State Game Lodge

Calvin and Grace Coolidge spent three months at the lodge in 1927, giving it the “Summer White House” name. President Eisenhower visited in 1953. The first lodge opened in 1921 and burned that October; the replacement building standing here today was in use by June 1922.

The main lodge is built from native stone and timber. It predates the park’s Civilian Conservation Corps era; the CCC later built roads, bridges, dams and other structures around Custer, but not this lodge. Historic guest rooms sit upstairs above the restaurant, with newer room wings, cabins and Creekside Lodge spread through the larger resort. Restored Coolidge and Eisenhower rooms preserve the lodge’s presidential connection, including Coolidge’s original desk in the Coolidge Room.

Buffalo Safari Jeep Tours associated with the resort check in at Creekside Lodge, about 200 yards southeast of the historic building. The paved Creekside Trail runs three miles one way, linking toward the visitor center and campground on one side and Coolidge Store and Grace Coolidge Campground on the other. It’s a useful way to connect the lodge area with nearby stops without moving the car.

Keep the front porch and stone lower walls together in the frame; that shows the details that make this building distinctive better than a tight crop of its roofline.