DAKOTA NATIonAL PARK ELEVATOR ISSUES HIT POCKETBOOK

Wind Cave National Park in western South Dakota has lost potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue due to an elevator providing cave access for tours being out of service since late June 2019, the Rapid City Journal reports. From July to October 2018, visitors paid US$660,393 for tours of Wind Cave, which, besides an elevator, can be accessed by 155 stairs. Park officials felt using stairs to access the cave would be, at best, uncomfortable and, at worst, a serious issue if a medical emergency occurred. The park’s elevator-maintenance provider, thyssenkrupp, said it is working to remediate the issues, which include ordering and installing a new car-position sensor and rope-gripping devices. The US$169,134 needed for the new parts is coming from the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.