Gasoline in Rapid City dropped below $3 for the first time in nearly a year.

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.99 Friday at Canyon Lake Gas & Auto Care on Canyon Lake Drive.

"I've been there since yesterday," station owner Dave Gaudette said Friday.

Although Gaudette wouldn't divulge the secret of his low-cost fuel, prices throughout the city, South Dakota and the U.S. have plummeted in recent weeks on fears an economic slowdown might slash demand.

South Dakota hasn't seen $3 a gallon for regular gas since early November 2007, according to southdakotagasprices.com, a Web site affiliated with gas price-tracking site gasbuddy.com. The average gas price in the state peaked at $4.07 in mid-July.

The average U.S. price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.27, down from a high of slightly more than $4 a gallon in mid July.

Throughout the rest of the city, prices range between $3.15 and $3.36. At $3.35 and $3.39 respectively, Spearfish and Sturgis stations had some of the highest fuel prices in the state, and Sioux Falls had the lowest, with one station as low as $2.74 and another at $2.85.

At $2.74 a gallon, Oklahoma checks in as the state with the lowest average price of gas.