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.