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]