Calvin Coolidge in the Black Hills by Tupper Seth;

Author:Tupper, Seth;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mary Halley, of Rapid City, helps the Coolidges cut the birthday cakes presented to President Coolidge at the State Game Lodge for his fifty-fifth birthday on July 4, 1927. Rise Photo, A.B. Kellogg Scrapbook, Rapid City Public Library.

Then, recalled a reporter, “The celebration lagged for a minute.”130 The cowboy band began preparing to leave until someone shouted for them to wait while the president and Mrs. Coolidge retreated into the lodge for a few minutes.

The Coolidges soon reappeared on the porch, with the normally staid president now dressed in all of the cowboy regalia he’d received as gifts. On his head was a gaudy, ten-gallon felt cowboy hat he had been given earlier in the summer by residents of the city of Belle Fourche, who had invited him to their summer rodeo.

It wasn’t the first time the president had worn the huge hat. To the delight of many South Dakotans, he’d donned it previously and had been shown wearing it in photographs published in newspapers across the country. By the Fourth of July, the hat was becoming a regular sight.

“The first day or two the president looked as though he felt a bit topheavy, but yesterday the big lid seemed to be a part of him,” the Rapid City Journal observed the day after the party.131

The members of the cowboy band reveled in the president’s show of affection for western culture. They rowdily cheered his appearance and showered him with approving chants, including “Cal’s our pal.”132

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