The town of Sturgis, on the northern slope of the Black Hills, is the county seat of Meade County. The population of 6,875 has grown as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally grew into South Dakota’s largest tourist attraction. In August, half a million motorcyclists from around the world descend on Sturgis for ten days of celebration. The Rally was first held in 1938, with nine motorcycle racers on a half-mile track. Today, it is a ten-day extravaganza of races, demonstrations, reunions, and concerts. For the rest of the year Sturgis is a small ranch service community.

The town originally grew up around Ft. Meade, a frontier U.S. Cavalry outpost founded in 1878. Ft. Meade was named after General George Meade, the Union commander of union forces at the battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. Sturgis was named after the fort’s first commander, Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis.  Sturgis was commander of the 7th Cavalry, and George Armstrong Custer’s commanding officer when Custer was routed by Lakota and Cheyenne warriors at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the summer of 1876. The dead included Sturgis’ son, James, an officer serving with Custer.

Based on data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, Sturgis has a per capita income of $20,424 and a median household income of $34,353. Nearly one in eight (12.2 percent)  residents live below the poverty line. Like most rural South Dakota communities, the population is aging; 15.5 percent of residents are over the age of 65. The community is also mostly white (94.2 percent) with 2.6 percent Native American and 3.1 percent Hispanic. The vast majority (88.6 percent) of residents over the age of 25 have a high school diploma, and 19.6 percent have a bachelor’s degree or advanced degree.

Long before the first motorcyclists roared into town, Sturgis was a rendezvous point. Bear Butte, a mountain just east of Sturgis, is sacred to many native tribes of the Great Plains. It has inspired pilgrimages for centuries.  In 1857 it was the site for a great Lakota council that sought strategies for keeping white settlers out of the region. 

Those settlers arrived in a rush after Lieutenant Colonel George Custer led an 1874 expedition that found gold in the Black Hills. Violence between the Lakota and newcomers prompted the U.S. Army to establish a post near Bear Butte. The post evolved into Fort Meade and in 1878 Sturgis was founded a mile east. 

The town’s name honors James Sturgis, a Cavalry officer killed with Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876. Initially the community served primarily as a goods and services center for Fort Meade soldiers. The Sturgis Commercial Club joined South Dakota’s congressional delegation in pushing successfully for the fort’s ongoing development over the years. Fort Meade remained an active military installation until 1944 and then became the site for the Veterans Administration medical center. Sturgis is home to Black Hills National Cemetery, established in 1948 for veterans and their spouses on 105 acres. Bear Butte State Park opened in 1965.

Arts & Culture

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attendance makes possible one of the nation’s major annual music festivals. Private promoters book acts that draw thousands of bikers and other fans to open-air venues, mostly just east of town. 

The rest of the year a modern theater seating 444 in the community’s recreation center hosts performances by local musicians and thespians, and touring arts performers. The nonprofit Sturgis Center for the Arts coordinates music and visual arts lessons, and showcases area artists at events that include an outdoor summer festival.

Museums, Libraries & Archives

The Sturgis Public Library is located at 1040 2nd Street in downtown Sturgis. Established in 1922, the Library housed in the city hall complex. In addition to its collection of 45,000 volumes, it offers downloadable and other non-print resources, plus programming that aims to foster life-long learning. 

Located in a historic building across from Fort Meade’s parade grounds, the Old Fort Meade Museum recounts the region’s military history.  It is open seven days a week in summer. The Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame, downtown, is open year round.  Its displays include vintage bikes, as well as photos and artifacts documenting the Sturgis rally through the decades.  The Hall of Fame honors personalities from Peter Fonda to Evel Knieval.

Historical Photos and Documents Online

The Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress has a number of historic images of Sturgis available online. They include photographs made by John C.H. Grabill in the early 1890s as well as recent photographs of the Fort Meade National Cemetery taken by David W. Haas as part of the Historic American Landscapes Survey.

The Denver Public Library has a portrait of Lieutenant James G. Sturgis available online. Lt. Sturgis died during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The town of Sturgis is named after him.

The National Archives and Records Administration makes a number of images and digital documents related to Sturgis available online. Subjects include 1940 Census records, water pollution from the Homestake Mine in 1972 and FEMA efforts to prevent wildfires in more recent years.

Religion

Eighteen churches serve people from Sturgis and surrounding communities and rural areas. In addition to its in-town churches, Sturgis has a long relationship with Fort Meade’s chaplains. In fact, chaplains helped bring about some Sturgis denominations. Church leaders come together through the Sturgis Ministerial Association.  Among the Association’s projects is Church Response, making available emergency lodging, food, and medication for transients and local people in need. The motorcycle rally regularly draws religious organizations that minister to bikers. A long-standing Sturgis tradition sees several churches host popular “biker breakfasts” each morning of the rally. Breakfast profits support church programming and missions, and over pancakes and eggs bikers experience a side of Sturgis they might otherwise miss.

Today Sturgis is home to 6,627 people, according to the 2010 Census. With a median age of 41, the population of Sturgis is growing slightly. Since the 2000 Census, it has posted a growth of 2.8 percent.  In the city of Sturgis, there are 1,656 people per square mile.

The majority (93.9 percent) of people in Sturgis are white. American Indians constitute 2.3 percent of Sturgis’s population and 2.6 percent are Hispanic. In 2010, 2.6 percent of the population reported belonging to more than one race.

Meade County officials believe that many residents were not counted in the 2010 U.S. Census. According to Deputy Planning Director Bill Rich, information from the board of equalization indicates that residents of the City of Summerset were missed entirely and the City of Sturgis may have been undercounted. All totaled, county officials are asking the Census Bureau to revise the population count by adding 3,305 people to the county's reported population of 25,434. County officials commented on the issue in the Meade County Times Tribune. 

Sturgis is home to three public schools: Brown High School with a 2011-12 enrollment of 693, Williams Middle School with 463 students, and Sturgis Elementary with 661 students. The schools are part of the Meade District 46-1, which encompasses about 3,100 of Meade County’s 3,482 square miles. About 75 percent of the Meade School District's students attend the three schools in Sturgis. During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Meade County School District's fall enrollment was 2443 in grades K-12.

Academics

Students in the Meade County School District take the annual Dakota STEP test to ensure that the district is making adequate yearly progress (AYP) in reading and math. According the State of South Dakota's report card, Meade County students achieved AYP in all categories in all grades tested in elementary, middle and high schools in the spring of 2011. Brown High School’s graduation rate was 75.1 percent in 2011, down from the 85.9 percent rate posted in 2010 and lower than the statewide average of 83.3 percent.

With a 2.8 percent dropout rate, the district graduated 146 students in 2011. One hundred and two students took the ACT exam. The average composite score was 21.6. To view a statistical profile of funding, student and staff data, see the South Dakota Department of Education's 2010-2011 Profile of Meade School District.

Governance

Sturgis is home to the district’s administrative offices. The Meade County Board of Education is composed of nine members, elected to either two or three year terms. School board meetings are held at Williams Middle School, 1230 Douglas Street, the second Tuesday of each month at 6:30 pm. Meetings are open to the public. The board agenda is available the Friday prior to the meeting. Citizens wishing to address the board should indicate on a sign-in sheet whether they will comment on an agenda item or during an open forum. Citizens wishing to place an item on the agenda should contact the superintendent at least 10 days prior to a meeting. 

Budget

Meade School District’s board set a 2011-12 budget with estimated total expenditures of about $22.6 million. The district requested local tax dollars through its levies for general fund ($6,144,588), capital outlay ($3,918,870) special education ($1,829,510), and pension fund ($395,800). The district hired 336 employees for the 2011-12 term, 198 of whom were K-12 and special education teachers. A description of revenues and expenditures can be seen in more detail on the South Dakota Department of Education's 2010-2011 Profile of Meade School District.

Sturgis' municipal government is a form called aldermanic/manager. A mayor and eight other members make up the city council, and a city manager is hired. The manager works toward city goals established by the council, in cooperation with city department heads. The mayor is elected at large for a three-year term. Residents in each of four wards elect two council members, also for three-year, staggered terms.  Council meetings, open to the public, are scheduled the first and third Mondays of each month (unless a Monday falls on a holiday) at 6:30 pm at the Erskine Building, 1300 Sherman Street.

In 2011 Sturgis citizens were surveyed to help the council see possible courses of action. Respondents totaled 336. By large margins citizens approved of municipal resources being used to promote economic development. Along those lines, Sturgis is working to attract more retail, restaurants, and lodging along Interstate 90, and to further develop the 45-acre industrial park. Survey respondents were less enthused about beautification, city involvement in bringing about a movie theater, and new soccer fields. See citizen survey results at the city website, www.sturgis.sd.gov.

As home of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the city of Sturgis claims a unique municipal department: the Rally Department.  Along with code enforcements, it handles vendor permits and leasing of city properties during the event. Revenue generated is put into city services, improvements, and charities. The city especially encourages public input about spending rally revenues.

Link to the Sturgis web page  (click here)

Budget

The Sturgis city council authorized a municipal budget of about $16.3 million for 2012. That total included dollars transferred from five enterprise funds: ambulance, water, waste water, liquor, and sanitation. Each of those city enterprises generates revenue, and the revenue reduces funding the city would otherwise collect through taxes. Full-time city employees total 90, supplemented by 50 to 60 part-time employees much of the year. However, during the motorcycle rally each August, part-time city employment jumps. While the rally is expensive for the city, it also generates city income through taxes and through fees collected by the Rally Department. The city budget has remained quite constant over the past five years, but there is concern that Sturgis must generate new revenue sources in coming years rather than relying so heavily on rally dollars. Citizens can see the city budget online or pick up a copy of the budget document at city hall.  (Source: Finance Officer Fay Bueno)    

Sturgis is the largest community in Meade County. In a 2012 wellness report, the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute ranked Meade County 34th of 59 South Dakota counties studied. The primary care physician to patient ration was 1,037:1, far below the national benchmark of 631:1. Twenty percent of adults reported themselves as smokers. Residents reported slightly lower rates of poor physical and mental health days than the state average. Rates of adult obesity and excessive drinking were well below the statewide average.

A Veterans Administration medical center is Sturgis' biggest employer with 751 workers, according the Sturgis Economic Development Corporation. Black Hills Special Services Cooperative, a public education agency, ranks second in employment with a staff of 563.

The community’s emphasis on healthcare and education might surprise outsiders worldwide who know Sturgis as home of an annual motorcycle rally. Touted as the nation’s largest, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was launched in 1938 by the local Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle club. Toady, motorcycle racing and other competitions, outdoor concerts by major rock ‘n roll and country performers, and late night parties under the stars lure rally fans back year after year. The event generates big profits for vendors selling everything from food to tattoos, and it boosts revenue for state and city sales tax coffers, and for charities. 

There is no denying, though, that the rally also generates its own brand of difficulties, including law enforcement issues. A year-round rally-related problem for Sturgis has been the loss of activity in the town’s central business district. Some Main Street buildings owned or leased by rally vendors sit empty for eleven months each year. The town’s current comprehensive plan calls for an aggressive downtown revitalization effort. Simultaneously, municipal government and economic development leaders are working to attract new retail along Interstate 90.

Since it was founded, Sturgis has profited by providing retail services to area livestock ranchers, lumber producers, Black Hills vacationers, and small manufacturers. According to Pat Kurtenbach of the Sturgis Economic Development Corporation,in the 1980s Sturgis began attracting metals manufacturers to its new industrial park. Today 215 people are employed by 21 small companies in the park, mainly producing firearms and motorcycle parts.