Firefighters Make Progress Containing Black Hills Fires, Mount Rushmore Remains Closed

The busts of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln tower over the Black Hills at Mount Rushmore National Monument near Keystone, S.D., on July 2, 2020. Scott Olson/Getty Images

NEMO, S.D.—Firefighters continued to make progress Wednesday on containing wildfires in the Black Hills of South Dakota that earlier forced the evacuation of more than 400 homes.

Fire crews have increased containment of the largest fire near Schroeder Road in the Nemo area to 47 percent, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Wednesday. The Schroeder Road fire has burned nearly 3.4 square miles.