I can’t remember when my fascination with the American presidents began. Growing up with a character like Richard Nixon on the national scene probably had something to do with it. But to borrow the title from a popular book from the era, it didn’t start with Nixon. Turns out, they’re ALL a bunch of characters! The great ones are awe inspiring, the mediocre ones provoke hilarity, the scoundrels counjure up a fearful sense of wonder, even the obscure ones achieve cult status, specifically because they are so obscure.
The presidency is a magnet for both conspiracy theorists, and aspiring songwriters. I myself have used our commanders in chief as a sleep aid. Before I had it memorized, I used to combat insommnia by reciting to myself the order of presidential succession. I’m an avid collector of presidential trivia. I fantasize about visiting all the presidential birth and death places (and gravesites). I’m consumed with envious admiration at the industry of Sarah Vowell. 
Of course, I’m not the only one with presidential fever, and there are plenty of tourist attractions catering to my affliction. During our recent visit to South Dakota, my wife and I had occasion to visit a couple of them. Sure, we saw the big stone-headed kahuna, Mount Rushmore, but it was merely the largest and most famous. We found the Presidential Wax Museum in Keystone to be just as entertaining, and almost twice as time consuming.
Since amateur photography is welcomed at the museum, I managed to capture a small handful of photos. I also purchased a few dandy postcards in the gift shop. But, surrounded as I was by natural beauty and historic squalor, I apportioned only a small part of my digital storage space to the darkened museum. Luckily, history buff Mary Harrsch offers over a hundred supplemental photos on her Flickr site.
Our other favorite presidential attraction was the heart of downtown Rapid City, which features many prominent bronze statues of our chief executives on its street corners. World traveler Galen Frysinger has most of ‘em up on his site, but I myself managed to snap two that he missed. On the subject of missing things, I can’t believe we passed this one up. But it came up at the end of a long day of driving (we pulled down over twelve hundred miles for the whole trip), and we just couldn’t bear to stop, even for something as great as this.
Bonus question: Who are the gentlemen in the above photo, and what do they all have in common?
Hey Derrick,
Can I hazard a guess on the bonus question?
(L-R) Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Grant. John Tyler, Gerald Ford?
The five in question assumed the presidency unexpectedly, i.e., were sworn in after the death/impeachment/resignation of the prior president.
It’s a good guess — and close.
The fellow in the middle is a clumsy Chester Arthur. Grant was elected in his own right (twice even) and was never VP. Arthur, on the other hand was Garfield’s veep.
As to the second part of the answer: all of these men took over from dead (or disgraced) POTUS-es, but (and here’s the crucial factor) WERE NEVER ELECTED TO A TERM OF THEIR OWN…and thusly not worthy of anything but being grouped together as such.
And there you have it.
They were not elected to be President, however, (with the Exception of Ford), they were elected to be the Veep either by coming in Second in the Presidency race, or by being a running mate of the President, and although it is not much, it is something.
As far as your fascination with Presidential birth places and burila sites I reccommend The Richard Nixon Presidential Libeary, Musuem, Birth Place, Burial Site, and Gift shop. Kill every single bird with the same trip to Yorba Linda. If you want to see Nixon that is.
Here is a trivia quesstion for you Mr. Bostrom:
After Millard Fillmore’s Presidency he formed another party to run against the two major parties. What was the name of Fillmore’s party? **Bonus** What party did Teddy Roosevelt form to run against Taft?
1. Know Nothing (American)
2. Bull Moose (Progressive)
Keep up the great work on this blog
, Great writing! P.S. I just love your theme, where did you get it.
This theme is K2 (see below), somewhat modified for my purposes. Alas, it and WordPress have gone through so damn many iterations, I am loathe to devote the time necessary to upgrade them. Like a lot of tinkery projects, I have long forgotten what I did to finally get this site looking and behaving as I wished. Perhaps if I ever get laid off my job, I’ll have enough time to update the whole mess.