| Badlands National Park | |
|---|---|
IUCN category II (national park)
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Badlands National Park
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Location in the United States
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| Location | South Dakota, United States |
| Nearest city | Rapid City, South Dakota |
| Coordinates | 43°45′N 102°30′WCoordinates: 43°45′N 102°30′W |
| Area | 242,756 acres (982.40 km2) |
| Established | January 29, 1939 as a National Monument November 10, 1978 as a National Park |
| Visitors | 1,008,942 (in 2018) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Official website |
Badlands National Park (Lakota: Makȟóšiča) is an American national park located in southwestern South Dakota. The park protects 242,756 acres (379.3 sq mi; 982.4 km2) of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. The National Park Service manages the park, with the South Unit being co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe.
The Badlands Wilderness protects 64,144 acres (100.2 sq mi; 259.6 km2) of the park as a designated wilderness area, and is one site where the black-footed ferret, one of the most endangered mammals in the world, was reintroduced to the wild. The South Unit, or Stronghold District, includes sites of 1890s Ghost Dances, a former United States Air Force bomb and gunnery range, and Red Shirt Table, the park's highest point at 3,340 feet (1,020 m).
Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was not established until January 25, 1939. Badlands was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978. Under the Mission 66 plan, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was constructed for the monument in 1957–58. The park also administers the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. Movies such as Dances with Wolves (1990) and Thunderheart (1992) were partially filmed in Badlands National Park.
History
Native Americans
For 11,000 years, Native Americans have used this area for their hunting grounds. Long before the Lakota were the little-studied paleo-Indians, followed by the Arikara people. Their descendants live today in North Dakota as a part of the Three Affiliated Tribes.
Archaeological records combined with oral traditions indicate that
these people camped in secluded valleys where fresh water and game were
available year-round. Eroding out of the stream banks today are the
rocks and charcoal of their campfires, as well as the arrowheads and
tools they used to butcher bison, rabbits, and other game. From the top
of the Badlands Wall, they could scan the area for enemies and wandering
herds. If hunting was good, they might hang on into winter, before
retracing their way to their villages along the Missouri River.
The Lakota people were the first to call this place "mako sica" or
"land bad." Extreme temperatures, lack of water, and the exposed rugged
terrain led to this name. French-Canadian fur trappers called it "les
mauvaises terres pour traverser," or "bad lands to travel through." By one hundred and fifty years ago, the Great Sioux Nation consisting of seven bands including the Oglala Lakota, had displaced the other tribes from the northern prairie.
The next great change came toward the end of the 19th century as homesteaders moved into South Dakota. The U.S. government stripped Native Americans of much of their territory and forced them to live on reservations. In the fall and early winter of 1890, thousands of Native Americans, including many Oglala Sioux, became followers of the Indian prophet Wovoka. His vision called for the native people to dance the Ghost Dance and wear Ghost shirts,
which would be impervious to bullets. Wovoka had predicted that the
white man would vanish and their hunting grounds would be restored. One
of the last known Ghost Dances was conducted on Stronghold Table in the
South Unit of Badlands National Park. As winter closed in, the ghost
dancers returned to Pine Ridge Agency. The climax of the struggle came in late December, 1890. Headed south from the Cheyenne River, a band of Minneconjou Sioux crossed a pass in the Badlands Wall. Pursued by units of the U.S. Army, they were seeking refuge in the Pine Ridge Reservation. The band, led by Chief Spotted Elk, was finally overtaken by the soldiers near Wounded Knee Creek
in the Reservation and ordered to camp there overnight. The troops
attempted to disarm Big Foot's band the next morning. Gunfire erupted.
Before it was over, nearly three hundred Indians and thirty soldiers lay
dead. The Wounded Knee Massacre was the last major clash between Plains Indians and the U.S. military until the advent of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, most notably in the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Wounded Knee is not within the boundaries of Badlands National
Park. It is located approximately 45 miles (72 km) south of the park on
Pine Ridge Reservation. The U.S. government and the Oglala Lakota Nation
have agreed that this is a story to be told by the Oglala of Pine Ridge and Minneconjou of Standing Rock Reservation. The interpretation of the site and its tragic events are held as the primary responsibility of these survivors.
Fossil hunters
False-color satellite image of the park
The history of the White River Badlands as a significant
paleontological resource goes back to the traditional Native American
knowledge of the area. The Lakota found large fossilized bones,
fossilized seashells and turtle shells. They correctly assumed that the
area had once been under water, and that the bones belonged to creatures
which no longer existed. Paleontological interest in this area began in the 1840s. Trappers and traders regularly traveled the 300 miles (480 km) from Fort Pierre to Fort Laramie
along a path which skirted the edge of what is now Badlands National
Park. Fossils were occasionally collected, and in 1843 a fossilized jaw
fragment collected by Alexander Culbertson of the American Fur Company found its way to a physician in St. Louis by the name of Dr. Hiram A. Prout.
In 1846, Prout published a paper about the jaw in the American Journal of Science in which he stated that it had come from a creature he called a Paleotherium.
Shortly after the publication, the White River Badlands became popular
fossil hunting grounds and, within a couple of decades, numerous new
fossil species had been discovered in the White River Badlands. In 1849,
Dr. Joseph Leidy published a paper on an Oligocene camel and renamed Prout's Paleotherium, Titanotherium prouti.
By 1854 when he published a series of papers about North American
fossils, 84 distinct species had been discovered in North America – 77
of which were found in the White River Badlands. In 1870 a Yale
professor, O. C. Marsh,
visited the region and developed more refined methods of extracting and
reassembling fossils into nearly complete skeletons. From 1899 to
today, the South Dakota School of Mines
has sent people almost every year and remains one of the most active
research institutions working in the White River Badlands. Throughout
the late 19th century and continuing today, scientists and institutions
from all over the world have benefited from the fossil resources of the
White River Badlands. The White River Badlands have developed an
international reputation as a fossil-rich area. They contain the richest
deposits of Oligocene mammals known, providing a glimpse of life in the area 33 million years ago.
List of fossil animals
- Alligator (Crocodilian)
- Archaeotherium (Entelodont)
- Dinictis (Nimravid)
- Eporeodon (Oreodont)
- Eusmilus (Nimravid)
- Hoplophoneus (Nimravid)
- Hyaenodon (Creodont)
- Hyracodon (Running Rhino)
- Ischyromys (Ground Squirrel-like Rodent)
- Leptomeryx (Tragulid)
- Merycoidodon (Oreodont)
- Mesohippus (Horse)
- Metamynodon (Aquatic Rhino)
- Miniochoerus (Oreodont)
- Poebrotherium (Camel)
- Subhyracodon (Rhinoceros)
White River Badlands (click image for a description of the geology and fossils there)
Homesteaders
Aspects of American homesteading began before the end of the American Civil War;
however, it did not affect the Badlands until the 20th century. Then,
many hopeful farmers traveled to South Dakota from Europe or the eastern United States
to try to seek out a living in the area. In 1929, the South Dakota
Dept. of Agriculture published an advertisement to lure settlers to the
state. On this map they called the Badlands, "The Wonderlands",
promising "...marvelous scenic and recreational advantages". The
standard size for a homestead was 160 acres (0.3 sq mi; 0.6 km2).
Being in a semi-arid, wind-swept environment, this proved far too small
of a holding to support a family. In 1916, in the western Dakotas, the size of a homestead was increased to 640 acres (1.0 sq mi; 2.6 km2). Cattle grazed the land, and crops such as winter wheat and hay were cut annually. However, the Great Dust Bowl
events of the 1930s, combined with waves of grasshoppers, proved too
much for most of the settlers of the Badlands. Houses, which had been
built out of sod blocks and heated by buffalo chips, were abandoned.
Military use of Stronghold District
Badlands in the northern portion of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
As part of the World War II effort, the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) took possession of 341,726 acres (533.9 sq mi; 1,382.9 km2) of land on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala Sioux people, for a gunnery range. Included in this range was 337 acres (0.5 sq mi; 1.4 km2)
from the Badlands National Monument. This land was used extensively
from 1942 through 1945 as an air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery range
including both precision and demolition bombing exercises. After the
war, portions of the bombing range were used as an artillery range by
the South Dakota National Guard. In 1968, most of the range was declared
excess property by the USAF. Although 2,500 acres (3.9 sq mi; 10.1 km2) were retained by the USAF (but are no longer used) the majority of the land was turned over to the National Park Service.
Firing took place within most of the present day Stronghold
District. Land was bought or leased from individual landowners and the
Tribe in order to clear the area of human occupation. Old car bodies and
55 gallon drums painted bright yellow were used as targets. Bulls-eyes
250 feet (76 m) across were plowed into the ground and used as targets
by bombardiers. Small automatic aircraft called "target drones"
and 60-by-8-foot (18 by 2 m) screens dragged behind planes served as
mobile targets. Today, the ground is littered with discarded bullet
cases and unexploded ordnance.
In the 1940s, 125 families were forcibly relocated from their farms and ranches, including Dewey Beard, a survivor of the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Those that remained nearby recall times when they had to dive under
tractors while out cutting hay to avoid bombs dropped by planes miles
outside of the boundary. In the town of Interior,
both a church and the building housing the current post office were
struck by six inch (152 mm) shells through the roof. Pilots operating
out of Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City
found it a real challenge to determine the exact boundaries of the
range. However, there were no civilian casualties. However, at least a
dozen flight crew personnel lost their lives in plane crashes.
The Stronghold District of Badlands National Park, co-managed by the National Park Service and the Oglala Lakota Tribe, is a 133,300-acre (208.3 sq mi; 539.4 km2) area.[citation needed] Deep draws, high tables and rolling prairie are characteristic of these lands occupied by the earliest plains hunters, the paleo-Indians, and the Lakota Nation.
Wildlife
Animals that inhabit the park include:
- Wildlife in the park
Prairie dogs
Bighorn sheep
Bison bull
Visitor services
Badlands National Park has two campgrounds for overnight visits. The Ben Reifel Visitor Center within the park offers a bookstore, special programs, and exhibits.
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Badlands National Park has a cold semi-arid climate (Bsk).
Gallery
Buttes and pinnacles
Boardwalk to the Windows
Door Trail
A view of the park from an airplane to the north.
