South Dakota, state in the north-central United States. South Dakota is generally regarded as partly but not wholly in the Midwest. The east, with its flat or rolling lands and fertile soils, resembles portions of other states in the Midwest. However, the western section lies on the Great Plains. The state is mainly an agricultural region. Farmland covers much of the fertile areas east of the Missouri River, which divides the state, and vast stretches of rangeland extend westward from its banks.
Manufacturing and commercial activities are based in large part on the output of agricultural produce. However, in the mid-1990s tourism, gambling, and other services were of increasing importance to the state; visitors are attracted by natural features such as the Black Hills and Badlands. Pierre is South Dakota's capital. Sioux Falls is the largest city. South Dakota offers a wide variety of recreational opportunities. The state has many scenic areas. The two major recreational areas are the Black Hills, in the west, and the lakes region, in the east.
The National Park Service administers several units in South Dakota. The best known is Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills. Here the faces of four U.S. presidents, each 18 m (60 ft) from forehead to chin, were carved into a granite mountain. Wind Cave National Park, also in the Black Hills, is noted for the delicate formations found in its cavern. A wildlife preserve is above ground. Also in the state are Jewel Cave National Monument, which gets its name from the glittering calcite crystals that line its walls, and Badlands National Park, in which thousands of years of erosion has carved a striking landscape of deep gorges, jagged spires, and grassy plateaus.
The name Dakota is derived from a Sioux term meaning friends or allies. It was first applied to a United States territory in 1861. When South Dakota entered the Union on November 2, 1889, as the 40th state, its people chose to keep the name. South Dakota is called the Coyote State, after South Dakota's state animal.
