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Sturgis: The Way We Were

BY KALI KOTOSKI

It’s hard to imagine what the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was really like in its infancy, especially as time passes and fewer folks than ever are around to recall the early days of what has become a seminal event in American motorcycling.

But this photographic gem — circa 1953 — from the AMA Archive gives us a pretty cool glimpse of the past.

Just as the Ponderosa pines lining the roads in the Black Hills have grown fatter and taller, so has the Sturgis Rally as it has taken root in motorcyclist culture. The first rally held near Mount Rushmore actually happened before the colossal sculpture honoring America was even completed.

The founder of the Sturgis Rally, Clarence “Pappy” Hoel, started the event called the “Black Hills Classic” in 1938. It consisted of just nine Indian Motorcycle riders and friends competing in a single race with a small crowd of spectators.

But it wasn’t until the 1970s and ’80s that Sturgis exploded, propelling the motorcycle bonanza into what it is today, drawing in nearly half a million riders each year to revel in and bond over the motorcycle life. So, Pappy…thank you! You built something really big and really fun, something that will endure for as long as there’s pavement. Talk about a visionary! AMA