Creating a national park requires the cooperation of government, land owners and conservationists, but also usually involves the vision of a few dedicated individuals. Such is the case of Badlands National Park, where two men developed a consensus to preserve the land for current and future generations.
Badlands National Park encompasses 244,000 acres in southwestern South Dakota. Surrounded by grassy prairies, the park is the largest of its kind in the United States and typified by rocky eroded pinnacles and buttes that suddenly appear on the flat landscape. Due to a lack of water and the rugged terrain, Sioux Indians found travel in the area difficult, if not impassable, and gave the area its name, “badlands.” Very cold winters and hot summers characterize the region, and just 16 inches of rain fall per year. Almost 1 million people visited the park in 2010, the vast majority from June to September.
President Franklin Roosevelt officially proclaimed and founded the park as a national monument in 1939. It became a national park by an act of Congress in 1978. But the road to this status started well before 1939. The South Dakota legislature recognized the area as early as 1909 as one to be preserved, but it was not until two men joined forces in the 1920s that action occurred, leading to its founding. South Dakota U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck and local homesteader Ben Millard worked tirelessly and received approval to preserve the area as a national monument in 1929. Norbeck loved the artistic side of nature, was a conservationist and said he would rather be remembered as an artist than a U.S. senator. Norbeck died three years before Badlands was officially designated a national monument.
Many years ago, the Badlands looked much like the rolling grasslands that surround the area today. But about 500,000 years ago, water began to erode the ground, revealing six layers of geologic history dating from 28 to 75 million years ago. The resulting peaks, buttes and pinnacles exposed gray, yellow and red layers, creating colorful images. Erosion continues at about an inch per year, with sediment traveling via the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.
The area is a bonanza for fossil hunters, and paleontologists continue to discover fauna and flora of the past. The area reveals life as it used to be in North America, including discoveries like the saber-toothed cat. Many animals inhabit the park today, including bison and smaller mammals like coyotes, prairie dogs, bobcats and foxes. Rattlesnakes hide in the cooler crevices. Eight hiking trails allow visitors to experience the park’s beauty up close, and one features fossil exhibits.
How to Get There
The park is easily accessible via Interstate 90 and connects with a loop road through the park. Rapid City, the nearest center with scheduled air service, sits 88 miles from the Badlands. Other area attractions include the Minuteman Missile Historic Site, a remnant of the Cold War and just eight miles away. Mount Rushmore, located in the heart of the Black Hills, is 99 miles from the park.
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