Remember Bedrock City? South Dakota’s Flintstones Attraction

Growing up in far western Nebraska in the 1980s, there was one place I wanted to go on vacation. I should say this was before I was a teenager. By then, all I wanted to do was go to Denver, CO, where all the record stores and comic book shops a young nerd needed were located. But, before then, all I wanted to do was go north to Bedrock City in Custer, SD.

A Childhood Road Trip Dream

Bedrock City was a classic American roadside tourist attraction in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Sure, the mountains and wildlife were gorgeous, but my siblings and I just wanted to see Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty.

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What Was Bedrock City?

Bedrock City was a sort of theme park with buildings and other attractions inspired by the characters best known today as cereal and children’s vitamin pitchmen from The Flintstones. Well, I guess they had a cartoon TV show as well.

Real quick, the cartoon is about Fred, who is married to Wilma and lives next door to his best friend Barney and his wife Betty. They get into all sorts of cartoon hijinks. The show premiered on TV in the 1960s and has been in constant rotation in one form or another since then.

Inside the Flintstones-Themed Park

It was kind of like walking through a zoo. You’d go to one exhibit, like Mount Rockmore, which was a recreation of Mount Rushmore but with Fred, Barney, and Dino. You could also get a Flintstone Brontoburger, just like on the show, at a real drive-in restaurant.

A day at Bedrock City started with a ride on the little Stone Age train that took you on a quick preview around the park. The train also took you through the Great Dinosaur Canyon and the volcano Mt. St. Wilma.

After the train, the walking started. You'd get to check out the recreation of Bedrock's City Hall and the homes of Fred and Barney. It all looked like it came straight out of the cartoon. Bedrock City had everything a city needs, from a car mechanic to a radio station to the Water Buffalo lodge. There was even a working movie theater and a playhouse. I remember going to shows at the playhouse and watching movies in the theater, but I don't remember any of the content. I guess that it was Flintstones-related.

After checking out all the exhibits, we kids were rewarded with time in the giant playground. There was also a campground part of Bedrock City, but we weren't really camping folks, so I don't know what that was like.

When Bedrock City Closed

The Bedrock City in Custer opened in 1966 and drew crowds to the Black Hills until 2015, when it closed. Shortly thereafter, all the Flintstones stuff was thrown out, and the area turned into a giant campground.

According to Roadside America, the whole thing was created by some local concrete makers. All the attractions in Bedrock City were made of concrete.

In 1972, a second Bedrock City was opened near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. That one seems to still be open, as of this writing. You can find it just outside Williams, AZ, in the Raptor Ranch campgrounds. A third version lived in Chilliwack, British Columbia, from the mid 1970s through the 1990s.