![]() By 1900, Rapid City had survived a boom and bust and was developing as an important regional trade center for the Upper Midwest. The city's location on the edge of the Plains and Hills and its large river valley made it a natural hub for the railroads that were constructed in the late 1880s from both the south and east. Such merchants soon began selling supplies to miners and pioneers. Committees were appointed to recruit prospective merchants and their families to locate in the settlement. The land speculators measured off a square mile and designated the six blocks in the center as a business section. It was eventually named for the spring-fed Rapid Creek that flows through it. In February 1876, John Richard Brennan and Samuel Scott, with a small group of men, laid out Rapid City. The "Gateway" nickname is shared by neighboring Box Elder. A group of unsuccessful miners founded Rapid City in 1876, trying to create other chances they promoted their new city as the "Gateway to the Black Hills" it was originally known as Hay Camp. The public discovery of gold in 1874 by the Black Hills Expedition, led by George Armstrong Custer, brought a mass influx of European-American miners and settlers into Rapid City. ![]()
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