Despite ongoing drought conditions in South Dakota that have heightened fears about wildfires, the Trump administration this Friday will carry out the first fireworks display in six years at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Part of President Donald Trump’s push to have big celebrations of the country’s 250th anniversary — there will also be a larger-than-normal display in Washington — the extravaganza has also reignited a decades-old debate over whether fireworks over the cliff face where the busts of four former presidents are carved could spark a dangerous conflagration in the Black Hills National Forest.
Trump, who is expected to attend the event, has long dismissed those concerns. He overturned an 11-year-old National Park Service ban on fireworks at the memorial in 2020, and the administration this year has argued that the fireworks display will be conducted with utmost caution. But opponents to the show point to conditions that can make wildfires more likely, such as dry soil and warm weather
“Fireworks at Mount Rushmore is a terrible idea,” said Jay Davis, chair of the Sierra Club’s South Dakota chapter. “We are enduring a serious drought.”
Fire conditions are especially concerning this year because of the widespread drought, though federal forecasts suggest wildfire risk could moderate by Friday, when the event is scheduled.
One hundred percent of Pennington County in South Dakota, which is home to the memorial, is experiencing either moderate, severe or extreme drought. Because of these conditions, the county was under a “very high risk” of fire Monday that fell to moderate Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The National Interagency Fire Center forecast fire risk on Friday will be moderate for the region.
“Everyone can rest assured that we are taking every necessary precaution,” said Josie Harms, spokesperson for South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden. The state and federal agencies will make a final go/no-go decision on the day of the fireworks the day of the show “to ensure that the celebration is conducted safely and responsibly,” Harms said.
Rhoden, a Republican, revived the state’s push to bring fireworks back to Mount Rushmore last year and has championed the show.
The disagreement over fireworks at Mount Rushmore has ping ponged between Democratic and Republican administrations. The July 3 event will be the first time fireworks have been held at the park since the first Trump administration. During the Biden administration, NPS again ended the practice of holding fireworks at the site.
The Trump administration has otherwise hammered the risk of fire this year. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in April punched up fire response requirements in response to hot and dry weather and climate conditions that leave lands ripe for mega fires. He ordered every fire that sparks on public lands to be put out immediately, with even prescribed burns to reduce fuel loads banned without express permission.
The National Park Service this week has warned visitors at major parks against risking fire. Colorado’s Rocky Mountain and Washington’s North Cascades national parks banned all campfires this week as hot temperature and dry weather surged fire risks.
But Pennington County Commission Chair Ron Weifenbach, a big supporter of the fireworks show, dismissed concerns as political theater.
“They’re making something into a political firestorm, when it really doesn’t need to be,” he said. “Independence Day should be a day when everybody can come together and go, ‘You know what? We live in a great country. We’re not perfect, but we do live in a great country.’”
Weifenbach said fireworks at Mount Rushmore have never sparked a major wildfire and that he trusted the administration and the state will observe local conditions.
“You know, if it was dry, they wouldn’t do it,” he said.
Weifenbach said he was less concerned about the risks because of some rain last week that eased fire conditions.
Davis with the Sierra Club, took issue with that interpretation. While it hasn’t been hot for this time of year in South Dakota, normal precipitation in May fell off by early June.
Year-to-date precipitation in Rapid City, located 23 miles from Mount Rushmore, has been just over 6 inches compared to a norm that’s closer to 10, he said.
“Black Hills experienced serious forest fires in February, which is freakish,” he said. “If they want to have a big celebration of patriotism, and the 250th birthday, at Mount Rushmore, there are safer alternatives, including a laser show or a drone show.”
The contract for the celebrations allows for a light show as an alternative if conditions would make fireworks unfeasible.
“I would argue that we are there,” he said.
The Interior Department said in a statement that it won’t move forward with the fireworks show until a final go/no-go review on the day of the event.
“Safety mitigations are built into every aspect of the event,” the department said, noting increased staff and an “Incident Management Team” deployed to South Dakota to help with planning.
The U.S. Wildland Fire Service — a new Interior Department fire agency that Burgum created earlier this year by consolidating fire operations from bureaus including the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management — has also developed a fire response plan for the event.
Valerie Naylor, a former superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, said some local residents are still “very concerned about the fireworks and a chance of fire.” Naylor owns property about 15 miles from the memorial.
“Even though they take precautions, those fires can go fast,” Naylor said.
The National Park Service officially ended fireworks at Mount Rushmore after 2009, citing wildfire concerns in the Black Hills, where a beetle infestation had left areas of ponderosa pine forest filled with dead, highly flammable trees. The agency also cited concerns about damage to the memorial itself.
But Trump championed returning fireworks during his first term.
“What can burn? It’s stone,” Trump said in 2020. He attended the display that year.
Freedom 250, the group that has been spearheading the Trump administration’s events to honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, last week said that the president will headline the July 3 event at Mount Rushmore.
Interior said this week that the conditions of the forest around the memorial are much safer after years of clearing out dead fuels and forest thinning.
“These efforts have reduced hazardous fuels, lowered crown-fire potential, improved suppression conditions, and supported the protection of nationally significant infrastructure and cultural resources,” the department said.
South Dakota has long advocated keeping the fireworks display. Tourism is the second-biggest industry in South Dakota, after agriculture, and that’s largely due to Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park.
Near record visitation to Mount Rushmore in 2022 brought in $385.6 million to the surrounding region, according to a National Park Service report. The state has also tried to entrench that visitation to the benefit of residents. It recently passed two laws that permit higher sales tax revenue to offset resident property taxes.
This year is already on pace for a jump in tourist spending with short-term rentals up 27 percent ahead of the holiday compared to last year, said Katlyn Svendsen, global public relations director for Travel South Dakota.
Rhoden has argued the fireworks display is a testament to American freedoms. He formally requested that the president attend this year’s anniversary.
“South Dakota is the epitome of freedom, so it is only fitting to throw the biggest birthday party ever for the United States of America in our backyard,” Rhoden said last summer after signing an agreement with the Trump administration to revive fireworks at the memorial for the 250th.
Former Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who served before Rhoden, had also fought for Mount Rushmore fireworks and launched a lawsuit in 2021 to challenge the Biden administration’s ban. The lawsuit failed but it garnered support from numerous Republican-led states.
But while the state’s Republican leadership has led the charge to hold fireworks this year, some of South Dakota’s Native American government leaders have taken the opposition position. The Black Hills are a sacred area to some tribes, and the Mount Rushmore memorial, celebrating U.S. presidents, is a long-standing wound.
Frank Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, signed a resolution earlier this month asking the federal government to cancel the fireworks show “because of the current drought conditions and high risk of wild fires that could endanger the lives and property of tourists and local citizens (including tribal members) the Sacred Black Hills and all sacred sites.”
The resolution also said the U.S. president visiting for the display would be inappropriate due to the federal government’s violation of the Agreement of 1877, in which the U.S. government promised aid and support to the Sioux people and seized the Black Hills, a hub of gold production.
The Supreme Court in 1980 ruled in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians that the government had illegally seized the Black Hills, now a national forest, and the Sioux were awarded restitution, which has since grown to around $1 billion. The Sioux have refused to accept the money and continued to demand a return of the Black Hills to their ownership.
Jennifer Yachnin contributed to this report.
