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Title: The History of Badlands National Monument and the White River (Big) Badlands of South Dakota - Badlands Natural History Association Bulletin No. 1
Author: Mattison, Ray H., Grom, Robert A., Stockert, Joanne W.
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The History of Badlands National Monument and the White River (Big) Badlands of South Dakota - Badlands Natural History Association Bulletin No. 1" ***
Cover Photo: THE CASTLE, five miles west of Cedar Pass and just west
of Norbeck Pass, is a spectacular saw-tooth ridge which was named by
early local ranchers. The spires rise more than 200 feet above the
Fossil Exhibit Trail (see Figure 28) and approximately 450 feet
above the lower grassland plains which are out of view on the left.
The ridge is an eroded remnant of rock layers which formerly covered
Badlands National Monument and surrounding areas.
HISTORY
OF
BADLANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT
and
The White River (Big) Badlands of South Dakota
by
Ray H. Mattison
and
Robert A. Grom
edited by
Joanne W. Stockert
[Illustration: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE]
Bulletin No. 1
Published 1968 by the
Badlands Natural History Association
Badlands National Monument
Interior, South Dakota 57750
Printed at Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A.
By Espe Printing Company
First Edition
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 68-19055
This booklet is published by the Badlands Natural History Association, a
nonprofit corporation dedicated to assisting the National Park Service
in its scientific, educational, historical, and interpretive activities
at Badlands National Monument. Organized in April 1959, the association
is incorporated under the laws of the State of South Dakota. It is
recognized by the National Park Service, United States Department of the
Interior, as an official cooperating organization. A list of mail-sales
items handled by the association may be obtained free by sending a card
or letter to the address shown on the title page.
The Badlands Natural History Association wishes to thank the many local
people who have contributed their know-how and resources in making this
publication possible.
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
Chronology of Badlands National Monument and the White River (Big)
Badlands 9
Early Indians and Explorers 11
The Settlers Come 23
Legislation for Park Establishment 27
The Depression Years 37
Early Development of the National Monument 43
Mission 66 Development 59
APPENDIX
A Annual Visitor Use, 1938-1967 65
B Custodians and Superintendents of Badlands National Monument 67
C Picture Credits 69
D Footnotes and References 71
E Map of Badlands National Monument 79
INTRODUCTION
In 1951 the National Park Service (NPS) launched the concept of
developing a documented history for each unit of the national park
system. Known since 1984 as “park” histories, the studies were to be
general in scope, spanning the history of each area with emphasis on
park origin, legislation, visitor use, and all aspects of management.
Although sporadic research on local area history was done by the NPS in
the 1950’s and early 1960’s, comprehensive research studies that finally
led to a park history for Badlands National Monument did not start until
1964. In that year Ray H. Mattison, former Visitor Services Coordinator
and Historian for the Midwest Region of the NPS, began the project by
selecting some 300 pages of reference materials from the National
Archives. Additional bibliographical materials were located in the
Congressional Record, NPS historical files, and elsewhere. Former Chief
Park Naturalist Robert A. Grom of Badlands National Monument did much in
gathering photographs, maps, and historical data, and in writing
additions and revising parts of the various drafts prepared by Mattison.
By the end of 1965 a manuscript was completed, but publication was
delayed. Mattison retired from the NPS in 1965 and Grom was transferred
in May 1966.
In 1967 more historical evidence came to light which resulted in the
editing, updating, and expanding of the 1965 manuscript. Much of this
work was done by Joanne W. Stockert, wife of the Chief Park Naturalist.
Copies of all documents and references not found locally but which were
used as bibliography in the final manuscript were obtained for the files
or library of Badlands National Monument. For those who are interested
in learning how this national monument has evolved to the present time,
the Badlands Natural History Association has published this history with
the hope that it will provide a basic source of historical information
on Badlands National Monument.
John W. Stockert
Executive Secretary
Badlands Natural History Association
February 19, 1968
CHRONOLOGY OF BADLANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT AND THE WHITE RIVER (BIG)
BADLANDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA
1823—First known party of white men, led by fur-trader Jedediah Smith,
passed through the White River Badlands.
1849—First scientific party, under Dr. John Evans, collected
paleontological specimens from the Badlands.
1855—The General William Harney Expedition, en route from Fort Laramie
to Fort Pierre, passed through the present national monument.
1868—Present western South Dakota reserved to the Sioux by Fort
Laramie Treaty.
1874—Dr. O. C. Marsh, distinguished Yale scientist, and party visited
Badlands region.
1890—Much of the Badlands restored to public domain to be opened
eventually to white settlement.
A band of Sioux, under Chief Big Foot, passed through the area of
the present national monument en route to Wounded Knee, where
many were killed in battle with the army.
1907—The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad built through
Interior near southern boundary of area, The Chicago and North
Western Railway constructed through Philip and Wall near
northern boundary.
1909—The South Dakota Legislature petitioned Congress to set aside a
township in the Badlands region for a national park.
1922—Senator Peter Norbeck introduced the first bill in Congress to
make a portion of the Badlands a national park.
1929—Badlands National Monument, comprising some 50,830 acres,
authorized by Congress.
1936—Law enacted authorizing enlargement of the proposed national
monument to 250,000 acres by presidential proclamation.
1939—Badlands National Monument, comprising about 150,000 acres,
established by presidential proclamation.
1952—Congress authorized reduction in size of national monument. Area
reduced by about 27,000 acres.
1957—Area further reduced by approximately 11,000 acres, leaving the
national monument with an official acreage of 111,529.82
acres.
1959—Visitor center completed.
Badlands National Monument dedicated by Secretary of the Interior
Fred A. Seaton.
1963—Bison reintroduced to the Badlands.
1964—Bighorn reintroduced to the Badlands.
Cedar Pass Lodge acquired by the National Park Service.
[Illustration: Figure 1 LES MAUVAISES TERRES,
NEBRASKA
This is the earliest published view of the White River Badlands. The
sketch was made in 1849 by Dr. John Evans when he was in the field
with the Owen Geological Survey. The region at that time was a part
of Nebraska Territory.]
EARLY INDIANS AND EXPLORERS
Little is known of the prehistory of the region which comprises Badlands
National Monument. The time of man’s entry into the Badlands-Black Hills
region is unknown. The oldest Indian site found in western South Dakota
is in the Angostura Basin south of Hot Springs. Studies indicate it to
be a little more than 7,000 years old. Evidence shows that these early
people were big-game hunters who preyed upon mammoth, large bison, and
other animals that lived in the lush post-glacial grasslands.[1]
Firepits containing Indian artifacts have been found in the Pinnacles
area of the national monument. Radiocarbon studies leave little doubt
that hunters were already using this site by 900 A.D.[2] More
archeological research will probably show that man hunted and made his
home in the Badlands long before that date.[3]
Since about 1000 AD. the Black Hills area has been occupied by a number
of nomadic Indian tribes. Some of these subsisted primarily by hunting,
while others lived on local food plants. These tribes probably belonged
to the Caddoan, Athabascan, Kiowa, and Shoshonean linguistic groups.[4]
During the 18th century, parties of Arikara from the Missouri River went
on buffalo hunts as far west as the Black Hills. There they met with the
Comanche, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Cheyenne at trading fairs where they
acquired horses. The Arikara, in turn, traded horses with the Teton
Sioux who had been slowly migrating south and westward since about 1670
from the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Around 1775 the Oglala and
Brule, tribes of the Teton Sioux, moved west of the Missouri River to
occupy respectively the Bad River country (around the present town of
Philip, S.D.) and the region along the White River south of the
Badlands. Because of their move from a timbered area to a plains region,
the Sioux underwent great adjustment. As the result of acquiring guns
from the whites and horses from other tribes, the Sioux became primarily
a nomadic people, dependent on buffalo for sustenance.[5]
For more than a century prior to 1763, the upper Missouri Valley,
including what is today Badlands National Monument, was under French
control. Under terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 French possessions
west of the Mississippi River were ceded to Spain. Spain returned the
area, known as Louisiana, to France in 1800 in the secret Treaty of San
Ildefonso.[6] In 1803 the entire region, which included all of the
present states of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota,
plus parts of eight other states, was purchased by the United States
from France for $15,000,000.
The early French-Canadian trappers called the region, which includes the
present day national monument, Les Mauvaises terres a traverser, which
translated means “bad lands to travel across.” Other traders applied the
term “bad lands” to this locality as well as to any section of the
prairie country “where roads are difficult....” The Dakota Indians
called the region Mako Sica (mako, land; sica, bad).[7]
Father Pierre-Jean de Smet called the White River Mankizita-Watpa. This
Indian word commonly means “white earth river,” or more literally,
“smoking land river.” The priest attributed the name to the river water
which he wrote was “impregnated with a whitish slime.”[8]
Early American trappers and traders called the attention of the world to
the unusual geological features and extensive fossil deposits of the
Badlands along the White River. The earliest known description of the
region, believed to be the White River Badlands, is that of James
Clyman, a member of Jedediah Smith’s 11-man party, who passed through
the area in 1823. Clyman described it as
... a tract of county whare no vegetation of any kind existed beeing
worn into knobs and gullies and extremely uneven ... a loose grayish
coloured soil verry soluble in water running thick as it could move of
a pale whitish coular and remarkably adhesive ... there [came] on a
misty rain while we were in this pile of ashes [bad-lands west of the
South Fork of the Cheyenne River] and it loded down our horses feet
(feet) in great lumps it looked a little remarkable that not a foot of
level land could be found the narrow revines going in all manner of
directions and the cobble mound[s] of a regular taper from top to
bottom all of them of the percise same angle and the tops sharp ...
the whole of this region is moveing to the Misourie River as fast as
rain and thawing of Snow can carry it....[9]
When Maximilian, Prince of Wied, returned to Fort Pierre in 1834 after
making his historic journey up the Missouri with Charles Bodmer, William
Laidlaw, the trader of the fort, gave him a description of the Badlands.
The German prince wrote:
... I much regretted that I could not remain long enough to visit the
interesting tract of the Mauvaises Terres, which is some days’ journey
from hence. Mr. Laidlow [sic], who had been there in the winter, gave
me a description of it. It is two days’ journey, he said, south-west
of Fort Pierre, and forms, in the level prairie, an accumulation of
hills of most remarkable forms, looking like fortresses, churches,
villages and ruins, and doubtless consisting of the same sand-stone as
the conformations near the Stone Walls. He further stated that the
bighorn abounds in that tract.[10]
Father de Smet visited the Badlands region in 1848. He described it as
... the most extraordinary of any I have met in my journeys through
the wilderness.... Viewed at a distance, these lands exhibit the
appearance of extensive villages and ancient castles, but under forms
so extraordinary, and so capricious a style of architecture, that we
might consider them as appertaining to some new world, or ages far
remote.[11]
The Jesuit noted further, “The industry of the settler will never
succeed in cultivating and planting this fluctuating and sterile
soil....” However, he believed that the fossil deposits in the region
would be of interest to the geologist and the naturalist.[12]
[Illustration: Figure 2 OREODONT SKELETON
Oreodonts are the most common fossil mammals found in the Badlands.
Several species of these now-extinct animals have been
scientifically described.[13]]
In the 1840’s the reports of fossil remains in the White River Badlands
aroused the curiosity of scientific circles in the East. In the fall of
1843(?) Alexander Culbertson, well-known fur trader of the American Fur
Company, made a trip from Fort Pierre to Fort Laramie. Either on this
particular trip or succeeding ones, he made a collection of fossils and
bones in the Badlands.[14] This collection provided the basis for the
first scientific description of a Badlands fossil. The description was
written by Dr. Hiram A. Prout of St. Louis, published in 1846, and
printed again in 1847 with greater detail. The paper described a
lower-jaw fragment of a large rhinoceros-like animal which later was
given the common name titanothere by Dr. Joseph Leidy in 1852. Another
fossil from this same collection, a fragment of an ancestral camel, was
also described in 1847 by Dr. Leidy, who in a few years became the
authority on Badlands fossils and an outstanding paleontologist.[15] In
the fall of 1847 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia became
the first known institution to receive a collection of fossils from this
region.[16]
In 1848 another deposit to this institution, made by Culbertson’s
father, Joseph, included “a new fossil genus of Mammalia, found near the
‘Black Hills’....”[17] These deposits aroused such interest that in 1849
United States Geologist David Dale Owen sent his assistant, Dr. John
Evans, to the Badlands.[18]
Dr. Evans, accompanied by a fellow geologist, “five Canadian travelers
who were to be our muleteers and cooks, and finally an Indian guide and
an interpreter,”[19] set out westward from Fort Pierre after traveling
by steamboat from St. Louis. Following five days of overland travel they
reached the Badlands. One of the party was a Frenchman, E. de Girardin,
a soldier of fortune employed as an artist on the expedition. His story
of the trip was published in 1864 in a French travel magazine, Le Tour
du Monde. After climbing a hill about a hundred meters (about 330 feet)
high, he beheld “the strangest and most incomprehensible view.”[20] (See
Figure 4.)
At the horizon, at the end of an immense plain and tinted rose by the
reflection of the setting sun, a city in ruins appears to us, an
immense city surrounded by walls and bulwarks, filled by a palace
crowned with gigantic domes and monuments of the most fantastic and
bizarre architecture. At intervals on a soil white as snow rise
embattled chateaus of brick red, pyramids with their sharp-pointed
summits topped with shapeless masses which seem to rock in the wind, a
pillar of a hundred meters rises in the midst of this chaos of ruins
like a gigantic lighthouse.[21]
De Girardin was also impressed by the large deposits of fossil remains
in the area. “The soil is formed here and there of a thick bed of
petrified bones,” he wrote, “sometimes in a state perfectly preserved,
sometimes broken and reduced to dust.” The party discovered “petrified
turtles,” some of which were “admirably preserved and weighing up to 150
pounds....” The expedition also found “a head of a rhinoceros equally
petrified, and the jawbone of a dog or wolf of a special kind, furnished
with all its teeth.” At places the scientists located “heaps of teeth
and scraps of broken jawbones; ... bones and vertebrae of the oreodon,
the mastdon [sic] and the elephant.” However, after exploring for three
days in the region without having discovered “the elephants, the
buffaloes, and the petrified men of which they had spoken to us so
much,” the party began its journey back to Fort Pierre.[22]
Dr. Evans himself was not only impressed by the scenic qualities of the
Badlands but by the scientific importance of the region as well. He
wrote:
After leaving the locality on Sage Creek, affording the
above-mentioned fossils, crossing that stream, and proceeding in the
direction of White River, about twelve or fifteen miles, the formation
of the Mauvaises Terres proper bursts into view, disclosing as here
depicted, one of the most extraordinary and picturesque sights that
can be found in the whole Missouri country.
From the high prairies, that rise in the background, by a series of
terraces or benches, towards the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, the
traveller looks down into an extensive valley, that may be said to
constitute a world of its own, and which appears to have been formed,
partly by an extensive vertical fault, partly by the long-continued
influence of the scooping action of denudation.
The width of this valley may be about thirty miles, and its whole
length about ninety, as it stretches away westwardly, towards the base
of the gloomy and dark range of mountains known as the Black Hills.
Its most depressed portion, three hundred feet below the general level
of the surrounding country, is clothed with scanty grasses, and
covered by a soil similar to that of the higher ground.
To the surrounding country, however, the Mauvaises Terres present the
most striking contrast. From the uniform, monotonous, open prairie,
the traveller suddenly descends, one or two hundred feet, into a
valley that looks as if it had sunk away from the surrounding world;
leaving standing, all over it, thousands of abrupt, irregular,
prismatic, and columnar masses, frequently capped with irregular
pyramids, and stretching up to a height of from one to two hundred
feet, or more.
So thickly are these natural towers studded over the surface of this
extraordinary region, that the traveller threads his way through deep,
confined, labyrinthine passages, not unlike the narrow, irregular
streets and lanes of some quaint old town of the European Continent.
Viewed in the distance, indeed, these rocky piles, in their endless
succession, assume the appearance of massive, artificial structures,
decked out with all the accessories of buttress and turret, arched
doorway and clustered shaft, pinnacle, and finial, and tapering spire.
One might almost imagine oneself approaching some magnificent city of
the dead, where the labour and the genius of forgotten nations had
left behind them a multitude of monuments of art and skill.[23]
Dr. Evans was equally awed by the rich paleontological deposits of the
Badlands region. After describing the extreme heat of the region, he
continued:
At every step, objects of the highest interest present themselves.
Embedded in the debris, lie strewn, in the greatest profusion, organic
relics of extinct animals. All speak of a vast freshwater deposit of
the early Tertiary Period, and disclose the former existence of most
remarkable races, that roamed about in bygone ages high up in the
Valley of the Missouri, towards the sources of its western
tributaries; where now pastures the big-horned Ovis montana, the
shaggy buffalo or American bison, and the elegant and
slenderly-constructed antelope.
Every specimen as yet brought from the Bad Lands, proves to be of
species that became exterminated before the mammoth and mastodon
lived, and differ in their specific character, not alone from all
living animals, but also from all fossils obtained even from
cotemporaneous [sic] geological formations elsewhere.[24]
Dr. Evans drew a map (See Figure 3) of Mauvaises Terres (Bad Lands) and
Dr. Joseph Leidy prepared a catalog as well as sketches of the most
significant fossils the Owen Geological Survey Party found on its
journey to the region.[25]
In 1850 Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution arranged for
Thaddeus Culbertson, a younger brother of Alexander Culbertson, to visit
the Badlands under the auspices of the Institution. Born in 1823 at
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, young Culbertson, a student at Princeton
Theological Seminary, set out with his brother, Alexander, from
Chambersburg in mid-February. The brothers left St. Louis by steamboat
on March 19 and arrived at Fort Pierre May 4. With his brother supplying
the equipment, Thaddeus and two others set out from the fur-trading
establishment three days later. On May 11 they encamped at Sage Creek in
the White River Badlands.[26]
[Illustration: Figure 3 AN EARLY MAP OF THE
WHITE RIVER BAD LANDS]
Culbertson, too, was very much impressed by the Badlands as he
approached them:
The road now lay over hills which became more steep and frequent as we
approached the Bad Lands. These occasionally appeared in the distance
and never before did I see anything that so resembled a large city; so
complete was this deception that I could point out the public
buildings; one appeared to have a large dome which might be the town
Hall; another would have a large angular, cone shape top, which would
suggest the court house or some magnificent buildings for public
purposes: then would appear a long row of palaces, great in number and
superb in all their arrangements. Indeed the thought frequently
occurred as we rode along that at a distance this portion of the
grounds looked like a city of palaces—everything arranged upon the
grandest scale and adapted for the habitation, not of pigmies such as
now inhabit the earth, but of giants such as would be fit to rule over
the immense animals whose remains are still found there.[27]
Culbertson was also moved by the complete desolation of the Badlands:
Fancy yourself on the hottest day in summer in the hottest spot of
such a place without water—without an animal and scarce an insect
astir—without a single flower to speak pleasant things to you and you
will have some idea of the utter loneliness of the Bad Lands.[28]
The young scientist was disappointed, however, with the fossils. Instead
of finding well-preserved skeletons of different animals, he located
only the imperfect remains of several turtles, a number of excellent
teeth and jawbones, and several good skulls of animals.[29]
After rejoining his brother at Fort Pierre, young Culbertson proceeded
up the river to Fort Union. On his trip he collected not only fossils
but skulls, skins, and skeletons of buffalo, grizzly bear, white wolf,
prairie wolf, and other animals. He also collected plants along the
Missouri. Surprisingly, the fossil remains Culbertson collected were
declared by Baird as “an exceedingly interesting series of Mammalian and
Reptilian species including many that had never been described.”[30]
In poor health, young Culbertson died in late August 1850, soon after
his return to Chambersburg.[31]
In 1853 two geologists, Dr. F.V. Hayden and F.B. Meek, visited the
Badlands region. Both were to receive national recognition later as
distinguished scientists. They spent several days at Sage Creek, noted
by travellers for the purgative qualities of its water. Both men and
their horses experienced a weakening effect after drinking from the
stream.[32]
Brevet Brigadier-General William S. Harney’s expedition, in its punitive
campaign against the Brule Sioux in 1855, crossed overland through a
portion of the Badlands en route from Fort Laramie (old Ft. William) to
Fort Pierre (old Fort Tecumseh) on the Missouri. Accompanying the
expedition were Lt. G.K. Warren, U.S. topographical engineer, and Dr.
Hayden who had visited the Badlands region two years earlier.[33]
[Illustration: Figure 4 REMAINS OF THE FORT
LARAMIE-FORT PIERRE TRAIL
Here, just outside the most northern boundary of the present
national monument, it is believed E. de Girardin made his poetic
observations of the Badlands on the horizon, as recorded on page 14.
Wagon-wheel ruts along the old trail—in the foreground—can still be
traced for miles in unplowed terrain.]
Warren was authorized to map the trail over which the expedition passed.
This route, which crosses the western edge of Badlands National
Monument, had been used since at least the early 1830’s primarily by
trappers and traders to transport furs and supplies between the two
forts. Fort Pierre was abandoned as a military post in early 1857 soon
after the route was mapped, and the trail fell into disuse as a major
overland thoroughfare.[34] Remains of this historic route can still be
seen.
Dr. Hayden and his party camped on Bear Creek, west of the present
national monument, where Alexander Culbertson, Dr. Evans, and others had
obtained their valuable collections in the 1840’s. Dr. Hayden wrote, “We
spent five days at this locality, and with the mammalian remains already
collected in other places, our carts were loaded to their utmost.”[35]
Unlike his predecessors who had visited the region, Hayden was favorably
impressed by the White River region. “Contrasted with most of the
country on the upper Missouri, The White river valley is a paradise, and
the Indians consider it one of the choice spots of earth.”[36]
Hayden revisited the White River Badlands in 1857 and in the 1860’s. His
records may be found in government reports and in several scientific
publications.[37]
Captain John B.S. Todd, a cousin of the wife of Abraham Lincoln and
later governor of Dakota Territory, also accompanied the Harney
Expedition of 1855 and was impressed by the scenic grandeur of the
Badlands.[38] On October 12, the day the expedition broke camp at Ash
Grove Spring (now known as Harney Spring) southeast of Sheep Mountain
Table, he recorded in his journal:
After leaving camp, we continued to ascend the gentle slope upon which
it had been pitched, for nearly a mile, and on reaching the crest, the
most superbly grand and beautiful sight burst upon our view, that my
eye ever rested upon. Down for a thousand feet and more, the road
abruptly wound into the valley below; while far away, on all sides,
spread this magnificent panorama of mountain precipice and
vale—solitary, grand, chaotic, as it came from the hands of Him “who
doeth all things well.” What a scene for the painter, what a wonderous
field for the Naturalist![39]
Todd also described “the remains of turtle, petrified, of all sizes,
shattered and perfect, some not larger than the crown of a hat, others
of huge proportions....”[40]
Beginning in 1870 other organizations began making important
collections. Among these were the United States Geological Survey, Yale
University, Princeton University, American Museum of Natural History,
University of Nebraska, Carnegie Museum, University of South Dakota, and
the South Dakota State School of Mines and Technology.[41]
In 1874 the Badlands were visited by the distinguished paleontologist
Dr. O.C. Marsh of Yale University and his party. At that time the
Indians in the region were in a very ugly temper as a result of the
discovery of gold in the Black Hills by the Custer Expedition.
Guaranteed much of present northwestern Nebraska and all of South Dakota
west of the Missouri by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, they regarded
white visitors to the western Dakota region as intruders. Accompanied by
an army escort, Dr. Marsh and his party slipped into the reservation
through the Red Cloud Agency (located along the banks of the White River
near the present town of Crawford, Nebraska) at night without arousing
the Indian sentinels and reached the fossil region. Hurriedly gathering
and packing its specimens, the party returned to the agency less than 24
hours before a war party scoured the region for “the Big Bone Chief.” At
the agency, Chief Red Cloud informed Dr. Marsh of the manner in which
the Indian Bureau was fleecing the Indians in their rations. Dr. Marsh
carried this information to Washington, which resulted in a
Congressional investigation of the agency.[42]
[Illustration: Figure 5 MUSEUM OF GEOLOGY,
SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES AND TECHNOLOGY
The finest exhibits of Badlands fossils are on display in this
museum. It is open to the public without charge throughout the
year.]
Mr. John Bell Hatcher did much of the collecting for Dr. Marsh, under
the auspices of the United States Geological Survey, and is considered
to be one of the most successful and original of all collectors who have
worked in the Badlands.[43] He is responsible for beginning the practice
of collecting and preserving complete skeletons of fossilized
animals.[44]
While considerable collecting of fossils in the Badlands has been done
by various organizations since 1870, it was conducted in a somewhat
random manner at first. Since 1899 the South Dakota State School of
Mines and Technology has sent students into the Badlands for brief field
studies.[45] However, it was not until 1924 that a systematic means of
collecting fossils in the Badlands was begun by a Princeton University
professor, Glenn L. Jepsen, who was studying at the South Dakota State
School of Mines and Technology. He organized the first School of Mines
Badlands Expedition, which met with immediate success and laid the
foundation for the present extensive paleontological collections of that
school (See Figure 5).[46]
For many years large herds of bison roamed the Badlands during the
summer months. About 1861, the year that the Dakota Territory was
established, a drought began and continued for three years. The buffalo
which used the region as their summer range left during that period.
After the passing of the drought years, the herds, which had been driven
far to the west by hunters, returned only in small bands. For a time
great herds of mountain sheep, elk, antelope, whitetail and mule deer
continued to roam the area in large numbers. The elk wintered in the
southern Black Hills and went down into the Badlands in early spring. In
1877 residents of the Rapid City area and market hunters from the gold
camps in the northern Black Hills killed large numbers, which ended the
elk migration to the Badlands. Antelope as well as whitetail and mule
deer were killed by market hunters and settlers. The mountain sheep was
the last of the big game animals to disappear.[47]
[Illustration: Figure 6
Jim Hart of Scenic, South Dakota, displays a trophy of an Audubon
Bighorn Sheep shot on Sheep Mountain in 1903 by Charley Jones. These
animals were last recorded on Sheep Mountain Table about 1910 and
are now extinct.[48]]
Predatory animals such as coyotes, wolves, and black and grizzly bears
were likewise common. Bears were exterminated early. It was during the
second decade of this century that coyotes and wolves disappeared from
the Badlands, largely as a result of the work of the Biological Survey
in its predatory-animal extermination program.[49]
[Illustration: Figure 7 GRAY WOLF
Adult animals weigh between 70 and 120 pounds and are the largest of
the wild dogs. They were last seen in the present Badlands National
Monument around 1913.[50]]
The region which comprises western Dakota was a part of the Great Sioux
Reservation recognized as such by the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and
1868. In the late nineteenth century the tide of white settlement had
been steadily pushing westward. By an agreement on September 26, 1876,
later formalized by U.S. Statute, the Black Hills region was opened to
white settlement. An Act of Congress approved on March 2, 1889 (the same
year South Dakota became a state), and proclaimed by President Harrison
on February 10, 1890, restored to public domain the area between the
White and Cheyenne Rivers. This included the present area of Badlands
National Monument.[51]
On December 24, 1890, after escaping from military surveillance at Camp
Cheyenne on the Cheyenne River, Chief Big Foot and his band of
Miniconjous Sioux fled through what is now Big Foot Pass in Badlands
National Monument to the White River where they camped. When the Indians
reached Pine Creek on December 28, they were intercepted by the army. In
attempting to disarm them the next day, the military precipitated the
infamous “Wounded Knee Massacre” of December 29, 1890, when more than
150 Indians and 39 whites were killed. This was the last major clash
between Indians and the United States Army.[52]
The famous western artist Frederic Remington was attached to a scouting
party which went into the Badlands in search of Big Foot and his band.
The first camp Remington made with the soldiers was on Christmas night
with the thermometer well below zero. In an article written for Harper’s
Weekly, January 21, 1891, he described his trip into the region:
It was twelve miles through the defiles of the Bad Lands to the blue
ridge of the high mesa where the hostiles had lived. The trail was
strewn with dead cattle, some of them having never been touched with a
knife. Here and there a dead pony, ridden to a stand-still and left
nerveless on the trail. No words of mine can describe these Bad Lands.
They are somewhat as Dore pictured hell. One set of buttes, with cones
and minarets, gives place in the next mile to natural freaks of a
different variety, never dreamed of by mortal man. It is the action of
water on clay; there are ashes or what looks like them. The painter’s
whole palette is in one bluff.[53]
THE SETTLERS COME
White settlement of the Badlands region was slow. Suited for grazing,
the region in the 1890’s was primarily the domain of cattlemen and
sheepmen. At that time the region was surveyed by the Government.[54]
[Illustration: Figure 8 OLD INTERIOR, 1906
Settled in about 1881, the town was known as Black until the name
was changed around 1895. It was located about two miles southeast of
the present town of Interior. In 1907, old Interior was abandoned in
favor of the present townsite when the Milwaukee Road was
built.[55]]
Bruce Siberts, a Dakota cowboy, was in the Badlands several times during
the early 1890’s. He stated:
The big pasture west of the Missouri that the Sioux had turned over to
Uncle Sam had few ranchers in it when I went there in 1890, but within
another year or so there were all kinds of livestock roaming over
it.[56]
Siberts’ acquaintance with the Badlands was the result of his experience
with cattle thieves who “holed up” there. The outlaws, after stealing
Siberts’ cattle, drove them to the Badlands.
Siberts started out in pursuit. During a week’s stay in the Badlands, he
saw thousands of head of stock, many of which were unbranded. Unable to
recover his stolen cattle, he returned to his home on Plum Creek, a
tributary of the Cheyenne River. He obtained a companion and went back
to the Badlands. There the two men built several horse traps, captured a
number of unbranded horses, branded them, and later sold the horses for
$600.[57] Siberts returned alone to the region the following year to
obtain more unbranded horses, but lost his horses to outlaws. As a
result he was left afoot many miles from home. Siberts succeeded in
taking the horse of Bill Newsom, head of a group of cattle rustlers, and
made his way to a railroad town in Nebraska. He returned to South Dakota
by rail.[58]
[Illustration: Figure 9 FIRST TRAIN PENETRATING
SOUTH DAKOTA BADLANDS, 1907]
Isolated from natural transportation routes, few settlers moved into the
region until the coming of railroads. In 1907 the Chicago and North
Western Railway Company built its line from Pierre through Philip and
Wall to Rapid City. During the same year, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St.
Paul Railroad Company (now known as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and
Pacific Railroad Company or, simply, the Milwaukee Road) completed its
line from Chamberlain to Rapid City along the White River through Kadoka
and Interior.[59]
There was considerable homestead activity in 1906 under the original
homestead law of 1862, despite the fact that the 160-acre farm unit was
inadequate in the region. Leonel Jensen, a long-time resident in the
vicinity of the Badlands, stated that when his father came to the region
in May 1906 there were few homestead buildings. In the fall of that year
there was a homestead shack on practically every quarter-section of
land, because many settlers had anticipated the coming of the
railroads.[60] In 1912 the period to “prove up” on the lands was
liberalized by changing the time of residence from five to three years.
The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 was applied to South Dakota by
Congress in 1915, enabling settlers to acquire 320 acres instead of
160.[61]
The homestead laws were liberalized again in 1916 by the enactment of
the Stock-Raising Homestead Act. This provided for 640-acre homesteads
on lands officially designated as nonirrigable grazing lands.[63]
[Illustration: Figure 10 A BADLANDS HOMESTEAD
Newly plowed sod marks the beginning of a farm in 1911 northwest of
Interior near the badlands wall.]
[Illustration: Figure 11 GOOD GIRLS IN BAD
LANDS S. D.
Some Badlands homesteaders lived first in dugouts similar to the one
belonging to the Josh Sullivan family as shown on this postcard
mailed in 1909. It was located one half mile south of the present
national monument boundary just off the Cedar Pass-Interior
highway.[62]]
[Illustration: Figure 12
Lumber to build the Louis J. Jensen home, located just west of the
Badlands, was hauled by rail from the Black Hills to Wall, South
Dakota. Taken in 1908, this photograph represents a typical house of
the Badlands homesteading era.[68]]
From 1900 to 1905 the population in western South Dakota increased from
43,782 to 57,575; by 1910 it was 137,687.[64] From 1910 to 1930 it
continued to increase, but at a slower pace. In the decade following
1910 the population of Pennington County increased slightly from 12,453
to 12,720; by 1930 it was 20,079. In Jackson County, which contained no
urban centers, the increase was much smaller. From 1920 to 1930 (no
figures are available for 1910 to 1920) the population went from 2,472
to 2,636.[65] For a comparison with recent trends, the populations of
Jackson and Pennington counties in 1960 were 1,985 and 58,195
respectively.[66] (The western or 87 percent of the present Badlands
National Monument is located in Pennington County; the eastern section
is in Jackson County.)
Between 1910 and 1920, increasing amounts of land in western South
Dakota passed out of the public domain and into private ownership.
Encouraged by the high prices for farm and ranch products resulting from
World War I, many farmers and ranchers took advantage of the liberalized
homestead acts. By 1922 less than half of the land which was later
included in Badlands National Monument was publicly owned.[67]
LEGISLATION FOR PARK ESTABLISHMENT
Stimulated in part by various individuals and groups, the South Dakota
Legislature in 1909 petitioned the federal government to establish a
township of Badlands as a national park. As read before both houses of
Congress on March 16, 1909, the petition stated in part:
Whereas there is a small section of country about the headwaters of
the White River in South Dakota where nature has carved the surface of
the earth into most unique and interesting forms, and has exposed to
an extent perhaps not elsewhere found; and
Whereas this formation is so unique, picturesque, and valuable for the
purpose of study that a portion of it should be retained in its native
state....[69]
However, no legislation was introduced on the proposal until more than a
decade later.
A 1919 report by the U.S. Forest Service recommended that the Badlands
area be set aside as a national park. The report also recorded
considerable tourist travel to the Badlands. “The travel this year was
several hundred times greater than in any former year....” Many visitors
came over state route 40 (the Washington Highway) which connects the
towns of Interior and Scenic with Rapid City. This road was under
construction in 1919 and followed, more or less, the Chicago, Milwaukee
and St. Paul Railroad. Visitors also came on passenger trains.[70]
However, accessibility to the scenic sections of the Badlands Wall from
the Washington Highway were already being closed in 1919 by the
construction of fences, except for a few low passes in the wall where
side roads had been constructed. The Washington Highway and the railroad
are both located two to six miles from the most picturesque Badlands
features. The same report recommended that a road be built “along the
course of the scenic points of interest” and that campgrounds should be
constructed “at well chosen camp sites.”[71] (Such a road was completed
16 years later by the State of South Dakota; see page 43).
While other individuals and organizations played an important part in
the establishment of Badlands National Monument, Senator Peter Norbeck
deserves more credit than any other legislator. Norbeck was born on a
farm in Clay County in southeastern South Dakota, August 27, 1870, and
was the son of a member of the 1871 Dakota Territorial Legislature. His
public career began when he was elected to the state senate in 1908 and
he served there until 1915. In 1914 Norbeck was voted
lieutenant-governor of the state, and was elected governor in 1916 and
1918. His achievements as governor were many, including the founding of
a state-enterprise program designed to help farmers. Another of his
great accomplishments was the establishment of Custer State Park.
In 1920 Norbeck was elected to the United States Senate where he served
continuously until his death in 1936. Although his chief interest was in
farm-relief legislation, he was instrumental in passing the Migratory
Bird Act of 1929 and in securing federal funds for the carving of Mount
Rushmore National Memorial.[72]
South Dakota’s congressmen, William Williamson from Oacoma and Charles
A. Christopherson from Sioux Falls, assisted Norbeck by their work in
the U.S. House of Representatives. Christopherson’s services in the
House began in 1919, Williamson’s in 1921.[73]
[Illustration: Figure 13 EARLY ROAD THROUGH
CEDAR PASS, 1908 or earlier]
On May 2, 1922, during the second session of the 67th Congress, Senator
Norbeck introduced the first bill (S. 3541) for making the Badlands area
a national park. Entitled “A bill to establish the Wonderland National
Park in the State of South Dakota,” it proposed to set aside and
withdraw from entry “all public lands lying and being within townships
two and three south, ranges fifteen and sixteen east of the Black Hills
meridian, and township three south, ranges seventeen, eighteen, and
nineteen east of the Black Hills meridian.”[74] The proposal provided
that the Secretary of the Interior might add to the park from time to
time any lands which may be donated to the United States for such
purposes. It also stated that the Secretary of the Interior may
authorize exchange of non-federal lands in the park for certain public
lands of equal value outside the park. Finally, the bill provided that a
sum not exceeding $5,000 annually be appropriated by Congress for the
maintenance and improvement of the park, if the State of South Dakota
made an equal contribution. After the bill was read, it was referred to
the Committee of Public Lands and Surveys.[75]
On the same day, Congressman Williamson introduced a bill (H.R. 11514)
in the House of Representatives, identical to the first one submitted by
Norbeck in the Senate. This bill was referred to the Committee on the
Public Lands and ordered to be printed.[76] No further action was taken
on either the Norbeck or Williamson bills in the 67th Congress.
However, in October 1922 President Harding issued an executive order
temporarily withdrawing all public lands in the seven townships to be
included in the proposed park for the purpose of classifying them
“pending enactment of appropriate legislation.”[77] The total area
within the seven townships was about 161,000 acres, of which 35,410 were
classified as vacant.[78]
On March 3, 1923, Congressmen Christopherson and Williamson presented
memorials from “the Legislature of the State of South Dakota urging
Congress to set aside the Bad Lands as a national park....”[79]
In December 1923, in the 68th Congress, Williamson again introduced a
bill (H.R. 2810) to establish Wonderland National Park. This proposal
was identical to the one he and Norbeck introduced in the preceding
Congress.[80] Like the earlier bill it, too, died in committee.
If the Norbeck papers, now at the University of South Dakota, are any
indication of the public support the Senator received for his park
proposal, only a few people in the early 1920’s shared his views.
Attorney General Byron S. Payne of South Dakota, Professor W.C.
Toepelman of the University of South Dakota Geology Department, and W.H.
Tompkins of the U.S. Land Office in Rapid City, all endorsed the
Wonderland National Park proposal.[81] However, at that time the
highways were relatively undeveloped. The automobile industry and
tourism were both in their infancies. It was to take nearly another
decade to gain the support of local and state chambers of commerce and
other promotional groups for national parks and monuments.
It appears that the National Park Service did not give Norbeck
encouragement for his idea of a national park in the Badlands. In a
letter to a constituent in May 1924, the Senator wrote:
... regarding the Bad Lands National Park, [I] will state that the
Park Service here will not approve a bill of that kind,—and therefore,
we can not secure the legislation. They are, however, willing to
approve the plan of having it designated by the President as a
“National Monument”. In practice, this means nearly the same thing, so
Congressman Williamson and I have come to an agreement that we are
going to accept that plan and work it out that way.[82]
Nevertheless, Norbeck continued to work for a national park instead of a
national monument.
To insure that he would include the most scenic parts of the region in
the proposed park, Norbeck made frequent trips there. In answer to a
constituent’s letter, he wrote in November 1927, “I have visited the Bad
Lands every year for sixteen years. A year ago I spent four or five days
in them and this year I have made five trips into that area.”[84] During
1927 a number of eastern newspapers carried photographs of the Badlands
in their Sunday photo sections.[85]
[Illustration: Figure 14 VAMPIRE PEAK, 1930’s
Located near the present national monument visitor center, the peak
has since lost its spires to erosion. According to local tradition
the presence of bats around the formation caused J.I. Peterkin, a
traveling artist, to give it this name around 1915.[83]]
In the late 1920’s Badlands visitors who arrived from the east via
Kadoka or Cottonwood probably used Cedar Pass. The narrow and
precipitous route through Cedar Pass was aptly described by one of those
early visitors:
The passes become more crooked and the grades more steep. The road is
bordered by profuse scrub cedar trees. There is a thrill in that
drive! At first it looks dangerous, but the danger seems to minimize
as we approach each more steep and more crooked and more narrow
section. By taking it slowly the risk is small.[86]
The route passed the new Cedar Pass Camp (now Cedar Pass Lodge) and took
visitors to the railroad town of Interior where they may have spent some
time at Palmer’s Curio shop and at Henry Thompson’s souvenir stand which
he called “The Wonderland.” From Interior visitors traveled west over
the Washington Highway to the railroad town of Scenic. In the late
1920’s the Museum Filling Station in Scenic was widely known for its
collection of Badlands fossils and Indian artifacts. They also provided
guide services to visitors desiring to see Badlands features located off
the road. Rapid City was reached by traveling northwest over 45 miles of
good dirt road—except during rains.[87]
Support for the park proposal grew in the late 1920’s. In October 1927
the Wonderland Hiway Association, in a letter to Senator Norbeck, wrote:
At a meeting of the Wonderland Hiway Association, an orgization [sic]
comprising the business men and local residenters [sic] of the Towns
through the Bad Lands, It was resolved; That the Association would ask
and petition the State Hiway Commission ... for a State Hiway,
Starting from Kadoka, West over Cedar Pass to Interior, S. Dak. West
through The Bad Lands to Scenic over Hiway #40 and from Scenic to
Hermosa, S. Dak., Providing a sutable [sic] location can be found.[88]
The State Highway Commission gave the proposal its wholehearted
support.[89]
The National Park Service, however, continued to oppose the area as a
national park on two grounds. For one thing much of the land was in
private ownership. Senator Norbeck explained in a 1927 letter:
The Park program is not as easy as it seems on account of so much of
the land having gone into Private ownership. The Federal Government
will not purchase land for park purposes. They never have. The State
must and that will come slow.[90]
In the second place, the National Park Service believed that the area
was more suitable as a national monument. The Senator continued in the
same letter:
The Park Service is opposed to making it a National Park as they try
to limit the Parks to the areas that are principally recreational.
They would favor a plan to make the Bad Lands a “National
Monument.”[91]
Despite the objections of the Service to the Senator’s park proposal,
Norbeck’s continued desire for a national park in the Badlands was
stated in a letter written in November 1927 to Hubert Work, Secretary of
the Interior:
The Congressional delegation from this state will be united in an
effort to create a Bad Lands National Park in South Dakota. If this is
impossible they will desire to have certain areas set aside as
national monuments.[92]
In April 1928 Norbeck wrote Representative Williamson asking him to help
draft a bill for the park. The first part of the bill, Norbeck
indicated, would “include the Badlands Wall proper, from a point about 4
miles east of Interior to a point 12 or 14 miles southwest of Wall.”[93]
The establishment of the park would be contingent on the building of a
road by the State through the proposed area and the State acquiring 90
percent of the privately owned lands within it. The second part of the
bill would authorize a national monument which would include Sheep
Mountain and the surrounding area, some six to seven miles southwest of
Scenic. The authorization of this area would be conditional upon the
construction of a highway from Scenic to the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation and acquisition of the lands within the proposed monument by
the State of South Dakota. The third portion of the bill would authorize
the abandonment of Wind Cave National Park![94]
The bills as finally presented to Congress by Norbeck and Williamson
were somewhat different from the one which the Senator planned.
During the first session of the 70th Congress, Norbeck and Williamson
introduced identical legislation in their respective houses on May 8,
1928, to set aside the Badlands as a national park. Norbeck introduced
S. 4385, “A Bill To establish Teton National Park in the State of South
Dakota....” The bill authorized the Secretary of the Interior, through
negotiation, to exchange privately owned lands within the proposed park
for public lands of equal value outside. The bill contained a provision
that when 90 percent of the privately owned lands within the proposed
area had been acquired without expense to the federal treasury and
transferred to the government for park purposes, the park would be set
aside for the people, “... Provided, That the State of South Dakota
shall have first constructed” approximately 40 miles of suitable road to
specified points inside and outside the proposed park.[95]
[Illustration: Figure 15 SENATOR PETER NORBECK
(1870-1936)]
Norbeck’s bill was referred to the Committee on Public Lands and
Surveys. On May 19 the bill was reported out without amendment. The
accompanying report (No. 1246) gave a strong endorsement to the
proposal.[96] On May 23, the bill was considered as in Committee of the
Whole and passed the Senate.[97]
However, in the House where Williamson had introduced an identical bill
(H.R. 13618), the park proposal ran into trouble. In a circular letter
dated November 7, 1928, the National Parks Association claimed that the
proposed Teton National Park had not been examined for standards by the
National Park Service before the Senate acted on the proposal and that
the bill was hurried through that body. Asserting that the proposed area
was reported below standard by the National Park Service, the
association charged:
Neither of these Senators [Norbeck and Nye], nor the Public Lands
Committee which reported the bill and resolution, nor the Senate
sessions which carelessly passed them, discussed the national aspects
of this legislation. They did not consider the plan and standards of
the national system which Congress had been building unit by unit,
each painstakingly chosen, since 1872. They ignored the half century
Congressional custom of awaiting the report of the Interior
Department, to which Congress had entrusted the System’s shaping from
the beginning. They ignored the American people’s enthusiastic
interest in the plan and purpose of this unique world-famous
institution, and its insistence in recent years upon park selection by
the expert National Park Service....
Thoughtlessness, apparently, but in practice this amounts to localism
defying national aspirations. It seriously threatens national park
standards.[98]
[Illustration: Figure 16 BEN MILLARD (1872-1956)]
In a letter to Robert S. Yard, Executive Secretary of the association,
Senator Norbeck accused the association of sending out a misleading
report:
You criticise me for introducing and securing action in the Senate on
a bill fifteen days after it was introduced and especially in view of
the fact that it had not been investigated by the National Park
Service.
You could truthfully have said that this legislation has been pending
for a great many years—at least five years.
You could also have said that I have been trying all these years to
get the Park Service to investigate the proposed area.
You could also have added that the Government land in this area was
withdrawn by Presidential Proclamation many years ago in anticipation
of park legislation. Why carry the idea that it was all a fifteen day
affair when it is all of five years? It would be a hard rule to apply
that the failure of the Park Service to investigate an important
project should preclude a member of Congress from taking any action
whatever....
You also state that the project has been investigated by the Park
Service and reported adversely. It is an astonishing fact that the
knowledge of such reports should be withheld from me. Therefore, I
doubt very much that any report has been made. I therefore wired the
Park Service, asking who made the report and when. I have no
response.[99]
Acting Director Arthur E. Demaray of the National Park Service,
meanwhile, wrote Norbeck advising him that the Service had never
prepared an official report on the park proposal and that the statement
by the association that the proposed park was “reported below standard
by the National Park Service” was without authority.[100]
In the House of Representatives where the proposal was considered in the
second session, the bill (S. 4385) underwent substantial revision. After
being considered by the Committee on the Public Lands, it was reported
out with amendments on February 19, 1929.[101] The revised bill changed
the boundary of the proposed area, reducing it from 69,120 acres to
about 50,760 acres[102] (50,830 acres according to another source[103]).
The name was changed from Teton National Park to Badlands National
Monument. It modified the requirements for the road which the state had
to construct from 40 miles to 30 miles of total length. The requirement
that 90 percent of the privately owned lands had to be acquired before
the park could be established was dropped. Instead, it was now at the
discretion of the Secretary of the Interior to decide when enough
privately owned lands within the proposed boundary had been purchased so
that the area could be proclaimed a national monument by the President.
As before, the bill stipulated that the lands would have to be acquired
without cost to the federal treasury. The amended bill had a new
provision that the Department of the Interior could grant hotel and
lodge franchises in advance of the fulfillment of the conditions.[104]
The amended bill was considered by the Committee of the Whole House on
February 25, six days after the Committee on the Public Lands had acted
on it. Two additional amendments were offered on the floor of the House
and were accepted. The idea that the Secretary of the Interior could
decide when enough privately owned land had been purchased so that the
area could be proclaimed as a national monument was dropped in favor of
requiring all privately owned land within the proposed boundary be
purchased before the area could be established. The provision giving the
Department of the Interior authority to grant franchises in advance of
the establishment of the national monument was also deleted. This
amended form passed the House of Representatives on the same day,
February 25.[105]
When the House act was referred to the Senate on the next day, Norbeck
asked his colleagues not to concur with the amended proposal. He asked
instead that the modified bill be considered in a conference committee
of the House and Senate.[106] On March 2, the conference committee
recommended that the two amendments that were attached to the bill on
the floor of the House on February 25 be dropped, returning the bill to
the form it had when it was originally reported out on February 19.[107]
On the same day, March 2, the final bill was passed by both houses.[108]
Known as Public Law No. 1021, the act authorizing Badlands National
Monument was approved by President Calvin Coolidge on March 4, 1929. The
signing of the act took place on the last day of Coolidge’s term as
President of the United States.[109]
The area authorized under this act (45 Stat. 1553) included 50,830.40
acres; of this amount, 39,893.85 acres were in the public domain. The
remainder was state land or privately owned land.[110]
It is interesting to note that Senator Norbeck introduced a new bill (S.
5779) to establish Badlands National Monument on February 11, 1929. It
was identical with the House amendments proposed for S. 4385 which were
later reported out by the Committee on the Public Lands on February 19.
The new bill, after being referred to the Committee on Public Lands and
Surveys, was returned on February 20 with Senate Report 1842.[111]
Meanwhile, Williamson introduced H. 17102 in the House, which was
identical to S. 5779; it was referred to the Committee on the Public
Lands.[112] Both of these bills died without further consideration.
[Illustration: Figure 17 THE PINNACLES
CONCESSION
Operating since about 1935, this development was run on a seasonal
basis. It offered summer visitors a few accommodations, souvenirs,
refreshments, and gasoline until abandoned in 1950. The buildings
were removed shortly afterward.[118]]
THE DEPRESSION YEARS
Among local persons who worked hard toward the establishment of Badlands
National Monument after it was authorized in 1929 were Ben H. Millard,
the original owner of Cedar Pass Lodge; A.G. Granger of Kadoka; Leonel
Jensen, local rancher; Ted E. Hustead, owner and operator of the
well-known Wall Drug Store; and Dr. G.W. Mills of Wall.[113]
Of these individuals, Mr. Millard made the greatest contribution to the
establishment and development of the national monument. Born September
15, 1872, in Minnesota, he moved to South Dakota in 1893 with his
parents. Millard entered the banking business in Sanborn County in 1899.
In 1917 he sold his banking interests and entered the State of South
Dakota Banking Department. On an assignment to Philip, South Dakota,
Millard first saw the Badlands and became interested in them. He left
the Banking Department and moved into the Badlands in 1927, homesteading
below Cedar Pass on the present site of Cedar Pass Lodge, which he later
built and operated.[114]
Millard worked closely with Senator Norbeck on development plans for the
proposed Badlands National Monument. From September 1934 through July
1936, he was employed as a local Resettlement Administration project
manager. In this capacity he was responsible for federal acquisition of
private lands, most of which later became part of the national monument
after it was established in 1939. The alignment of the first Badlands
road, alternate U.S. 16, was largely a result of his ideas. In 1931 he
selected what he believed to be the most scenic route, and staked it out
with the aid of his employee, E.N. “Curley” Nelson (who returned to the
Badlands in 1964 to become the first concessioner of Cedar Pass Lodge).
Millard and his sister, Mrs. Clara Jennings, and later his son, Herbert,
operated the Pinnacles concession from about 1935 to 1950.[115] Three
important parcels of land were donated by Millard to the NPS in 1941,
1946, and 1955 for inclusion in Badlands National Monument.[116] Millard
died at Cedar Pass Lodge in March 1956.
In special ceremonies on June 28, 1957, Millard Ridge, a prominent
portion of the Badlands wall six-tenths of a mile long just east of
Cedar Pass, was named and dedicated to his memory.[117]
In 1929 western South Dakota, in common with most of the farm belt, had
been suffering almost a decade from the deflation which followed World
War I. Both farmers and ranchers had been unable to fulfill obligations
assumed during an earlier period of high prices. Many of the banks of
the state were forced to close.[119]
With the beginning of the Great Depression in the fall of 1929,
conditions became increasingly worse. A combination of disasters which
included grasshopper infestations, crop failures, and drought struck the
country. The south central and western counties of the state were most
severely affected by these disasters.[120]
Several government programs on both the federal and state levels were
authorized to assist those in need. The NPS made use of a number of
these programs in various ways during the 1930’s.
In November 1934, NPS Director Arno B. Cammerer recommended to Secretary
of the Interior Harold L. Ickes that additional area be approved for
inclusion in the proposed Badlands National Monument. He contended that
the proposed additions, which included a portion of Sheep Mountain, were
as outstanding as the area originally authorized by Congress in 1929.
Wildlife problems and administrative difficulties of the originally
proposed area would be lessened by the change in boundary.[121]
In order to implement the proposed boundary change Mr. Cammerer
recommended (1) that the President should be asked to issue an Executive
Order withdrawing all public lands involved; (2) that all privately
owned lands be acquired through an existing federal government relief
program; and (3) that the next session of Congress be asked to establish
the Badlands National Monument with the boundaries now recommended.[122]
The Secretary of the Interior approved the proposal for the boundary
extension and in the same month President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered
that all unreserved and unappropriated public lands in Pennington,
Jackson, Fall River, and Custer Counties be
temporarily withdrawn from settlement, location, sale, or entry, for
classification and use as a grazing project pursuant to the
submarginal land program of the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration.[123]
By January 1, 1935, the NPS had already obtained options for 23,000
acres from private land owners living within the proposed boundary
extension area. This work was being done under the auspices of the Land
Program section of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
which had been authorized by Congress in 1933.[124]
Early in April 1935, the NPS completed the “Final Report on the Badlands
National Monument Extension Project, South Dakota R-1.” The report
included both the area previously authorized under Public Law 1021 and
the proposed extension. The area, to be known as the Badlands
Recreational Demonstration Project, would include 119,557.88 acres, of
which 72,316.22 were privately owned. The proposed boundary extension
received the support of Governor Tom Berry, Senator Norbeck, President
C.C. O’Harra of the South Dakota School of Mines, and a number of
prominent geologists, naturalists, educators, and others.[125]
In a letter to Harry L. Hopkins, FERA Administrator, on April 15, 1935,
Acting Secretary of the Interior T.A. Walters wrote:
I hereby recommend for purchase certain lands for a project known as
the Badlands National Monument Extension in Jackson, Pennington,
Washington and Washabaugh Counties, South Dakota, proposed by the
National Park Service of this Department for the conservation and
development of the natural resources of the United States, within the
meaning of Section 202 of Title II of the National Industrial Recovery
Act, pursuant to which funds have been allotted and transferred to the
Land Program, Federal Emergency Relief Administration.[126]
Secretary Walters further stated that this project came within the
classification of lands as stated in a memorandum to him dated July 16,
1934. In it the Director of the Land Program said:
Demonstration Recreational Projects: These include projects in which
the land to be purchased is to be used primarily for recreational
purposes, as submitted by the National Park Service, Department of the
Interior.[127]
The Secretary of the Interior recommended that the Badlands National
Monument Extension be accepted as a Demonstration Recreational Project
of the Land Program, FERA. The project was approved and adopted by the
Land Program. The NPS expected that the cost of all the lands considered
would not average more than $2.66 per acre.[128]
Meanwhile, President Roosevelt, by a series of executive orders, created
the Resettlement Administration, an independent agency, and transferred
to it the land and related activities of the FERA. The Resettlement
Administration operated until the end of 1936 when its powers,
functions, and duties were transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture.
Later, the name “Resettlement Administration” was changed to the Farm
Security Administration.[129]
The work of appraising, securing options on, and purchasing private
lands, begun under the submarginal land program of the FERA, continued
under the Resettlement Administration.
In a 1935 letter to Assistant NPS Director Conrad L. Wirth, Senator
Norbeck pointed out some of the problems and drawbacks of the land
acquisition program by writing:
The land varies a great deal in quality, and the poor lands are being
obtained for the scheduled price, but the good lands are not.
He went on to say that
A very large percentage of this land, maybe thirty to fifty per cent,
is on the tax delinquency list, with about four years of taxes. The
price offered is less than the taxes held against the land, and the
owner is not anxious to sell if he cannot get a nickel out of it....
Considerable of these lands, however, have already been abandoned by
the owner on account of the amount of taxes due.[130]
Counties were reluctant to sell land to the federal government because
this would mean withdrawal from the tax lists, thus reducing the
counties’ incomes. Norbeck recommended that the federal government pay
more for the land by a “boost of one dollar an acre....”[131] Meetings
were being held in various parts of the region to protest the low prices
being offered.[132]
The desperate situation of the times was expressed well in a letter
dated September 2, 1935, from a local rancher’s wife who wrote:
After 6 years [of] crop failures on the so called submarginal land of
Western South Dakota we are facing financial disaster unless we sell
our land to the government.[133]
[Illustration: Figure 18 CEDAR PASS WINTER
WONDERLAND]
During the same month, the average price being offered per acre was
$2.85.[134]
To gain Congressional approval for the boundary extension of the
proposed Badlands National Monument, the proponents secured the
attachment of a rider to the Taylor Grazing Bill revision authorizing
the enlargement. The grazing bill was vetoed in 1935 although there was
no opposition to the rider.[135]
The bill was reintroduced the following year and was passed. Approved
June 26, 1936 (49 Stat. 1979), the law authorized the President to round
out the authorized national monument boundary by proclamation within
five years and stipulated that the entire area could not exceed 250,000
acres. Lands to be included must be “adjacent or contiguous thereto, ...
including, but not being restricted to, lands designated as submarginal
by the Resettlement Administration....”[136] This law gave the NPS
sufficient flexibility in fixing a suitable boundary.
Norbeck worked tirelessly in promoting every aspect of the area’s
development until his death in December 1936. He actively participated
in securing aid from various governmental relief agencies for the land
acquisition program of the area, and for building roads, erecting
buildings, and other purposes.[137]
As early as February 1935 Governor Tom Berry of South Dakota urged
Secretary Ickes to establish the national monument formally through a
presidential proclamation. He pointed out that the basic conditions of
Public Law 1021 had been met: (1) a 30-mile highway, built at a cost of
approximately $320,000, starting at Interior and going over Big Foot
Pass and on to Sage Creek, was completed in 1935 by the state and
approved by the NPS; (2) the state had acquired such privately owned
lands within the area as were required by the Secretary of the
Interior.[138]
However, NPS Director Cammerer deferred making such a recommendation
until some 9,780 acres of state lands, located within the authorized
national monument boundary, had been transferred to the Service.[139]
Also, it was not until three years later, in 1938, that the United
States formally accepted title to 1,395.79 acres of land donated by the
trustees of the Custer State Park board who acted as purchasing agents
for the State of South Dakota. Senator Norbeck had been a member of this
board. The land was purchased from private owners with funds authorized
by the state legislature for the expressed purpose of fulfilling partial
requirements of Public Law 1021. Cost to the state was approximately
$12,000 for 1,280 acres of this donated land.[141]
By early July 1938 Director Cammerer considered that South Dakota had
met all the conditions of Public Law 1021. Under this act the federal
government had acquired title to about 48,000 acres of the 50,830
authorized. Within the extension authorized by the act of June 26, 1936,
the NPS included an additional 97,976 acres. In all, the boundary
recommended by the Service included some 148,806 acres (later revised to
150,103.41, and still later revised again to 154,119.46 acres for the
same amount of land[142]) of which the government owned 113,578.59
acres. Director Cammerer therefore asked the Secretary of the Interior
to approve the establishment of the national monument and that a
proclamation be submitted to the President for final approval.[143] On
January 25, 1939, President Roosevelt formally proclaimed the
establishment of Badlands National Monument.[144] It became the 77th
national monument and the 151st area in the federal park system which is
administered by the National Park Service.[145]
[Illustration: Figure 19 UPPER (PINNACLES)
TUNNEL, 1938
This 175-foot by 16-foot tunnel was located in the national monument
about two miles southeast of the present Pinnacles Ranger Station.
It and Lower (Norbeck) Tunnel, situated about three miles west of
Cedar Pass Lodge near the base of Norbeck Pass, were in use only
about four years before being obliterated.[140]]
The complicated land-ownership pattern in the national monument along
with grazing would plague the NPS for years. When the area was
proclaimed in 1939, the NPS administered substantial tracts of land
outside the national monument’s boundary. These tracts were located in
the land utilization projects of the Department of Agriculture’s Soil
Conservation Service. On the other hand, the SCS had land utilization
tracts under its jurisdiction within the boundary.[146]
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL MONUMENT
Under the general direction of the NPS, various relief agencies such as
the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), the Resettlement
Administration, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked on development projects in the
area. Only a few scattered reports are now available on the work of
these agencies. About 150 persons were employed at the area in January
1937 on such projects as resurfacing, backsloping, ditching, and grading
roads.[147] This included major reconstruction of the Sheep Mountain
Canyon road, completed the same year.[148]
One project of interest completed June 30, 1940 by ERA labor, under the
Public Roads Administration, was the obliteration of two tunnels along
the Pinnacles-Cedar Pass road. They were constructed during the first
half of the 1930’s (see Figure 19) when the road was built by the State
of South Dakota; the road was completed in 1935. The tunnels proved to
be impractical because of inadequate width and maintenance
problems.[149]
In July 1940 the ERA project in the area was discontinued. Among the
types of work accomplished since July 1, 1938, when the project was
initiated, were the construction of five project headquarters buildings,
prospecting for water on the national monument, the development of a
well near the site of the old Pinnacles Checking Station, and ten road
jobs which included road construction, widening, graveling, building
culverts, and banksloping. The construction of parking overlooks, and
the obliteration of buildings and clearing of 16 farmstead tracts, also
took place during that time.[150]
During the 12 months between July 1939 and July 1940, the ERA project
employed an average of 150 relief workers.[151]
Since the national monument is located a relatively short distance from
Wind Cave National Park, the older area co-ordinated the business of
Badlands during its early years. On August 11, 1939, Chief Ranger Howard
B. Stricklin of Wind Cave became acting custodian of the newly
designated area and was later placed in charge of the local ERA and CCC
projects.[152] Although the ERA project was terminated in July 1940, the
CCC work continued until June 1942.[153]
When Stricklin arrived to take charge, there were no living quarters of
any kind in the area. He lived at the CCC camp at Quinn Table while his
family remained at Wind Cave. Temporary offices were established in Wall
pending a decision regarding the location of permanent
headquarters.[154]
Considerable thought was given to the selection of a headquarters site.
For a time the Pinnacles area was considered.[155] However, in late 1939
it was finally decided to locate the center of operations at Cedar
Pass.[156] This decision was due, in part, to the offer by Mr. Ben H.
Millard, owner of Cedar Pass Lodge,
to donate approximately 28 acres of strategically located land in the
Cedar Pass area to the Service to be used as a headquarters area.[157]
[Illustration: Figure 20 CEDAR PASS LODGE,
early 1930’s
The lodge was begun in 1928 at about the same time the large dance
pavillion building in the background was constructed. People from as
distant as Rapid City came here to dance to the music of Lawrence
Welk and other name bands. More cabins for the lodge were built from
its lumber when the pavillion was removed in about 1934.[159]]
The Department of the Interior accepted Millard’s donation in May
1941.[158]
The decision to develop the Cedar Pass area for headquarters greatly
altered development plans. The CCC enrollees numbering 207 in February
1940 were encamped at Quinn Table some 35 miles west of Cedar Pass.
Since much of the development was taking place at Cedar Pass, it was
necessary to drive them between these two points each day.[160]
One of the great handicaps of Cedar Pass as a headquarters area was the
lack of water. To develop a satisfactory supply, the NPS found it
necessary to go to the White River, three miles south. One of the major
projects undertaken soon after selecting the headquarters site was to
dig a trench and lay pipe to the river. Since this stream is
intermittent above ground, but has a dependable subsurface flow, water
was collected in perforated pipes laid on hard clay and shale about
eight feet below the river bed. The pipe brought water to a sump on the
river bank where it was pumped to a 100,000-gallon storage tank above
the headquarters area.[161] Work was begun on this reservoir in April
1940 and completed by the CCC in September 1941. At the same time the
CCC also erected a checking station at Pinnacles which Stricklin and his
family occupied from November 15, 1940, until about May 15, 1943.[162]
Handicapped by the location of the original CCC camp at Quinn Table, a
new camp was authorized at Cedar Pass and work on it began in June 1941.
Five months later the new camp was occupied.[164]
At that time the only visitor-contact point in the Cedar Pass area was
at Cedar Pass Lodge. During the summer season Mr. Millard lectured
nightly to lodge guests on the geologic history of the Badlands, thereby
initiating interpretive programs. He also showed movies of the Badlands
and other scenic areas. A temporary park ranger, who checked travel in
the Cedar Pass area during the day, took part in the evening
programs.[165]
[Illustration: Figure 21 PINNACLES RANGER
STATION AND CHECKING STATION, 1941
Completed in 1941, the ranger station also served as quarters until
January 1965 when the new Pinnacles ranger station-residence was
completed. The checking station was removed about 1958 to make way
for road improvement, and the old ranger station was razed in April
1967.[163]]
The problem of stock grazing in the national monument grew increasingly
worse during the 1940’s. The acting custodian complained early in 1940:
Until the boundary is fenced and we are in a better position to know
what is private and what is monument land, there appears to be very
little that can be done to prevent this.[166]
In December 1941 he wrote in a similar vein:
During past winters it has been the practice of local stockmen to
allow herds of horses and cattle to drift into the monument area to
graze unrestrictedly over public as well as private lands and along
the monument highways. There is such a large amount of private and
county-owned land within the monument boundaries (31,000 acres out of
a total of 150,000) that it is difficult to restrain stock from
grazing on National Park Service land as well as on the land that is
owned or leased by private individuals.[167]
It soon became obvious that Badlands National Monument would be a
popular attraction because of its location near U.S. Highways 14 and 16,
both well-known national highways going through the Black Hills. In 1941
there were 70.02 miles of road in the national monument. Of this, 61.52
miles were constructed by the state and 8.5 miles by the federal
government; 29.87 miles were graveled and 40.15 were dirt roads.[168]
Although the roads through the area were only partially developed,
thousands of travelers turned off the through highways to view the
scenic Badlands.
Stricklin reported in September 1941:
More than a quarter of a million visitors had passed through Badlands
National Monument by the close of the travel season on September 30,
representing an increase of approximately 30 percent over the previous
year, for the period during which an actual count was made.[169]
The entrance of the United States into World War II in December 1941 had
a great impact on the area and its operations. Since many of the CCC
enrollees would be absorbed into the armed forces, the project work soon
came to an end. The acting custodian reported in the spring of 1942, “On
March 25, after two years and five months of productive work in Badlands
National Monument, CCC Camp Badlands, NP-3 [located at Cedar Pass], was
abandoned.”[170] Work was continued on several projects undertaken at
Camp Badlands by a CCC side camp with the view toward completing the
projects or leaving them “in such condition that the facilities involved
may be used, and the materials, all of which have been on hand for some
time, may be protected against deterioration and loss.”[171] However,
the side camp was also closed in the following June, leaving practically
all of the construction projects in various states of completion.[172]
In December 1942 most of the CCC buildings at Cedar Pass were dismantled
and removed by the armed services.[173]
Another result of the nation’s entrance into the war was a sharp drop in
visitors to the Badlands. Stricklin wrote in June 1942 that “Most of
these visitors appeared to be genuine vacationists ... [who] had a
vacation coming, and were trying to get it in before gas rationing
became nation-wide.”[174] He estimated that travel in March 1943 was 87
percent under that for March 1942, and that “All foreign [out-of-state]
visitor cars stopping for information were headed for defense jobs, or
were military personnel, changing their headquarters from one part of
the country to another.”[175] The effect of the war on travel to the
national monument is reflected in the travel figures of the area for the
years from 1941 to 1945. (See Appendix A.)
Efforts at the national monument during the war were devoted largely to
preventive maintenance. Changing his headquarters from Pinnacles to
Cedar Pass in June 1943, Stricklin was able to give closer attention to
the headquarters area.[176] Such routine tasks as filling washouts,
cleaning ditches, reclaiming gravel, cutting roadside weeds, repairing
guard rails, cleaning up debris, and temporary patching of roads
occupied most of the staff’s time. Other tasks, such as repairing water
lines, painting signs, keeping the buildings in repair, and servicing
and repairing the area equipment also required much attention.[177] The
cottage that the custodian and his family rented from Millard at Cedar
Pass was destroyed by fire on November 27, 1943.[178]
[Illustration: Figure 22 CEDAR PASS, June 1950
The buildings of Cedar Pass Lodge can be seen behind the white frame
structure, which served as a visitor center and headquarters until
1959. Remnants of two spires on Vampire Peak remain on the left. It
was observed on November 22, 1950, that one of the two spires of
this famous landmark had fallen, apparently during a thunder
storm.[189]]
During the ten years following the end of World War II, there was slow
progress in the area’s development. Work on the custodian’s residence at
Cedar Pass, begun in 1941, was completed in 1946.[179] Early in 1953 two
additional houses, both prefabricated, were completed.[180] In January
1948 commercial power was brought to Cedar Pass and Interior with the
completion of a single-phase power line by the Rural Electrification
Administration.[181] The Northwestern Bell Telephone Company extended
telephone service to the national monument headquarters in September
1952.[182] (This service was officially taken over by the Golden West
Telephone Cooperative, Inc., in October 1960.)[183]
During the travel seasons of 1946 and 1947 there was much adverse
criticism of the national monument roads. The maintenance equipment was
in poor condition and usually undergoing repairs when most needed.[184]
In the summer of 1948 about 4 miles of road was black-topped between the
Cedar Pass junction and Norbeck Pass; this represented the first paving
of U.S. Route 16A in the national monument.[185] The present northeast
entrance road, about 3½ miles long, was completed in October 1951. It
opened up a new area of the Badlands known as the Window Section.[186]
This road was made possible by the donation in 1946 of a 160-acre,
strategically located land parcel by Mr. Ben Millard who had purchased
it from Jackson County in March 1941 for this purpose.[187]
During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s buildings constructed as
temporary structures in the ERA and CCC period were remodeled and
continued in use for headquarters and utility purposes.[188]
Both the grazing and the land ownership problems at the national
monument were compounded by the war. With increased rainfall in the
region during the decade of the 1940’s and the rising price of beef, the
situation of the ranchers greatly improved. Under a plan suggested by
Congressman Case in January 1943 to help in the “Beef for Victory
Program,” the Service authorized for the first time in April the
issuance of grazing permits on federally owned grasslands within the
national monument. Under this program, the lands were divided into seven
grazing units. An orderly grazing plan was established with the
cooperation of the Soil Conservation Service.[190] Stricklin was able to
identify and locate all cattle and sheep outfits that claimed to be
using the national monument lands in conjunction with their SCS
allotments.[191] Following the war authorized grazing remained one of
the area’s major management problems for over a decade.
Stricklin wrote about an interesting sidelight of the grazing problem:
The roundup and disposal of several hundred head of unclaimed and
so-called wild horses in the Sage Creek basin was a source of much
concern on the part of both ranchers and the Custodian, the ranchers
claiming the wild stallions were enticing away their mares. The
Custodian’s concern was partly because of the damage these herds were
doing to the range, but largely because it was practically the only
program of any kind on which the National Park Service and the
ranchers could even remotely agree. Several roundups were collaborated
in, during which the herds were drastically reduced. Airplanes were
used on at least one of the roundups to flush horses out of the
canyons and keep them from breaking back on their route to Scenic and
the loading chutes. Jack and Mamie Close, ranchers on Quinn Table,
were the leaders among the ranchers in this work.[192]
Feral horses were eventually eliminated through roundups and returned to
their owners. The last roundup took place in the national monument in
1963.[193]
With the improvement of their lot, many ranchers who had been destitute
only a few years earlier were in a position to purchase county lands
within the national monument boundary. The custodian reported in April
1943 that practically all such land within the boundary was leased for
grazing and that much of it was recently bought by sheep and cattle
ranchers.[194] In 1946 Stricklin reported a considerable change in land
ownership where much of the land formerly controlled by Pennington
County had passed into private ownership.[195] Later the same year
Jackson County auctioned all of its 3,000 acres of land within the
boundary to private individuals. Practically all of the 14,000 acres
which was owned by the two counties two years earlier had passed into
private ownership.[196]
The location of the boundary had been a subject of discussion since the
national monument was established in 1939. The area contained a large
acreage of grassland which the Soil Conservation Service believed should
be released for grazing purposes. There was also overlapping
jurisdiction between the two federal agencies.[197]
After several years of study, the NPS and the SCS arrived at an
understanding on the national monument boundary and mutual land
problems. In 1946 the two agencies signed an agreement known as
Recommended Program of Procedure for boundary adjustment of Badlands
National Monument. The NPS agreed:
(1) to transfer to the Soil Conservation Service NPS lands outside the
existing national monument boundary in order to compensate for
1,220 acres the SCS had turned over for inclusion in the national
monument prior to its establishment in 1939;
(2) to transfer to the SCS equivalent lands (computed on a
livestock-carrying-capacity basis) for lands that were to be
acquired from the SCS by the NPS as the result of revised boundary
studies;
(3) to transfer to the SCS federal lands which the NPS planned to
eliminate from the national monument to use in exchange for
non-federal lands remaining in the national monument after the
boundary changes were made.[198]
The plan made it possible to transfer, without legislation, 3,678.19
acres of NPS lands lying outside the park boundary to the SCS. This was
done by order of the Secretary of the Interior in July 1949.[199] These
lands were acquired under the Resettlement Administration program and,
in 1936 were transferred to the NPS. When Badlands National Monument was
established in 1939, these lands were not within the boundary.[200]
In order to carry out the main objectives of the plan, Congressional
action was necessary. In 1950 bills (H.R. 7342 and S. 3081) were
introduced in the 81st Congress by Representative Case and Senator
Chandler Gurney to implement the proposed land exchange. H.R. 7342 was
passed by the House without amendment, but later the bill died in the
Senate. The senate bill (S. 3081) was not considered.
In 1951 Senator Francis H. Case, who had just been elected to that
office, and Congressman E.Y. Berry introduced identical bills (S. 896
and HR. 3540) in the 82nd Congress. These were similar to the ones
proposed a year earlier. Berry’s bill passed the House on July 2, 1951,
without amendment. The House Act was referred to the Senate Committee on
Interior and Insular Affairs, which recommended that section five of
H.R. 3540 be dropped. This section would have provided authority to
include 4,000 acres of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the Sheep
Mountain area provided certain conditions were met. The committee
believed “that a satisfactory solution should be worked out with the
Tribal Council of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of Indians, and any others
interested, before legislation with regard to these lands is
enacted.”[201] The bill in its amended form, including another minor
change recommended by the committee, passed the Senate on January 24,
1952.[202]
[Illustration: Figure 23 AREA CHANGES IN
BADLANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT[203]]
Area authorized in 1929 (dashed line) 50,830.40 acres
Area upon establishment in 1939 154,119.46 acres
Area after changes of 1952 122,642.52 acres
Area after changes of 1957 (heavy line) 111,529.82 acres
Acreage figures are latest available and may be different from figures
which were current during each of the four times the park boundary has
been redesignated. Because of these acreage revisions, additions to and
deletions from the park do not total correctly.
Badlands National Monument
South Dakota
One section (1 mile square—640 acres)
Eliminated in 1952 31,442.52 acres
Added in 1952 4,449.29 acres
Eliminated in 1957 11,234.09 acres
Added in 1957 241.39 acres
Shortly afterwards on February 8, telegrams were sent to Congressmen
Berry, Senator Case, and Senator Karl Mundt by the executive committee
of the tribal council of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The messages urged the
congressmen to do their best to get Section 5 restored so it would be
possible for the tribe to negotiate with the federal government for
exchange of the land in the Sheep Mountain area for other lands.[204]
The House, however, did not heed this resolution but voted instead to
concur with the Senate’s amended version. The bill became Public Law 328
after being signed by President Harry S Truman on May 7, 1952.[205]
Under this law, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to adjust
and redefine at his discretion the exterior boundary of the national
monument by appropriate reductions or additions. The law specified,
among other things, that the adjusted area could not exceed the existing
154,119 acres.[206] (An official figure of 150,103.41 acres was used as
the total acreage of the area at the time it was proclaimed as a
national monument in 1939. A revised figure, listing 154,119.46 acres
for the same area, was used as the total acreage from about 1943 until
October 1952.[207])
Immediately after the bill became law, proposed boundary changes
received considerable attention. Some believed that the area of the
national monument should be reduced. A strong supporter of this view was
the South Dakota Stock Growers Association. It was the organization’s
belief that the size could be reduced by about one-half without
destroying any of its scenic value. They estimated that 3,000 head of
cattle would be without grass if the NPS carried through its plan to
fence the area and eliminate grazing from the national monument. One of
the biggest problems was the large acreage of private lands located
within its boundary. Many ranchers believed that these lands ought to be
eliminated “from the Badlands National Monument wherever a reasonable
boundary adjustment can be made.”[208] Others contended “that all of the
grassland west of Pinnacles [Sage Creek Basin] could be removed from the
Park and that such removal would in no way destroy the attraction to the
tourist.”[209]
A 1953 memorandum from the Regional Director to NPS Director Conrad L.
Wirth explained how Sage Creek Basin had become largely
government-owned:
Sage Creek Basin was a submarginal waste in the 1930’s due to
prolonged and severe drought conditions and considerable acreages of
private lands were acquired by the Resettlement Administration in
connection with its submarginal land program.... Other private parcels
became tax delinquent and were ultimately sold to private owners by
Pennington County in the 1940’s. Because of favorable climatic
conditions of the past several years, the basin has recovered from its
condition of the 1930’s; it now contains a considerable acreage of
good grasslands.... We venture the opinion that had vegetative
conditions of the basin in the 1930’s resembled those of today, a
submarginal land program would not have been undertaken so far as the
basin is concerned.[210]
Owing to the great interest generated by the proposed boundary changes,
the NPS issued a statement in July 1952 giving reasons why it would not
be “advisable to eliminate from the Monument the grasslands west of the
Pinnacles, as suggested by the South Dakota Stock Growers
Association.”[211] It said in part that
These flatter lands with their cover of native grasses and
wildflowers, typical of the surrounding prairie country, are valuable
for park and wildlife purposes. The preservation of this relatively
small exhibit of native grass is an important responsibility in
itself, since no comparable section of the Great Plains has been set
apart to be preserved in its natural condition.[212]
The statement also indicated that about 31,700 acres of other lands were
to be eliminated from the national monument, including more than 12,000
acres of privately owned lands. It indicated that the Soil Conservation
Service agreed to these revisions and that they were “the same as those
which the Congress considered when it authorized boundary revisions by
enacting Public Law 328.”[213]
On October 3, 1952, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Joel D. Wolfsohn
issued an order revising the boundary of the national monument. The
order showed that 30,802.52 acres, more or less, were “hereby
transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of
Agriculture for use, administration, and disposition in accordance with
the provisions of Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act....”
This reduced the size of Badlands National Monument, according to the
order, to 121,883.12 acres.[214]
The Order was performed to provide lands for the Soil Conservation
Service to enable those persons having private land in the monument to
trade for Soil Conservation Service lands outside the monument, and to
make a few administrative adjustments in the monument boundary.[215]
However, discrepancies in the land records led the NPS to investigate
the status of lands within the former boundary.[216] By late 1953 it was
found that 31,442.52 acres were eliminated from the national monument by
the October 3 order instead of 30,802.52 acres. Of these 12,916.32 acres
were private lands; the remaining 18,526.20 acres were transferred to
the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture.[217]
There were also lands totaling about 4,449 acres added to the national
monument by the October 3 order; these lands included
“2,581.88 acres of public domain, 336.88 acres of purchased land,
981.79 acres of Soil Conservation Service land and 548.56 acres of
private land.... The net result of the boundary adjustments was a loss
of 26,993.23 acres of land in Badlands National Monument.”[218]
Even before the October 3 order was enacted there was already talk about
further reduction of the area boundary. In a memorandum dated December
5, 1952, Director Wirth wrote to the Regional Director in charge of
Badlands National Monument:
[Illustration: Figure 24 A PORTION OF SAGE
CREEK BASIN
In 1953 over 25,000 acres were recommended by the NPS for deletion
from this section of the national monument.[219] Later, studies
revealed that the area should be retained. Today it is home for
bison, deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and other animals. Sage Creek
Primitive Campground is located in its northwest section.]
The basis for a final solution [of the boundary problem at Badlands
National Monument] lies in a reassessment and restatement of Monument
objectives and significance. If it is found, as appears likely, that
our chief concern and purpose should be with the badlands formations,
then the boundaries should be drawn accordingly, with due regard for
badlands protection, interpretation and attendant development needs.
If we are to retain some or all of the grasslands, we must have strong
and valid justification for doing so and be prepared to disclose and
defend what specific Monument purposes and uses they are to
serve.[220]
In order to determine if the grasslands west of Pinnacles should be
kept, the NPS contracted with a number of prominent scientists to make
studies of the area in 1953. Dr. Theodore E. White, a paleontologist
with the Smithsonian Institution, determined in June 1953 whether or not
potentially fossiliferous areas would be excluded by proposed boundary
readjustments.[221] Late that summer archeological investigations were
undertaken by Archeologist Paul L. Beaubien of the NPS Regional Office
in Omaha, Nebraska. He recorded some 30 prehistoric Indian sites and one
historic Indian site believed to have been used by Chief Big Foot’s band
a few days before the infamous battle at Wounded Knee in December
1890.[222]
Professor F.W. Albertson of Fort Hays Kansas State College submitted a
Report of Study of Grassland Areas of Badlands National Monument in
September. In brief he said, “it seems to me that the Park Service has
an extremely interesting area, which should be preserved for all
interested public through the years to come.”[223]
Meanwhile, support grew for retention of the boundaries as spelled out
by the October 3, 1952, secretarial order. The Rapid City Chapter of the
Izaak Walton League of America, the South Dakota State Highway
Commission, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, the
Black Hills and Badlands Association, and prominent local persons,
including Sid Soma, Dr. G.W. Mills, Ted Hustead, and Leonel Jensen, all
from the town of Wall, were but a few of the many who advocated
retention of the present boundary.[224]
Although the South Dakota Stock Growers Association and some local
ranching interests continued to advocate “the transfer of administration
of all grazing lands within the monument not needed for road and
development purposes,” it became evident to these people that opposition
was building up against further acreage reduction in the park.[225]
In April 1954 the NPS recommended no boundary changes until the problem
was explored further. Director Wirth said:
it seems apparent that there is a very considerable number of people
... which strongly support the retention of the Badlands National
Monument not only as a striking example of geological formations, with
areas of paleontological interest, but also for preservation of a
segment of the plains grassland and native wildlife as added
attractions. On the other hand, there is also a difficult problem of
inholdings and grazing complications, with strong sentiment from the
livestock owners for a reduction of the Monument.[226]
He recommended, among other things, that exchanges of private land
inside the boundary for federal lands outside be pushed vigorously, and
that Dr. Adolph Murie, NPS Biologist, should study the wildlife
possibilities of the national monument.[227]
In his report Dr. Murie said:
Badlands National Monument has national significance, first of all
because it is a sample of the Badlands. The values of this monument
are of outstanding significance in the fields of geology,
paleontology, archeology, and biology. The eroded terrain has scenic
value for many, and in Sage Creek Basin and in the section north of
Cedar Pass one finds the atmosphere of the early scene, when this
country was far beyond the frontier....
In Sage Creek Basin we have an opportunity to preserve the prairie
dog-blackfooted ferret community, with many other associated species
of the region.... Likewise the rare kit fox may possibly be preserved
in the basin. The value of Sage Creek Basin for preserving these rare
native species is contingent on size and its present size is none too
large....
Concerning boundaries in general over the monument it appears that any
eliminations would be harmful to public values. Only in minor details,
in connection with land adjustments, should any territory be
sacrificed. Sage Creek Basin, especially, should not be
reduced....[228]
Also during the summer of 1954, the NPS requested Dr. James D. Bump,
Director of Museum of Geology of the South Dakota School of Mines and
Technology at Rapid City, to make a geological and paleontological
appraisal of Badlands National Monument. Quotations from his report
point out his strong feelings for the area:
The Big Badlands of South Dakota, from a paleontological standpoint,
probably constitutes the richest Oligocene region in the world....
[The quantity of] paleontological materials given up to man over the
past 100 years is of astounding proportions. This prehistorical
treasure represents more than 250 species of the vertebrate life of
thirty million years ago....
The Badlands National Monument is a part of the greatest
badland-eroded section in North America.... I can think of no other
geographic area of like-size that has the unusual natural beauty, the
undisturbed plant and animal life and the wealth of scientific
information to offer the public....[229]
He ended his report by making a number of recommendations, some of which
follow:
The present boundaries must remain intact. Removal of any lands,
except perhaps some thin scattered fringes, would seriously cripple
future development and greatly reduce the attractiveness of the
Monument....
Under no circumstances should any part of the Sage Creek Basin be
withdrawn. Its scientific and natural value cannot be overestimated
and it is my opinion that this section will in the future become one
of the most interesting and educational of the entire Monument.[230]
As a result of Dr. Murie’s wildlife study and Dr. Bump’s geological and
paleontological appraisal, the Service began formulating definite ideas
in April 1955 concerning further revision of the boundary. An
elimination of 11,124 acres including 4,234 acres of privately owned
lands was proposed. This is only about one-third of the 32,000 acres
which was being widely talked about as a possible reduction in size
during 1953. The larger reduction would have included much of the
grasslands west of Pinnacles. Addition of 4,460 acres, including 3,954
acres of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation lands and 246 acres of Department
of the Army lands located on the Indian reservation, was also proposed.
Net reduction in area would be about 6,664 acres.[231]
Since the mid-1930’s there have been various suggestions that a road be
constructed to connect Sage Creek Basin with the Sheep Mountain
locality. Although it was not in the master plan for the national
monument in the 1950’s, planning for the ultimate boundary was done so
that the road could be built if ultimately needed.[232] However, Dr.
Murie recommended against the road proposal in his report.[233]
[Illustration: Figure 25 BADLANDS NATIONAL
MONUMENT VISITOR CENTER
Dedicated in 1959, the building houses the national monument’s
administrative offices, exhibits on the Badlands, and a small
theater in which there are narrated slide programs on the highlights
of the Badlands. The facility is open all year.]
On April 12, 1956, an open meeting was held in Wall, South Dakota, to
discuss proposed boundary changes with ranchers, stockmen, and local
businessmen. No opposition to the proposals was voiced. The meeting also
provided an opportunity for discussion of development plans, including
fencing and grazing matters.[234]
On March 22, 1957, Acting Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson
issued an order eliminating 11,234.09 acres from the national monument,
of which about 4,000 acres were private land. The total area of Badlands
National Monument was fixed at 111,529.82 acres. This also included an
addition of 240 acres of federal land which, among other things,
increased the utility area at headquarters and provided a much needed
disposal area. An additional 1.39 acres of federal land, located along
the White River three miles south of headquarters, were added, since
water storage tanks and a water pump, all part of the area’s water
system, are located there. More than 7,000 acres of the 11,234.09-acre
reduction were transferred to the Department of Agriculture, under
provisions of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, and became available
for exchange for private land remaining inside the new boundary. As a
result of the secretarial order, there was a net reduction of 10,992.70
acres in the size of the national monument. The new boundary included
98,486.39 acres in federal ownership and 13,043.43 acres of non-federal
land.[235] Since then, the Service has acquired title to 6,356.71 acres
of the non-federal land within the boundary. As of December 1967 there
were 104,843.10 acres of federal land and 6,686.72 acres of non-federal
land within the boundary of Badlands National Monument.[236]
On January 2, 1954, the Secretary of Agriculture transferred the Land
Utilization Program, including lands in the vicinity of the national
monument, from the Soil Conservation Service to the U.S. Forest
Service.[237] This, in part, prompted a Program of Procedure for Land
Exchanges, a revision of the Recommended Program of Procedure, to be
drafted. The new agreement was signed in September 1954 by officials of
both services. It states in part that all future land exchanges are to
be handled by the Forest Service. This includes exchanges with private
parties who own land inside the national monument boundary. One
objective of such land exchanges is to eliminate all non-federal lands
from within Badlands National Monument.[238] Since 1954 elimination of
such lands has come about largely through exchanges, although in a few
instances actual purchases were made.
[Illustration: Figure 26 RIBBON-CUTTING CEREMONY
AT BADLANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT DEDICATION, SEPTEMBER 16, 1959
Left to Right: NPS Regional Director Howard Baker, Region Two (now
Midwest Region); Conrad Wirth, NPS Director; Fred Seaton, Secretary
of the Interior; Congressman E.Y. Berry; Mrs. George H. Sholly,
widow of Badlands National Monument Superintendent; Mrs. Ralph
Herseth; and Governor Ralph Herseth of South Dakota.]
Concurrently with boundary adjustments, the NPS gave considerable
thought to a grazing management plan for the area whereby grazing might
be eliminated without serious hardship to the local ranchers. As a
result the Service presented a plan in May 1948 to grazing permittees
outlining a schedule for the gradual termination of grazing on federally
owned national monument lands by December 31, 1961.[239]
MISSION 66 DEVELOPMENT
In 1956, the National Park Service launched a 10-year park conservation
development program known as Mission 66. This was to have great impact
on the national monument. Under the program an expenditure of nearly
$5,000,000 for roads, trails, buildings, and utilities was planned.
Among the major projects undertaken and completed between 1956 and 1960
were a realinement and oil surfacing of main roads, the development of
the Conata Picnic Area and the Cedar Pass and Dillon Pass campgrounds,
and the erection of utility and storage buildings, three
multiple-housing units, five employee residences, and an
amphitheater.[240]
In May 1955 the Millard family donated two tracts of land totaling 18.50
acres to the NPS. Of this total, 5.85 acres, located in front of Cedar
Pass Lodge, were donated for the right-of-way of the relocated highway;
the remaining 12.65 acres made possible the development of Cedar Pass
Campground.[241]
The visitor center was completed in May 1959. This large structure
houses the national monument headquarters, interpretive exhibits, and an
audiovisual presentation of the Badlands story.[242]
The installation of exhibits in the visitor center was essentially
completed by November 1960.[243] Some of the materials used in the
exhibits were donated by a number of individuals and institutions. Mr.
Herbert Millard, son of the late Ben Millard, gave a large mass of sand
calcite crystals now in the Small Wonders Exhibit. Dr. Winter of the
University of South Dakota at Vermillion donated the plant collection in
the Great Plains Grasslands Exhibit. The mounted badger in the Wildlife
of the Grassland Exhibit was a gift from Orville Sandall of Kadoka,
South Dakota. The skull of an Audubon Bighorn, on display above the
Breaks in the Grassland Exhibit, was donated by Willard Sharp of
Interior, South Dakota. In the exhibit showing a number of Indian
artifacts are casts of early-man points donated by the University of
Nebraska State Museum.[244]
The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South
Dakota, donated both the lower jaw and the upper jaw, including skull,
of a fossilized titanothere, which is in the Badlands Bones Exhibit. The
materials for the articulated oreodont fossil in the same exhibit were
also donated by the school. The oreodont fossil is of particular
interest because it was found northwest of Imlay, South Dakota about 100
feet from where a famous fossilized oreodont with unborn twins was
excavated. The latter fossil is on display at the Museum of Geology at
the school (see Figure 5).[245]
The first full-time resident park naturalist for Badlands National
Monument was assigned in June 1958 to aid with the local interpretive
program.[246] For a number of years previously, a park naturalist who
had been assigned to Black Hills areas of the NPS also served the
national monument on an irregular basis.[247]
[Illustration: Figure 27 CLIFF SHELF NATURE
TRAIL
The loop trail, completed in 1962, is constructed over a geological
slump which has lush plant cover. To acquaint the visitor with the
area’s natural history, a trail leaflet is provided. Here,
naturalist-guided walks are offered daily during the summer
months.[250]]
On September 16, 1959, following the completion of the visitor center,
the NPS dedicated Badlands National Monument. The featured speaker for
the event was Fred A. Seaton, Secretary of the Interior, who gave the
dedicatory address. Some 350 persons attended the ceremony.[248]
Tragedy struck a short time prior to the dedication with the sudden
death of Superintendent George H. Sholly on August 19. As a tribute to
him, the new amphitheater was named the George H. Sholly Memorial
Amphitheater.[249]
After the boundary of Badlands National Monument was redefined by
secretarial order in March 1957, the NPS began a long-range program for
fencing it. The first segment of fencing was completed in 1957. By early
1961 some 108 miles were fenced with 20 miles still to be completed. To
fence non-federal land excluding state land within the national monument
would require an additional 92 miles of fence.[252]
In December 1961 letters were delivered to all inholding owners and to
all persons who grazed stock within the national monument in that year.
The letters terminated all grazing on federal lands within Badlands, and
gave a short history of grazing in the national monument, the reason for
termination, and the objectives and plans of the Service now that
grazing was no longer permitted. Most of the private land located inside
the boundary was not fenced, so unless steps were taken to fence the
tracts used for grazing, stock would still trespass on federally owned
lands.[253] Superintendent John W. Jay and Chief Park Ranger James F.
Batman attended the legislative-committee meeting of the South Dakota
Stockgrowers Association in Rapid City on November 30, 1961, where the
matter of fencing the inholdings was discussed. Although at the time of
this meeting the Service had no plans to fence any of the private
inholdings, it later decided to assist with the fencing on an equal
cost-sharing basis in the interest of better landowner-Service relations
and in consideration of special situations relating to livestock
management that faced some of the owners of private land in the national
monument.[254] This offer was made to the landowners by letter from
Superintendent Jay dated May 9, 1962. As a result three landowners
accepted the offer.[255] By 1964 all of the inholdings on which grazing
was being done were fenced either on a 50-50 basis or by the individual
owners.[256]
[Illustration: Figure 28 FOSSIL EXHIBIT TRAIL
Completed in 1962, this paved trail is unique in that along it are
displayed partially excavated fossils protected by clear plastic
domes. A shelter, located midway along the trail, houses exhibits
which tell a brief story of Badlands fossils.[251]]
Despite the Service’s hope that grazing on the national monument’s
federally owned land would be terminated at the end of 1961, it
continued. Due to drought conditions of 1961 and early 1962, Congressman
Berry requested on behalf of the ranchers that grazing be continued
during 1962. NPS Director Wirth decided to set up an emergency grazing
program that would include only those ranchers who held permits in 1961.
Accordingly, special-use permits were issued to 26 ranchers during 1962.
This was the last year that grazing was permitted on federally owned
lands in the national monument.[257]
Some livestock trespassing by local ranchers continued, nevertheless. In
November 1962, the United States Attorney took direct action against
five ranchers who had been in trespass for some time.[258]
As early as 1919 a U.S. Forest Service report expressed the idea that
“Sage Creek Basin contains a large acreage of land that can be used for
a game preserve for buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and mountain
sheep.”[259] In 1935 the proposed Badlands National Monument plus the
Badlands Recreational Demonstrational Area (most of which was later
included in the national monument when it was established in 1939) were
considered to be favorable localities for the reintroduction of buffalo,
mountain sheep, and pronghorn.[260]
However, after the national monument was established, the NPS believed
that the area was too small to provide a wildlife range.[261] Dr.
Murie’s report
recommended that no buffalo be introduced on the monument because of
the artificial conditions under which they would have to be
maintained. If it were deemed desirable to fence an area for buffalo
the most suitable spot would be north of Cedar Pass.[262]
Concerning bighorn sheep he “recommended that the bighorn be introduced
when the opportunity develops, and that Sheep Mountain Peak be added to
the monument for the use of the bighorn.”[263]
Pronghorn, commonly referred to as antelope, were seen during the 1940’s
on rare occasions in Badlands National Monument and just outside the
north boundary. However since 1959, 100 or more head have been reported
annually in the national monument. These animals have come from the
outside since there has not been any formal reintroduction of pronghorn
inside the boundary.[264]
[Illustration: Figure 29 AMERICAN BISON AGAIN
IN THE BADLANDS
After an absence of about a century, buffalo were reintroduced into
the national monument in 1963. The fast-increasing herd roams
largely in the 45,000 acres of Sage Creek and Tyree Basins.[268]]
[Illustration: Figure 30 REINTRODUCTION OF
BIGHORN SHEEP, 1964
These Rocky Mountain Bighorns are closely related to the now-extinct
Audubon Bighorns.[269]]
Immediately after grazing was terminated on national monument lands in
1962, the range underwent a remarkable recovery, due to the abundant
rainfall of the 1962 and 1963 seasons. Questions arose as to why the
range was not being utilized. Superintendent Frank Hjort recommended
that bison be reintroduced as a means of getting the wildlife
restoration program underway.[265]
In November 1963 the first herd of bison, comprised of 28 head from
Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park in North Dakota and Fort
Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska, were released in Sage
Creek Basin. In October of the following year, this herd was enlarged by
an additional 25 head from Theodore Roosevelt. The herd has done well
and by the end of 1967 numbered 122 individuals.[266]
Since 1963 the buffalo have shown that they prefer the remoteness of
Sage Creek Basin and have demonstrated little desire to leave that
area.[267]
In January 1964 in cooperation with the South Dakota Game, Fish and
Parks Department, bighorn sheep were reintroduced. Twelve head of Rocky
Mountain Bighorns from Colorado were released in a 370-acre holding pen
with the view toward eventually restocking Badlands National Monument
and other parts of South Dakota. This flock was supplemented by ten more
animals the following month.[270]
Unfortunately, losses were suffered by both adults and lambs during the
first two and one-half years. The situation improved early in 1966 with
no further losses until the summer of 1967 when the peak flock of 27
individuals suffered a severe setback. In September, when all but 13 had
succumbed to a respiratory infection, the bighorn were released from the
holding pasture. They now roam the rugged Badlands south of Pinnacles
Overlook.[271]
In February 1964, the NPS purchased Cedar Pass Lodge, together with 72
acres of the surrounding land, for $275,000 from the Millard family. The
lodge is now being run on a contract basis by a concessioner.[272]
Increased travel to the area during the years of Mission 66 fully
justified the expanded development program of the national monument.
From 1956 to 1966 the number of visitors increased 65 percent (see
Appendix A).
Because of this great increase in travel, the summer visitor may find
some of the scenic-overlook parking areas full, the visitor center
crowded, and the nightly campground amphitheater program with “standing
room only.” Since increased visitor use is practically assured in the
foreseeable future, plans are already being made to provide additional
facilities for visitors to Badlands National Monument.
APPENDIX A
ANNUAL NUMBER OF VISITS TO BADLANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT SINCE ITS
ESTABLISHMENT[273]
Year Total Visits Percent increase or decrease
over previous year
1938[a] 175,000
1939 205,100 17.2
1940 190,243 -7.2
1941 252,878 32.9
1942 87,231 -65.5
1943 10,149 -88.4
1944 10,349 2.0
1945 31,377 203.2
1946 230,403 634.3
1947 339,843 47.5
1948 384,133 13.0
1949 373,076 -2.9
1950 447,654 20.0
1951 607,965 35.8
1952 580,902 -4.5
1953 658,691 13.4
1954 664,997 1.0
1955 630,881 -5.1
1956 663,246 5.1
1957 701,094 5.7
1958 810,837 15.7
1959 825,184 1.8
1960 878,625 6.5
1961 833,279 -5.2
1962 1,044,768 25.4
1963 1,073,971 2.8
1964 1,079,837 0.5
1965 1,091,261 1.1
1966 1,094,754 0.3
1967 1,188,666 8.6
[a]The figures for 1938 have not been used to calculate total visitation
to the national monument since the year is before the area was
officially established.
Average annual increase in number of visits in the last 15 years has
been about 5%.
In September 1954, 15½ years after the national monument was
established, the five millionth visit was recorded. A total of ten
million visits was attained just seven years later in July 1961. On
August 16, 1966, Superintendent Frank A. Hjort officially welcomed a
traveler and his family who represented the 15 millionth visit to
Badlands National Monument. At the present rate of travel increase, the
20 millionth visit is expected in 1970. As of December 31, 1967, the
total number of visits to the national monument since its establishment
in 1939 is 16,991,394.
The NPS travel year has been the same as a regular calendar year since
January 1, 1953. Before that date, the NPS travel year was from October
through September. However, total visits prior to 1953 have been
recalculated to show actual calendar year totals.
APPENDIX B
CUSTODIANS AND SUPERINTENDENTS of Badlands National Monument[274]
1. Howard B. Stricklin Acting Custodian August 11, 1939-December 31, 1943
Custodian January 1, 1944-July 18, 1944
(Military furlough; July 19, 1944-January 13, 1946)
Custodian January 14, 1946-July 13, 1948
2. Warren K. Leland Custodian July 19, 1944-March 20, 1945
3. Lyle K. Linch Acting Custodian June 22, 1945-January 13, 1946
4. John E. Suter Custodian July 27, 1948-December 31, 1948
John E. Suter Superintendent January 1, 1949-January 8, 1953
5. John A. Rutter Superintendent April 12, 1953-November 30, 1957
6. George H. Sholly Superintendent January 26, 1958-August 19, 1959[b]
7. Frank E. Sylvester Superintendent February 15, 1960-October 29, 1960
8. John W. Jay, Jr. Superintendent December 11, 1960-October 31, 1962
9. Frank A. Hjort Superintendent February 10, 1963-September 23, 1967
10. John R. Earnst Superintendent October 22, 1967-
[b]Mr. Sholly died from a heart attack on the evening of this date.
APPENDIX C
PICTURE CREDITS
The sources for illustrations used in this publication are shown below.
Dates when each of the photographic illustrations was taken are noted,
if known, in parentheses. Department of the Interior, National Park
Service has been abbreviated to DINPS for use in designating
illustrations supplied by the NPS. The numbers to the left correspond to
figure numbers under the illustrations in the text.
1. Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota;
and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory, 1852,
page 196.
2. Figure 64, page 127, South Dakota School of Mines Bulletin 13,
November 1920.
3. Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota;
and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory, 1852,
between pages 196 and 197.
4. DINPS (November 20, 1967). Note: The Badlands Natural History
Association is grateful to Mr. Leonel Jensen, local rancher,
for help in locating the site of this trail. It is in S-1/2
sec. 30, T. 1 S., R. 15 E. of the Black Hills Meridian.
5. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South
Dakota.
6. The Rapid City Daily Journal, Monday, September 27, 1965.
7. Louis Blumer, Wall, South Dakota (about 1911).
8. A.E. Johnson, Interior, South Dakota (December 1906).
9. Ted E. Hustead, Wall Drug Store, Wall, South Dakota (1907).
10. Plate No. 56B, South Dakota School of Mines Bulletin 13, November
1920.
11. Keith Crew, Interior, South Dakota; from a postcard mailed June 5,
1909.
12. Leonel Jensen, Wall, South Dakota (fall 1908; Louis J. Jensen
family).
13. Leslie Crew, Interior, South Dakota; from a postcard mailed
December 19, 1908.
14. Rise Studio, Rapid City, South Dakota.
15. Black Hills Studios, Inc., Spearfish, South Dakota.
16. DINPS.
17. DINPS.
18. DINPS (December 6, 1964).
19. DINPS (1938).
20. DINPS (about 1934).
21. DINPS (June 1941).
22. DINPS (June 7, 1950).
23. DINPS.
24. DINPS (spring 1964).
25. DINPS (August 1960).
26. DINPS (September 16, 1959).
27. DINPS (summer 1962).
28. DINPS (July 1962).
29. DINPS (January 9, 1964).
30. DINPS (January 25, 1964).
The Badlands Natural History Association wishes to extend its sincere
thanks to these individuals and organizations for granting the
association permission to use the illustrations.
APPENDIX D
Footnotes and References
All references used in compiling this history are on hand in the
Badlands National Monument library or files for further study. Where
actual reports, correspondence, or books were not available, copies have
been obtained from such sources as the National Archives, Library of
Congress, National Park Service, and various public and university
libraries.
For the sake of simplicity, the following abbreviation has been used
where appropriate:
PNC—copies of items from the Peter Norbeck Collections, University of
South Dakota, Vermillion, which pertain to the establishment of
Badlands National Monument are in a bound volume in the national
monument library.
[1]Dee C. Taylor, Salvage Archeology in Badlands National Monument,
South Dakota (Missoula: Montana State University, 1961), pp. 79, 80.
[2]Ibid., p. 75.
[3]Ibid., p. 80.
[4]Herbert S. Schell, History of South Dakota (Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1961), p. 16.
[5]Ibid., pp. 17-23.
[6]Ibid., pp. 24-36.
[7]Lt. G.K. Warren, Preliminary Report of Explorations in Nebraska and
Dakota in the Years 1855-’56-’57 (Washington: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1875), p. 26; J.R. Macdonald, “The History and
Exploration of the Big Badlands of South Dakota,” Guide Book Fifth
Field Conference of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in
Western South Dakota, ed. James D. Bump (Sponsored by the Museum of
Geology of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid
City, August 29-September 1, 1951), p. 31.
[8]Hiram M. Chittenden, and Alfred T. Richardson, eds., Life, Letters
and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet. S.J., 1801-1873 (New
York: Francis P. Harper, 1905), vol. 2, pp. 622, 623.
[9]Charles L. Camp, ed., James Clyman American Frontiersman 1792-1881
(Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1928), p. 24.
Note: Dale Morgan was of the opinion that the jornada which Clyman
describes was through country south of the White River, and that
Smith’s party by-passed almost entirely that portion of the South
Dakota Badlands now set apart as a national monument [Dale L.
Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West (Indianapolis:
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953), p. 386, f.n. 10]. Just a
year later, however, Morgan published new evidence found in the
Gibbs map to back up the opposite interpretation of Clyman’s
journals. He now believes that the Smith party followed the White
River exclusively, keeping to the north bank all the way to possibly
near the mouth of Willow Creek, located east and a little south from
the present town of Hot Springs, South Dakota. This means the party
would have at least seen, and perhaps passed through the present
Badlands National Monument. [Dale L. Morgan and Carl I. Wheat,
Jedediah Smith and his Maps of the American West (California
Historical Society, 1954), p. 49.]
[10]Reuben G. Thwaites, ed., Travels in the Interior of North America by
Maximilian, Prince of Wied (Cleveland: The A.H. Clark Company,
1906), vol. 3, p. 90.
[11]Chittenden and Richardson, op. cit., p. 624.
[12]Ibid., pp. 624, 625.
[13]Cleophas C. O’Harra, The White River Badlands (Rapid City: South
Dakota School of Mines, Bulletin No. 13, Department of Geology,
November 1920), pp. 123, 128.
[14]John Francis McDermott, ed., Journal of an Expedition to the
Mauvaises Terres and the Upper Missouri in 1850, Smithsonian
Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 147 (Washington:
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952), p. 1.
[15]Macdonald, op. cit., p. 31; American Journal of Science, vol. 3, no.
7, 2d series, January 1847, pp. 248-250; O’Harra, op. cit., pp. 23,
24, 110-117, 161.
[16]McDermott, op. cit., p. 1.
[17]Ibid.
[18]Ibid., p. 2; Macdonald, op. cit., p. 31.
[19]E. de Girardin, “A Trip to the Bad Lands in 1849,” South Dakota
Historical Review, I (January 1936), 60.
[20]Ibid., p. 62.
[21]Ibid.
[22]Ibid., pp. 64, 65.
[23]David Dale Owen, Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa,
and Minnesota; and Incidentally of a Portion of Nebraska Territory
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co., 1852), pp. 196, 197.
[24]Ibid., pp. 197, 198.
[25]Ibid., pp. 198-206, 539-572.
[26]McDermott, op. cit., pp. 2, 3, 54, 55, 59.
[27]Ibid., pp. 60, 61.
[28]Ibid., p. 65.
[29]Ibid., p. 64.
[30]Ibid., pp. 3, 4.
[31]Ibid., p. 2.
[32]Lt. G.K. Warren, “Explorations in the Dacota Country in the Year
1855,” Senate Ex. Doc. No. 76, 34th Congress, 1st Session
(Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956), p. 76.
[33]Ibid., pp. 66-76.
[34]Letter, Will G. Robinson, Secretary, South Dakota State Historical
Society, to John W. Stockert, September 26, 1967; South Dakota
Historical Society, South Dakota Department of History Report and
Historical Collections (Pierre, S.D.: State Publishing Company,
1962), vol. XXXI, p. 280.
[35]Warren, op. cit., p. 76.
[36]Ibid., p. 74.
[37]O’Harra, op. cit., pp. 24, 161-163.
[38]Ray H. Mattison, ed., “The Harney Expedition Against the Sioux: The
Journal of Captain John B.S. Todd,” Nebraska History, XLIII (June
1962), 92, 130.
[39]Ibid., p. 122.
[40]Ibid.
[41]O’Harra, op. cit., p. 25.
[42]Charles Schuchert, and Clara Mae LeVene, O.C. Marsh, Pioneer in
Paleontology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), pp. 139-168;
U.S. National Park Service, Soldier and Brave (New York: Harper and
Row, 1963), pp. 135, 136.
[43]O’Harra, op. cit., p. 26.
[44]Macdonald, op. cit., p. 32.
[45]O’Harra, op. cit., p. 29.
[46]Macdonald, op. cit., p. 33.
[47]Louis Knoles, Forest Ranger, “A Report on the Bad Lands of South
Dakota,” 1919, pp. 20, 21.
[48]Ibid., p. 2; Letter, Mrs. E.T. Jurisch, Farmingdale, South Dakota,
to George Crouch, Wall, South Dakota, May 24, 1965.
[49]Knoles, op. cit., p. 22.
[50]Jackson-Washabaugh County Historical Society, Jackson-Washabaugh
Counties 1915-1965 (Marceline, Mo.: Walsworth, n.d.), p. 11;
Interview, A.E. Johnson, Interior, S.D., by John W. Stockert,
January 30, 1968.
[51]Robert M. Utley, The Last Days of the Sioux Nation (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1963), pp. 40-59.
[52]Ibid., pp. 184-199.
[53]Frederic Remington, “Lieutenant Casey’s Last Scout,” Harper’s
Weekly, XXXV (January 31, 1891), 86.
[54]Knoles, op. cit., p. 4.
[55]William H. Burt, and Richard P. Grossenheider, A Field Guide to the
Mammals (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1964), p. 75; Knowles,
op. cit., p. 22; Louis Blumer, Wall, S.D., interview by John W.
Stockert, January 15, 1968.
[56]Walker D. Wyman, Recorder, Nothing But Prairie and Sky (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1954), p. 46.
[57]Ibid., pp. 47-52.
[58]Ibid., pp. 75-81.
[59]Jackson-Washabaugh County Historical Society, op. cit., pp. 11, 136,
142.
[60]Interview, Leonel Jensen, Wall, S.D., by Ray H. Mattison, June 2,
1965; statement confirmed by A.E. Johnson, Interior, S.D., February
10, 1968.
[61]Schell, op. cit., p. 343.
[62]Photograph identified by Grace Sullivan Blair, Martin, S.D., A.E.
Johnson and Rolla J. Burkholder, Interior, S.D.
[63]Schell, op. cit., p. 343.
[64]Ibid., p. 256.
[65]U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census
of the United States: 1930 Population, Vol. I (Washington: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1931), pp. 1015, 1019.
[66]Luman H. Long, ed., The World Almanac 1966 (New York: New York
World-Telegram and The Sun, 1966), p. 375.
[67]Letter, Senator Peter Norbeck to Prof. W.C. Toepelman, University of
South Dakota, May 22, 1922, PNC, p. 3.
[68]Interview, Leonel Jensen, Wall, S.D., by John W. Stockert, March 20,
1967.
[69]Congressional Record, 61st Cong., 1st Sess., 44:50, 58, 115, 128.
[70]Knoles, op. cit., pp. 17, 18.
[71]Ibid.
[72]Gilbert C. Fite, “Peter Norbeck,” Dictionary of American Biography,
ed. Robert L. Schuyler (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958),
XXII, 491, 492.
[73]Bernice White, ed., Who’s Who for South Dakota (Pierre, 1956), p.
103; South Dakota Legislative Manual, 1931 (Pierre: State Publishing
Company, 1931), p. 455.
[74]Edmund B. Rogers, comp., History of Legislation Relating to the
National Park System Through the 82d Congress: Badlands National
Monument South Dakota (1958), S. 3541, 67th Cong., 2d Sess.;
Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 2d Sess., 62: 6173.
[75]Ibid.
[76]Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 2d Sess., 62:6233; Rogers, op.
cit., H.R. 11514, 67th Cong., 2d Sess.
[77]Rogers, op. cit., Executive Order of Warren G. Harding, October 23,
1922.
[78]Letter, Commissioner, General Land Office, to Senator Norbeck,
August 28, 1923, PNC, p. 11.
[79]Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 4th Sess., 64:5573.
[80]Congressional Record, 68th Cong., 1st Sess., 65:215; Rogers, op.
cit., H.R. 2810, 68th Cong., 1st Sess., S. 3541, 67th Cong., 2d
Sess.
[81]Letters, Senator Norbeck from Attorney General B.S. Payne, January
11, 1922, Prof. W.C. Toepelman, May 17, 1922, and W.H. Tompkins,
U.S. Land Office, May 26, 1922, PNC, pp. 1, 3-7.
[82]Letter, Senator Norbeck to Vice President H.E. Beebe, Bank of
Ipswich (S.D.), May 5, 1924, PNC, p. 15.
[83]Interview, M. Emma Quevli, Interior, S.D., by John W. Stockert,
February 6, 1968.
[84]Letter, Senator Norbeck to J.W. Parmley, Ipswich, S.D., November 7,
1927, PNC, p. 32.
[85]Ibid.
[86]P.D. Peterson, Through the Black Hills and Bad Lands of South Dakota
(Pierre, S.D.: J. Fred Olander Company, 1929), p. 23.
[87]Ibid., pp. 23-33.
[88]Letter, James M. Palmer, Secretary, Wonderland Hiway Association, to
Senator Norbeck, October 22, 1927, PNC, p. 20.
[89]Letter, Senator Norbeck to Parmley, November 7, 1927, PNC, p. 32.
[90]Ibid.
[91]Ibid.
[92]Letter, Senator Norbeck to Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work,
November 2, 1927, PNC, p. 31.
[93]Letter, Senator Norbeck to Representative Williamson, April 10,
1928, PNC, p. 49.
[94]Ibid., pp. 49, 50.
[95]Rogers, op. cit., S. 4385, Calendar No. 1280, 70th Cong., 1st Sess.;
H.R. 13618, 70th Cong., 1st Sess.; Congressional Record, 70th Cong.,
1st Sess., 69:8046.
[96]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 1st Sess., 69:9224; Rogers, op.
cit., Senate Report No. 1246, Calendar No. 1280, 70th Cong., 1st
Sess.
[97]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 1st Sess., 69:9589.
[98]Robert S. Yard, “National Parks Situation Critical,” National Parks
Association, November 7, 1928, PNC, p. 129.
[99]Letter, Senator Norbeck to Yard, December 3, 1928, PNC, pp. 126,
127.
[100]Letter, NPS Acting Director A.E. Demaray to Senator Norbeck,
December 1, 1928, PNC, p. 122.
[101]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 1st Sess., 69:10007; 2d Sess.,
70:3807.
[102]Rogers, op. cit., House of Representatives Report No. 2607, 70th
Cong., 2d Sess.
[103]Memorandum, NPS Director Arno B. Cammerer to Secretary of the
Interior, July 6, 1938.
[104]Rogers, op. cit., House of Representatives Report No. 2607, 70th
Cong., 2d Sess.
[105]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 70:4302, 4303.
[106]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 70:4404.
[107]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 70:5015, 5089; Rogers,
op. cit., House of Representatives Report No. 2808, 70th Cong., 2d
Sess.
[108]Ibid.
[109]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 70:5225.
[110]Memorandum, NPS Director Cammerer to the Secretary of the Interior,
July 6, 1938; Hillory A. Tolson, Laws Relating to the National Park
Service, the National Parks and Monuments (Washington: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1933), pp. 302-305.
[111]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 70:3198, 3812; Rogers,
op. cit., S. 5779, 70th Cong., 2d Sess.; Senate Report No. 1842,
Calendar No. 1869, 70th Cong., 2d Sess.
[112]Congressional Record, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 70:3490; Rogers, op.
cit., H.R. 17102, 70th Cong., 2d Sess.
[113]Interview, Ted E. Hustead, Wall, S. D., by Ray H. Mattison, June 2,
1965; “Bad Lands Becomes National Monument,” The Rapid City Daily
Journal, January 28, 1939.
[114]Memorandum, NPS Regional Director Howard Baker to the NPS Director,
June 6, 1956 (includes copy of “Proposal of Name for an Unnamed
Domestic Feature,” Board of Geographic Names).
[115]Ibid., Weldon W. Gratton, “History of the Operator’s Development at
the Pinnacles Area Badlands National Monument” (NPS Region Two, Land
and Recreation Planning Division, September 23, 1948; Information
from E.N. (Curley) and Ilo Nelson (Cedar Pass Lodge concessioner,
1964-____), February 9, 1968.
Note: Not only were Norbeck and Millard linked together by their
common interest in the Badlands, but also through the marriage of
Mr. Norbeck’s daughter to Mrs. Clara (Millard) Jennings’ son
(information from Nelsons, February 9, 1968).
[116]Memorandum, G.A. Moskey, Chief Counsel, NPS, to NPS Regional
Director, Region Two, May 20, 1941; Receipt signed by B.H. Millard
and S.N. Millard dated October 24, 1946; Superintendent’s Monthly
Narrative Report for March 1955.
[117]Program, “Millard Ridge Dedication,” Badlands National Monument,
Interior, South Dakota, June 28, 1957.
[118]Information from E.N. (Curley) and Ilo Nelson, February 9, 1968;
Gratton, op. cit.; Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for
October 1950.
[119]Schell, op. cit., p. 277.
[120]Ibid., p. 282.
[121]Memorandum, NPS Director Cammerer to the Secretary of the Interior,
November 28, 1934.
[122]Ibid.
[123]Rogers, op. cit., Executive Order of Franklin D. Roosevelt,
November 21, 1934.
[124]Letter, Fred Bess, FERA, to Tilford E. Dudley, The Land Program,
FERA, January 1, 1935; Lewis Meriam, Relief and Social Security
(Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1946), p. 283.
[125]Final Report on the “Badlands National Monument Extension, South
Dakota—R-1,” Third District Office, Branch of Planning, NPS,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, submitted April 2, 1935, cover letter and
pp. 30-45, 79; Letter, NPS Assistant Director Wirth to Sixth
Regional Officer, NPS, August 1, 1935.
[126]Letter, T.A. Walters, Acting Secretary of the Interior, to Harry L.
Hopkins, Administrator, FERA, April 15, 1935.
[127]Ibid.
[128]Ibid.; Letter, Director J.S. Lansill, The Land Program, to T.E.
Dudley, The Land Program, FERA, April 17, 1935.
[129]Meriam, op. cit., pp. 286, 287.
[130]Letter, Senator Norbeck to NPS Assistant Director Wirth, February
13, 1935.
[131]Ibid.
[132]Letter, Senator Norbeck to Herbert Evison, NPS Acting Assistant
Director March 8, 1935.
[133]Letter, Mrs. Eva Stevens Roberts, Imlay, S.D., to NPS Assistant
Director Wirth, September 2, 1935.
[134]Letter, George Gibbs, Regional Officer, Region VI, NPS, to M.C.
Huppuch, Recreational Demonstration Projects, September 18, 1935.
[135]Letter, Senator Norbeck to R.G. Tugwell, Administrator,
Resettlement Administration, November 25, 1935.
[136]Thomas A. Sullivan, Laws Relating to the National Park Service,
Supp. I (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1944), p. 149.
[137]Various correspondence pertaining to the establishment of Badlands
National Monument.
[138]Letter, Governor Tom Berry to Secretary of the Interior Ickes,
February 26, 1935; Letter, NPS Superintendent Harry J. Liek to C.
Irvin Krumm, Executive Manager, Greater South Dakota Association,
November 20, 1953.
[139]Letter, D.K. Parrott, Acting Assistant Commissioner, General Land
Office, to Senator Case, June 11, 1937; Memorandum, Neal A.
Butterfield, NPS, to Mr. Thompson, February 13, 1937, “Badlands
National Monument Extension, South Dakota—R-1,” op. cit., p. 113.
[140]L.U. Foreman, Final Report (1938-1939) on “Badlands Tunnel
Engineering,” Federal Works Agency, Public Roads Administration;
Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for June 1940.
[141]Memorandum, NPS Director Cammerer to the Secretary of the Interior,
July 6, 1938; “Badlands National Monument Extension, South
Dakota—R-1,” op. cit., pp. 116, 117; Letter, Senator Norbeck to NPS
Director Cammerer, July 30, 1935.
[142]Memorandum, Antoinette Funk, Assistant Commissioner, General Land
Office, to the NPS, November 8, 1938; Grazing History, Badlands
National Monument (September 1963), p. 88.
[143]Memorandum, NPS Director Cammerer to the Secretary of the Interior,
July 6, 1938.
[144]Thomas A. Sullivan, Proclamations and Orders Relating to the
National Park Service up to January 1, 1945 (Washington: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1947), pp. 118-120.
[145]Memorandum, U.S. Department of the Interior for the Press, February
4, 1939.
[146]Letter, F. Hopkins, Acting Chief, SCS, to NPS Director Newton B.
Drury, December 27, 1941.
[147]Project Manager’s Monthly Narrative Report for January 1937.
[148]Project Manager’s Monthly Narrative Report for April 1937.
[149]Howard W. Baker, NPS Resident Landscape Architect, “Report to the
Deputy Chief Architect on Development of Proposed Badlands National
Monument, November 13 and 14, 1935,” December 30, 1935; “Badlands
National Monument Extension, South Dakota—R-1,” op. cit., cover
letter and p. 15; “Badlands Tunnel Engineering,” op. cit.; Summary
of Activities at Badlands National Monument, Fiscal Year 1940
(included in Superintendent’s Fiscal Annual Narrative Report File).
[150]Summary of Activities at Badlands National Monument, Fiscal Year
1940; Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for June 1940.
[151]Ibid.
[152]Memorandum, Superintendent Liek to the NPS Director, August 11,
1939; Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for February 1940.
[153]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for July 1940; Summary of
Activities at Badlands National Monument, Fiscal Years 1941, 1942.
[154]Memorandum, Superintendent Howard B. Stricklin to the NPS Regional
Director, Midwest Region, March 17, 1965.
[155]Baker, op. cit., p. 4; Memorandum, NPS Associate Director Demaray
to NPS Regional Director, Region II, November 4, 1939; “Badlands
National Monument Extension, South Dakota—R-1,” op. cit., p. 64.
[156]Memorandum, Chief, Project Development Division, NPS, to the files,
December 20, 1939; Memorandum, NPS Acting Regional Director Paul V.
Brown to Regional Attorney Taylor, February 23, 1940.
[157]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for April 1940.
[158]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for May 1941; Summary of
Activities at Badlands National Monument, Fiscal Year 1940;
Memorandum, NPS Chief Counsel Moskey to the NPS Regional Director,
Region II, May 20, 1941.
[159]Memorandum, NPS Regional Director Baker to the NPS Director, June
6, 1956; Weldon W. Gratton, op. cit.; Information from E.N. (Curley)
and Ilo Nelson, Cedar Pass Lodge, February 9, 1968.
[160]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for February 1940.
[161]Memorandum, NPS Acting Regional Director Brown to Regional Attorney
Taylor, February 23, 1940.
[162]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Reports for April 1940, November
1940, September 1941, and April 1943.
[163]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Reports for January 1965 and
April 1967; 1958 date deduced from various government memorandums
1956-1958.
[164]Summary of Activities at Badlands National Monument, Fiscal Year
1942.
[165]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for July 1940.
[166]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for March 1940.
[167]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for November 1941.
[168]Letter, NPS Acting Director Demaray to Representative Case, May 21,
1941.
[169]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for September 1941.
[170]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for March 1942.
[171]Ibid.
[172]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for May 1942.
[173]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for December 1942.
[174]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for May 1942.
[175]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for March 1943.
[176]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for June 1943.
[177]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Reports and Annual Fiscal Reports for
the war years, passim.
[178]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for November 1943.
[179]Summary of Activities at Badlands National Monument, Fiscal Year
1942; Coordinating Superintendent’s Annual Narrative Report for
Fiscal Year 1947.
[180]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for January 1953.
[181]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for January 1948.
[182]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for September 1952.
[183]Purchase Order, Superintendent, Badlands National Monument, to
Golden West Telephone Coop., Inc., October 17, 1960; Special Use
Permit BADL 61-1, July 20, 1961.
[184]Coordinating Superintendent’s Annual Report, Fiscal Year 1947.
[185]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Reports for May through September
1948; Fiscal Annual Reports 1947 and 1949.
[186]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for October 1951; NPS
Report 1a1, Annual Report of Officials in Charge of Field Areas and
the Regional Directors, June 1, 1952.
[187]Receipt, signed by B.H. Millard and S.N. Millard, October 24, 1946;
Badlands National Monument Land Records.
[188]NPS Report 1a1, Annual Report of Officials in Charge of Field Areas
and the Regional Directors, May 11, 1951.
[189]Superintendent’s Annual Fiscal Narrative Report, June 8, 1960;
Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for November 1950.
[190]Grazing History, op. cit., pp. 2, 3.
[191]Memorandum, Superintendent Stricklin to the NPS Regional Director,
Midwest Region, March 17, 1965.
[192]Ibid.
[193]Information from Chief Park Ranger Byron A. Hazeltine, Badlands
National Monument, November 1967.
[194]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for March 1943.
[195]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for February 1946.
[196]Custodian’s Monthly Narrative Report for November 1946.
[197]Memorandum, Lawrence C. Merriam, NPS Regional Director, Region Two
to the NPS Director, December 6, 1946; Letter, Secretary of the
Interior J.A. Krug to the President of the United States, May 21,
1949.
[198]Ibid.
[199]Memorandum, NPS Associate Regional Director, Region Two to
Superintendent, Wind Cave National Park, August 31, 1949.
[200]Krug to the President, May 21, 1949.
[201]Rogers, op. cit., Senate Report No. 1064, Calendar No. 1005, 82d
Cong., 2d Sess.
[202]Ibid., Bills and Reports named in the text by number.
[203]Grazing History, op. cit.; Badlands National Monument map file.
[204]Telegram, Ben Chief, Pine Ridge Indian Agency, to Senator Mundt,
February 8, 1952; Resolution of the Executive Committee of the
Tribal Council of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, February 8, 1952.
[205]Rogers, op. cit.; Hillory A. Tolson, comp., Laws Relating to the
National Park Service, Supp. II. (Washington: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1963), pp. 387, 388.
[206]Ibid.
[207]Memorandum, Department of the Interior to the Press, February 4,
1939; Grazing History, op. cit., p. 88.
[208]Letter, Congressman Berry to NPS Director Wirth, July 9, 1952;
Resolution of the Cane Creek Cooperative Grazing District, Walter
Kruse, President, n.d.
[209]Letter, Senator Case to NPS Director Wirth, July 16, 1952.
[210]Letter, NPS Regional Director Baker to the NPS Director, January
16, 1953.
[211]Letter, NPS Acting Director Tolson to Congressman Berry, July 2,
1952.
[212]Statement, “Boundary Revisions, Badlands National Monument, South
Dakota,” NPS, July 1952.
[213]Ibid.
[214]Federal Register, October 10, 1952, pp. 9051, 9052.
[215]Letter, General Superintendent Liek, to C. Irvin Krumm, Executive
Manager, Greater South Dakota Association, November 20, 1953.
[216]Memorandum, NPS Assistant Regional Director John S. McLaughlin to
the NPS Director, April 14, 1953.
[217]Letter, General Superintendent Liek to C. Irvin Krumm, November 20,
1953.
[218]Ibid.; Memorandum, Superintendent John A. Rutter to NPS Regional
Director, Region Two, October 14, 1955.
[219]Land Status Map, Drawing No. NM-BL-2036-C-2, January 15, 1953.
[220]Memorandum, NPS Director Wirth to NPS Regional Director, Region
Two, December 5, 1952.
[221]Theodore E. White, Report of the Paleontological Survey of Certain
Peripheral Areas of the Badlands National Monument South Dakota
(River Basin Surveys, Smithsonian Institution, June 1953).
[222]Paul L. Beaubein, Preliminary Report of Archeological
Reconnaissance, Badlands National Monument, 1953, November 3, 1953,
p. 3.
[223]F.W. Albertson, Report of Study of Grassland Areas of Badlands
National Monument, South Dakota..., September 26, 1953.
[224]Resolution (No. 7615), Frank W. Mitchell, Secretary, State Highway
Commission, November 17, 1953; Letters: F.W. Mitchell to Senator
Case, November 24, 1953; F. Web Hill, Chairman, Conservation
Committee, Rapid City Chapter Izaak Walton League of America, to NPS
Director Wirth, November 4, 1953; Leonel M. Jensen, Game, Fish and
Parks Commissioner, to Dr. G.W. Mills, March 18, 1954; Dr. G.W.
Mills, President, Black Hills and Badlands Association to NPS
Director Wirth, December 2, 1953; Memorandum, General Superintendent
Liek to NPS Regional Director, Region Two, November 4, 1953.
[225]Resolutions: Board of Directors, White River Cooperative Grazing
District, November 24, 1953; W.M. Rasmussen, Executive Secretary,
South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, December 11, 1953;
Memorandum, Superintendent Rutter to NPS Regional Director, April
28, 1954.
[226]Memorandum, NPS Director Wirth to NPS Regional Director, Region
Two, April 5, 1954.
[227]Ibid.
[228]Adolph Murie, “Wildlife Values in Badlands National Monument,”
1954, pp. 16, 17.
[229]James D. Rump, “A Geological and Paleontological Appraisal of the
Badlands National Monument,” September 15, 1954, p. 1.
[230]Ibid., pp. 3, 4.
[231]Memorandum, NPS Acting Regional Director McLaughlin to the NPS
Director, April 20, 1955; Resolutions: Clark Chamber of Commerce,
J.W. Lockhart, Secretary, December 16, 1953; Black Hills and
Badlands Association, G.W. Mills, President, December 2, 1953.
[232]Development Outline, Badlands National Monument (1947), February
28, 1947, p. 14; Tract map of Badlands National Monument, South
Dakota R-1, Dates: January 21, 1936, September 1936, and June 30,
1939; Memorandums: NPS Regional Director Baker to the NPS Director,
October 28, 1952; NPS Acting Regional Director McLaughlin to the NPS
Director, April 20, 1955.
[233]Murie, op. cit., p. 7.
[234]Minutes of Open Meeting Concerning Badlands Boundary Revisions,
Wall, South Dakota, April 12, 1956; Memorandum, NPS Regional
Director Baker to the NPS Director, April 17, 1956.
[235]Federal Register, March 29, 1957, pp. 2052, 2053; Minutes of Open
Meeting Concerning Badlands Boundary Revisions, Wall, South Dakota,
April 12, 1956; Badlands National Monument Land Ownership Record,
Deed 182, April 1958.
[236]Information from Badlands National Monument files, December 1967.
[237]Letter, Joy J. Deuser, Chief, Regional Land Management Division,
SCS, to NPS Regional Director Baker, December 10, 1953.
[238]Grazing History, op. cit., Appendix p. 30.
[239]Ibid., pp. 6-9.
[240]“Summary of Mission 66 Objectives and Program for Badlands National
Monument,” NPS Region Two, Omaha, Nebraska, April 6, 1956;
Superintendent’s Annual Reports, Fiscal Years, 1956-1961.
[241]Badlands National Monument Land Ownership Record, Deed No. 178,
August 25, 1955.
[242]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for May 1959.
[243]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for November 1960.
[244]Badlands National Monument Museum Accession Book.
[245]Ibid.; Letter, Harold Martin, Museum of Geology to John J. Palmer,
November 21, 1960.
[246]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for June 1958.
[247]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Reports prior to 1959;
Information from Elloween M. Saunders, Secretary, Badlands National
Monument, February 9, 1968.
[248]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for September 1959.
[249]Ibid.; Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for August 1959.
[250]Superintendent’s Annual Narrative Reports, Fiscal Years 1962, 1963.
[251]Ibid.
[252]Grazing History, op. cit., pp. 13, 14.
[253]Ibid., p. 15.
[254]Ibid., pp. 15-19: Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for
November 1961.
[255]Grazing History, op. cit., p. 19.
[256]Information from Chief Park Ranger Hazeltine, February 9, 1968.
[257]Grazing History, op. cit., pp. 16-20.
[258]Ibid., p. 19.
[259]Knoles, op. cit., p. 5.
[260]“Badlands National Monument Extension, South Dakota—R-1,” op. cit.,
p. 5.
[261]Memorandums, NPS Regional Director Baker to the NPS Director,
October 28, 1952, and January 16, 1953.
[262]Murie, op. cit., p. 17.
[263]Ibid.
[264]Badlands National Monument Annual Wildlife Census Reports,
1943-1946; Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for May 1959.
[265]“Long Range Wildlife and Range Management Plan, Badlands National
Monument for Period 1965-1969,” p. 6.
[266]Ibid.; “Badlands Wildlife Restoration Plan,” September 9, 1965;
Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Reports for November 1963 and
October 1964; Information from Chief Park Ranger Hazeltine, February
10, 1968.
[267]Information from Chief Park Ranger Hazeltine, February 10, 1968.
[268]Knoles, op. cit., p. 20: “Badlands Wildlife Restoration Plan,” op.
cit.
[269]“Badlands Wildlife Restoration Plan,” op. cit.
[270]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Reports for January and February
1964.
[271]Information from Chief Park Ranger Hazeltine, November 1967.
[272]Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for February 1964.
[273]Badlands Monthly Public Use Reports, 1939-1967: “Bad Lands Becomes
National Monument,” The Rapid City Daily Journal, January 28, 1939.
[274]Hillory A. Tolson, comp., National Park Service Officials, U.S.
Department of the Interior, NPS, January 1, 1964, p. 41.
APPENDIX E
[Illustration: APPENDIX E Map of Badlands
National Monument]
Transcriber’s Notes
—Silently corrected a few typos.
—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.
—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.
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