THE BLACK HILLS AND BAD LANDS.
In order to thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the wonderful caves of South
Dakota, which are found within the limits of the Black Hills, it is
necessary to have some knowledge of the geological character and history
of that peculiar region.
Prof. J.E. Todd, State Geologist, in his "Preliminary Report on the
Geology of South Dakota," gives an interesting "Historical Sketch of
Explorations" in his state, beginning with the expedition of Captains
Lewis and Clark to the upper Missouri regions in 1804-6 to explore that
portion of the recent Louisiana Purchase for the government and notify
the Indians of the transfer; and including all other important
expeditions since that time down to his own official tour of the Black
Hills and Bad Lands in 1894. His own descriptions are so concise and
graphic as to invite quotation. Of the Hills he says:
"The Black Hills have an area of five-thousand square miles of a rudely
elliptical form with its major axis, approximately, north-northwest.
Most of this area lies within our state. The true limit of the Hills is
quite distinctly marked by a sharp ridge of sandstone, three hundred to
six hundred feet in relative height, which becomes broader and more
plateau-like towards the north and south ends. This ridge is separated
from the higher mass of hills within by a valley one to three miles in
breadth, which is known as the Red Valley, from its brick-red soil, or
the 'race course,' which name was given it by the Indians because of its
open and smooth character, affording easy and rapid passage around the
Hills. The junction of the outer base of the Hills with the surrounding
table lands has an altitude of three thousand, five hundred to four
thousand feet. Within this Red Valley one gradually ascends the outer
slope of the Hills and soon enters, at an altitude of four thousand five
hundred or five thousand feet, the woody portion of the region. This
outer slope varies greatly in width and is underlaid by older
sedimentary rocks, cut in almost every direction by narrow deep cañons.
This feature covers nearly the whole of the western half of the Hills
proper, where erosion has been less active on account of its distance
from the main channels of drainage. Usually, from the broken interior
edge of this slope or sedimentary plateau one descends a bluff or
escarpment, and enters the central area of slates, granite, and
quartzites, which is carved into high ridges and sharp peaks cut by many
narrow and deep valleys and ravines and generally thickly timbered with
the common pine of the Rocky Mountains. Toward the south, about Harney
Peak, the surface is peculiarly rugged and difficult to traverse. Toward
the north, also, about Terry and Custer peaks, a smaller rugged surface
appears; but in the central area between and extending west of the
Harney range is a region which is characterized by open and level parks
much lower than the surrounding peaks and ridges."
The Archæan rocks which form the core of the Hills mark the center of
the various uplifts which have attended their formation and controlled
their history. The coarse granite of Harney Peak indicating that, as the
central point of the earliest upheaval, and the three porphyries known
as rhyolite, trachyte, and phonolite, showing the uplifts of later
periods to have had their centers a little more to the north, but the
entire area is said to be only about sixty miles long and twenty-five
miles in width. It is exceptionally rough and mountainous, and
consequently has great charms for the lover of fine scenery. Erosion has
only partially denuded the peaks of the sedimentary rocks through which
they were thrust up, or by which they were overlaid during the earlier
part of several subsequent periods of submersion. The Hills, in these
remote times, led but a doubtful and precarious existence, being now an
isolated island rising out of a shallow sea, and then, owing to a
general subsidence, submerged in the ocean to so great a depth that even
Harney Peak is supposed to have almost, if not entirely, disappeared.
This up and down motion continued at intervals until the Fox Hills epoch
of the Cretaceous Age, at the close of which the sea retired forever
from that portion of the country. In the next epoch fresh water work
began and extensive marshes were formed, with an abundant growth of
vegetation and reptiles. There was also much volcanic violence which
resulted in the fine scenery in the north end of the Black Hills, and
probably opened the fissures to form Wind Cave, the Onyx Caves in the
southern hills and Crystal Cave near the eastern edge toward the north.
This was near the close of the Cretaceous Age. But here is a point on
which the best authorities who have studied the porphyry peaks, have
failed to agree; Prof. N.H. Winchell believing that the intrusion
occurred, probably, during the Jura Trias, but as Cretaceous beds, of
more recent date, are found to have been distorted by the outflow, it
seems that Professors Todd, Newton and Carpenter hold the stronger
position and that the later time is correct.
No record of the next geological stage, which was the Eocene, or earlier
part of the Tertiary Age, has been found in the Hills, because they were
at that time dry land with gently flowing, shallow streams, and
consequently no strata were laid down; but they are supposed, through
later evidences, to have had a tropical climate and vegetation, enjoyed
by large animals of strange new forms. The volume of fresh water
afterwards became so great that immense lakes spread over large portions
of the west, one of which occupied most of the region around the Black
Hills at the beginning of the Miocene, and animal life was more abundant
than ever before and of higher orders, many species being the same as
are now in existence. The weather became more and more inclement and as
the storms increased the erosion of the Hills also increased, and the
rivers changed to torrents with deep channels. Earthquakes are supposed
to have occurred and also volcanic eruptions.
The Black Hills were now rising steadily, and as the slope of the
streams increased, the channels cut deeper, and the fissures now known
as caves had long been filled with water.
The most important of the numerous animals of the Tertiary Age yet
discovered in the Hills and surrounding region, are the Titanotherium or
Brontotherium, similar to our Hippopotamus, the Oreodon, and a small
horse having three toes on each foot. A little later in the same Age
the horses were similar to those of the present time and of equal size,
which proves that the wild horses of the West were not descended from
the few lost by the Spanish Invaders. At this time the first lions,
camels, mastodons, and mammoths also appeared. The remains of these
animals are so abundant in places as to indicate that they perished in
herds that were overwhelmed suddenly by great floods, and many, no
doubt, huddled together and perished with cold; for with the beginning
of the present age the Hills had reached their highest elevation, the
inclement weather increased, and the tropical climate suddenly changed
to one extremely cold. It was the beginning of the Glacial Period or Ice
Age, when a large portion of the United States is supposed to have been
covered by a sheet of ice. The ice is believed to have entered South
Dakota from the northeast and its drift across the state limited by a
line so closely following the present course of the Missouri River that
many of us would be inclined to consider it the western bluff. Beyond
this line the ice failed to push its way, but the Hills were subject to
heavy rain storms that filled the streams and carried large quantities
of bowlders and other eroded material, both coarse and fine, down into
the valleys and over the lower hills, where much of the moderately
coarse can now be seen exposed on the surface, and fine specimens
collected without the use of a hammer. The brilliantly colored, striped
and mottled agates, and the bright, delicate tints of the quartz
crystal, are particularly attractive to the majority of visitors. The
beauty of these gaily colored rocks is quite extensively utilized by the
inhabitants of the southern and southeastern hills to supply the place
of growing plants which are generally denied by the inconvenience of the
water supply. The quartzite of the Hills is well crystallized and heavy.
I have one beautiful specimen of the dark Indian red variety through
which passes a narrow line of pale blue, and the yellow quartzite or
jasper sometimes shows dendrite markings. Very great quantities of
agates and jasper, mostly in small pieces, but unlimited variety, are to
be seen in portions of the Bad Lands, south of the fork of the Cheyenne
River, with an almost equal abundance of baculites and numerous other
fossils.
The wide expanse of deep ravines and sharp, barren ridges in the Bad
Lands is a unique departure from the usual phases of natural scenery
that inspire interest and wonder, but no great admiration, until one
soon learns that the law of compensation has been strictly observed. The
beauty of vegetation denied those desolate buttes and ridges is atoned
for by a marvelous abundance of most wonderful crystals of aragonite,
calcite, barite and satin spar; each to itself, or two or more combined
in beautiful geodes or else arranged in great flat slabs crystallized on
both sides of a thin sheet of lime. These slabs are composed of crystals
of uniform size and of a pale green tint. But the geodes show some
striking combinations of both crystals and colors with an exterior
formed like box work, composed of a very heavy dark material said to be
a mixture of barium, calcium and iron. The interior may be a bright
green or lemon yellow, or perhaps the two in combination, while others
yet may be either of these varieties with the addition of flat crystals
of almost transparent satin spar. These crystals also occur in masses of
the same box-like formation rising just so much above the surface of the
barren ridge they occupy as to give it the appearance of a prairie dog
town. One hill-top over which an abundance of detached crystals, of the
palest water-green tint, has been spread, gave the impression of being
covered with crushed ice. This transformation from a richly tropical to
a marvelously barren region, was accomplished during the time when
storms reigned over the Hills and ice ruled the country to the north and
east.
The long slender barite crystals of a bright golden brown color are
especially beautiful but are generally seen in the specimen stores, as
the deposit is confined to limited areas and the few persons familiar
with the locations are not over anxious to introduce the general public.
The fossil remains previously referred to are of course only a few of
the most important, but it is remarked as a curious and notable fact
that among the fossils of the lower orders of life in the Bad Lands, the
heads have not been preserved. On account of scarcity of water it is
necessary for parties to carry a supply even when they expect to be in
the vicinity of the Cheyenne River and probably ford the South fork, as
these waters carry in solution a quantity of alkali that renders them
unfit for drinking, although the effects would not be fatal but simply
the extreme reverse of pleasant.
No caves have been discovered in the Bad Lands, unless that name be
applied to some of the geodes which are really grottoes, they being of
sufficient size for a man to stand in. The Black Hills, however, contain
some of the most remarkable caves ever yet discovered, of which those of
greatest importance are Wind Cave and the three Onyx Caves near Hot
Springs, in the southeastern part of the Hills, and Crystal Cave near
Piedmont, in the northeast. All of these occur in the Carboniferous
Limestone which forms an outer belt around the central mass or core of
the Hills and no doubt, as previously suggested, owes its fissures to
earthquakes which preceded or accompanied the porphyry intrusions by
which in some localities its strata have been thrown into a vertical
position.