Wind Cave tours suspended again, but officials hope to solve elevator problems for good this time

Features known as "cratework" in Wind Cave. (Courtesy of National Park Service/Wind Cave National Park)

HOT SPRINGS — Long-lingering elevator problems at Wind Cave National Park will prevent cave tours this summer at the southwest South Dakota attraction, but park officials hope a replacement elevator system will be a permanent solution.

The park recently announced that cave tours will be suspended beginning May 1 to accommodate the work.

The elevator system, which provides access to the cave for approximately 130,000 visitors annually, has been problematic for several years due to its aging components.

According to Tom Farrell, chief of interpretation at Wind Cave, many repairs have taken place over the years, and the existing system includes parts dating back to the 1930s. This will be the first complete rebuild, and the work is expected to continue into the fall.

Consistent elevator issues

Over the past five years, Wind Cave tours have been canceled on several occasions due to the park’s faulty elevator system.

On June 29, 2019, Wind Cave’s elevators became nonoperational. At the time, funding was not available for complete replacement, so the park made repairs.

After the first company hired could not complete the work, the park hired a consultant team and the project went out for bids a second time. Elevator Repair Service Inc., of Houston, Texas, secured the bid, began work in June 2020, and completed the repair work that November.

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Park officials considered conducting cave tours through an alternate walk-in entrance, but ultimately decided against it, because the route includes a descent of 155 stairs.

“In the middle of the summer, we just didn’t think we could do something like that in terms of the amount of visitation that would be coming in,” Farrell told the Rapid City Journal at the time. “And if we had a medical emergency down there, we’d have to haul people up 155 stairs.”

Even after the elevator repairs, the park was unable to offer cave tours due to the coronavirus pandemic. The visitor center remained closed.

After an 11-month closure, Wind Cave reopened its visitor center to the public in February 2021, and cave tours resumed that March.

Since the 2021 reopening, the elevator system has operated sporadically due to consistent maintenance problems.

Once funding was secured for a complete overhaul of the elevator system, PKD Incorporated of Texas was hired for the work. The cost is just under $2 million with funding coming from a national account funded by fees collected at parks across the country.

“We’re excited to finally be able to completely rebuild the old elevators, including replacement of the cabs, motors, cables and electrical equipment,” said Wind Cave National Park Superintendent Leigh Welling.

Shift to surface programs

During the cave’s closure, park rangers will focus on aboveground programming.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience while we improve access to the cave and remind the public that there are still many things to do at the park,” Welling said.

Those include ranger-led talks and hikes, and new exhibits being installed in the visitor center this spring that include several interactive stations, a walk-through cave and a prairie diorama.

Rangers will also offer virtual tours of the cave in the visitor center auditorium. The program will use LIDAR technology to give a tour of the Natural Entrance tour route. LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to create a 3D scan or map of a place.

The staff at Wind Cave stress that the park is more than just a cave and has many other surface activities such as hiking and wildlife viewing.

“We are two parks in one,” said Farrell.

The park covers 53 square miles, has more than 30 miles of hiking trails and is home to bison, elk, deer, pronghorn, coyotes, prairie dogs and other wildlife.

The Black Hills Parks and Forests Association is the official nonprofit partner of Wind Cave whose retail store and main offices are located inside the visitor center.

Executive Director Patty Ressler said the organization has been preparing for the cave closure.

“We will have cool new products available at the park store and will be planning additional educational programming to help supplement what the park will already be doing,” Ressler said. “Visitors should still plan to visit Wind Cave and have a great park experience.”

Financial impact

The suspension of cave tours means a loss of tour fees for the park. During the 2018 summer season, before the current run of elevator problems began, the park took in nearly $700,000 in tour fees.

Local economies are also impacted. A 2023 National Park Service report showed that 607,418 visitors to Wind Cave National Park in 2022 spent $52.7 million in communities near the park. That spending supported 741 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $75 million.

Hot Springs is about 10 miles from the park’s visitor center. The Hot Springs Area Chamber of Commerce is bracing for impacts from the cave closure.

“There was a significant impact on area visitation the last time the elevators went down,” said Hot Springs Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Olivia Mears. “Although we appreciate that this time there will be new, modernized elevators installed, it is still very disappointing that cave tours will not be available.

Mears said the chamber plans to promote other things the park has to offer, but anticipates a detrimental impact on visitation.

South Dakota’s Secretary of Tourism Jim Hagen is aware of the park’s prolonged elevator saga and is looking forward to a future when it no longer causes disruptions.

“Even though there will be no underground cave tours this summer, we will take this short-term pain for much-needed, longer-term gain,” Hagen said.

A version of this story was originally published by the Fall River County Herald-Star . This version of the story is reprinted with permission.

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