed names to Xanterra, who’s continued the contracts at many western parks.
Aramark? Not so good.
grudznick understands better now the genesis of Mr. Lansing’s potato boiling and burger flipping skills, having been honed at the Bright Angel back room and less at the Amfac cafeterias of the states prison systems in Colorado. Regardless these Xanterians best be on their toes when the summer retreats of the Conservatives with Common Sense take place at the game lodging inn.
A South Dakota state park named for a war criminal keeps a drove of allegorical mooching donkeys as a slap in the face to the South Dakota Democratic Party and stages an annual mock bison roundup appropriated from the hunting practices of some Indigenous peoples.