It is located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and was named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed.

In the neighboring Black Hills are the tourist attractions of Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, The Mammoth Site and the museum at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research.

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.

In February 1876, John Richard Brennan and Samuel Scott, with a small group of men, laid out Rapid City.

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.

By 1900, Rapid City had survived a boom and bust and was developing as an important regional trade center for the Upper Midwest.

Local entrepreneurs promoted the sights, the availability of the automobile for individual transportation, and construction of improved roadways after World War I led to many more tourists to this area, including President Calvin Coolidge and the First Lady in summer 1927.

Although tourism had sustained the city throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s, gasoline rationing during World War II decimated such travel.

But investments in the defense industry and other war-related growth stimulated the placement of new military installations in the area, bringing more businesses and residents.

Beginning in November 1963, the land for 100 miles east, northeast and northwest of the city was dotted with construction of 150 Minuteman missile silos and 15 launch command centers.

After the Black Hills Flood of 1972, the worst natural disaster in South Dakota history, a building boom took place over the next decade to replace damaged structures.

On June 9, 1972, heavy rains caused massive flash flooding along Rapid Creek through the city, killing 238 people and destroying more than $100 million in property.

In response to this devastation, Rapid City received an outpouring of private donations and millions of dollars in federal aid.

It was able to complete a major part of its 1949 plan: clearing the area along the Rapid Creek and making the floodplain a public park.

As a result, the federal government offered a financial settlement, but the Lakota Sioux declined on the principle that the theft of their land should not be validated.

Fears that Ellsworth AFB would be closed under the BRAC review and base closure process in the 1990s and 2000s led to attempts to expand other sectors of the economy.

With the federal government's approval of a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory at the Homestake Mine site in nearby Lead, Rapid City is primed for advancements in technology, medicine, and scientific research.

On June 9–10, 1972, extremely heavy rains over the eastern Black Hills of South Dakota produced record floods on Rapid Creek and other streams in the area.

Canyon Lake Dam, on the west side of Rapid City, broke the night of the flood, unleashing a wall of water down the creek.

Today the flood plain is used for civic functions such as golf courses, parks, sports arenas, and arboretums, based mostly on the landscape and temporary use by people.

The Journey Museum has an interactive display on the 1972 flood; this is an ongoing project to give future generations the best idea of how the people were affected and what changes the city made as a result of the major losses of life and property.

It has adapted this green space for public uses: a series of parks, arboretums, and bike trails, which have reconnected the city to the creek for residents.

[19] Its location makes its climate unlike both the higher elevations of the Black Hills to the west and the Great Plains to the east.

Fall is a transition season: the average first freeze occurs in Rapid City on October 4 and in the Black Hills in late August through September.

Of particular note, this city is the center for the manufacture of Black Hills gold jewelry, a popular product with tourists and Westerners in general.

The real compound annual growth rate of the gross domestic product of the Rapid City Metropolitan Statistical Area was 2.6% for 2001–2013.

The highest rates of educational attainment in South Dakota can be found in metropolitan areas of Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

Rapid City had its own coal-fired power plant but could not afford to meet current air pollution standards and closed it.

The Ben French power station located within city boundaries shut down September 2012, more than two years ahead of its scheduled shutdown.

The heavy dependence on shallow alluvial aquifers is of some concern to planners, as most suburbs of Rapid City use septic systems for domestic sewage treatment.