Anonymous
1938

Roadside attraction flyer for mythical Hidden City South Dakota

Hidden City the Mystery of the Ages with The Black Hills of South Dakota, A Mountain Vacation Land

DESCRIPTION: Very scarce advertising flyer ca. 1938 with map for the long-forgotten Hidden City, a roadside attraction in South Dakota's Black Hills; Admission 25 cents.

1940s sign for Hidden City Roadside Attraction

1940s road sign for Hidden City
(not included)

The recto teases "Did Alley Oop ? ? ? ? ? ." "Prehistoric Walls, Cross Walls, Arches and Pavements with Hieroglyphics. Lost City?" and includes a crude drawing of 1930s artist's concept of a caveman, complete with loincloth and club.

Hidden City, South Dakota Roadside Attraction

Verso with a road map of South Dakota highlighting the location of a number of area attractions, both large and small. The less well-known of these attractions include:

Black Hills Rock Museum
Black Hills Sugar Factory, Belle Fourche
Stage Barn Caverns
Water Carnival and Race Meet
Nameless Cave
Strato Bowl

Earl Brockelsby, who later started another attraction in 1937, Reptile Gardens, worked as a tour guide at Hidden City.

The military detail on the map explains why civilian efforts depended so heavily on accurate local knowledge. Notes of Rebel picket lines, rifle pits, skirmishes, and shelling mark areas where Confederate forces remained active from January to July, 1862 and where movement involved real risk. The map therefore captures a moment when military necessity and civilian reconstruction were inseparable. Rather than illustrating a single engagement, it records how Northerners navigated, defended, and reorganized a newly occupied landscape while attempting, imperfectly, to replace slavery with paid labor, schooling, and basic civil order at the very beginning of Reconstruction.

The map is executed in pen and ink, with areas of water and terrain shaded in graphite. The graphite shading appears to have been produced using a textured aid beneath the paper, a method consistent with known mid-19th-century drafting practice for creating uniform tonal effects efficiently.

CREATOR: Anonymous

PUBLICATION DATE: 1938

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States

BODY OF WATER: N/a

CONDITION: Fair. A bit browned still but lightly rinsed and flattened. A few .5" edge tears repaired invisibly.

COLORING:

ENGRAVER:

SIZE: 8 " x 14 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 78

PRICE: $135

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