... 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]