Chapter II: Part 2

In the House of Representatives where the proposal was considered in the second session, the bill (S. 4385) underwent substantial revision. After being considered by the Committee on the Public Lands, it was reported out with amendments on February 19, 1929.[101] The revised bill changed the boundary of the proposed area, reducing it from 69,120 acres to about 50,760 acres[102] (50,830 acres according to another source[103]). The name was changed from Teton National Park to Badlands National Monument. It modified the requirements for the road which the state had to construct from 40 miles to 30 miles of total length. The requirement that 90 percent of the privately owned lands had to be acquired before the park could be established was dropped. Instead, it was now at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior to decide when enough privately owned lands within the proposed boundary had been purchased so that the area could be proclaimed a national monument by the President. As before, the bill stipulated that the lands would have to be acquired without cost to the federal treasury. The amended bill had a new provision that the Department of the Interior could grant hotel and lodge franchises in advance of the fulfillment of the conditions.[104]

The amended bill was considered by the Committee of the Whole House on February 25, six days after the Committee on the Public Lands had acted on it. Two additional amendments were offered on the floor of the House and were accepted. The idea that the Secretary of the Interior could decide when enough privately owned land had been purchased so that the area could be proclaimed as a national monument was dropped in favor of requiring all privately owned land within the proposed boundary be purchased before the area could be established. The provision giving the Department of the Interior authority to grant franchises in advance of the establishment of the national monument was also deleted. This amended form passed the House of Representatives on the same day, February 25.[105]

When the House act was referred to the Senate on the next day, Norbeck asked his colleagues not to concur with the amended proposal. He asked instead that the modified bill be considered in a conference committee of the House and Senate.[106] On March 2, the conference committee recommended that the two amendments that were attached to the bill on the floor of the House on February 25 be dropped, returning the bill to the form it had when it was originally reported out on February 19.[107]

On the same day, March 2, the final bill was passed by both houses.[108] Known as Public Law No. 1021, the act authorizing Badlands National Monument was approved by President Calvin Coolidge on March 4, 1929. The signing of the act took place on the last day of Coolidge’s term as President of the United States.[109]

The area authorized under this act (45 Stat. 1553) included 50,830.40 acres; of this amount, 39,893.85 acres were in the public domain. The remainder was state land or privately owned land.[110]

It is interesting to note that Senator Norbeck introduced a new bill (S. 5779) to establish Badlands National Monument on February 11, 1929. It was identical with the House amendments proposed for S. 4385 which were later reported out by the Committee on the Public Lands on February 19. The new bill, after being referred to the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, was returned on February 20 with Senate Report 1842.[111] Meanwhile, Williamson introduced H. 17102 in the House, which was identical to S. 5779; it was referred to the Committee on the Public Lands.[112] Both of these bills died without further consideration.

Operating since about 1935, this development was run on a seasonal
basis. It offered summer visitors a few accommodations, souvenirs,
refreshments, and gasoline until abandoned in 1950. The buildings
were removed shortly afterward.[118]]

THE DEPRESSION YEARS

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.

He went on to say that

A very large percentage of this land, maybe thirty to fifty per cent,
is on the tax delinquency list, with about four years of taxes. The
price offered is less than the taxes held against the land, and the
owner is not anxious to sell if he cannot get a nickel out of it....

Considerable of these lands, however, have already been abandoned by
the owner on account of the amount of taxes due.[130]

Counties were reluctant to sell land to the federal government because this would mean withdrawal from the tax lists, thus reducing the counties’ incomes. Norbeck recommended that the federal government pay more for the land by a “boost of one dollar an acre....”[131] Meetings were being held in various parts of the region to protest the low prices being offered.[132]

The desperate situation of the times was expressed well in a letter dated September 2, 1935, from a local rancher’s wife who wrote:

After 6 years [of] crop failures on the so called submarginal land of
Western South Dakota we are facing financial disaster unless we sell
our land to the government.[133]

During the same month, the average price being offered per acre was $2.85.[134]

To gain Congressional approval for the boundary extension of the proposed Badlands National Monument, the proponents secured the attachment of a rider to the Taylor Grazing Bill revision authorizing the enlargement. The grazing bill was vetoed in 1935 although there was no opposition to the rider.[135]

The bill was reintroduced the following year and was passed. Approved June 26, 1936 (49 Stat. 1979), the law authorized the President to round out the authorized national monument boundary by proclamation within five years and stipulated that the entire area could not exceed 250,000 acres. Lands to be included must be “adjacent or contiguous thereto, ... including, but not being restricted to, lands designated as submarginal by the Resettlement Administration....”[136] This law gave the NPS sufficient flexibility in fixing a suitable boundary.

Norbeck worked tirelessly in promoting every aspect of the area’s development until his death in December 1936. He actively participated in securing aid from various governmental relief agencies for the land acquisition program of the area, and for building roads, erecting buildings, and other purposes.[137]

As early as February 1935 Governor Tom Berry of South Dakota urged Secretary Ickes to establish the national monument formally through a presidential proclamation. He pointed out that the basic conditions of Public Law 1021 had been met: (1) a 30-mile highway, built at a cost of approximately $320,000, starting at Interior and going over Big Foot Pass and on to Sage Creek, was completed in 1935 by the state and approved by the NPS; (2) the state had acquired such privately owned lands within the area as were required by the Secretary of the Interior.[138]

However, NPS Director Cammerer deferred making such a recommendation until some 9,780 acres of state lands, located within the authorized national monument boundary, had been transferred to the Service.[139]

Also, it was not until three years later, in 1938, that the United States formally accepted title to 1,395.79 acres of land donated by the trustees of the Custer State Park board who acted as purchasing agents for the State of South Dakota. Senator Norbeck had been a member of this board. The land was purchased from private owners with funds authorized by the state legislature for the expressed purpose of fulfilling partial requirements of Public Law 1021. Cost to the state was approximately $12,000 for 1,280 acres of this donated land.[141]

By early July 1938 Director Cammerer considered that South Dakota had met all the conditions of Public Law 1021. Under this act the federal government had acquired title to about 48,000 acres of the 50,830 authorized. Within the extension authorized by the act of June 26, 1936, the NPS included an additional 97,976 acres. In all, the boundary recommended by the Service included some 148,806 acres (later revised to 150,103.41, and still later revised again to 154,119.46 acres for the same amount of land[142]) of which the government owned 113,578.59 acres. Director Cammerer therefore asked the Secretary of the Interior to approve the establishment of the national monument and that a proclamation be submitted to the President for final approval.[143] On January 25, 1939, President Roosevelt formally proclaimed the establishment of Badlands National Monument.[144] It became the 77th national monument and the 151st area in the federal park system which is administered by the National Park Service.[145]

This 175-foot by 16-foot tunnel was located in the national monument
about two miles southeast of the present Pinnacles Ranger Station.
It and Lower (Norbeck) Tunnel, situated about three miles west of
Cedar Pass Lodge near the base of Norbeck Pass, were in use only
about four years before being obliterated.[140]]

The complicated land-ownership pattern in the national monument along with grazing would plague the NPS for years. When the area was proclaimed in 1939, the NPS administered substantial tracts of land outside the national monument’s boundary. These tracts were located in the land utilization projects of the Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service. On the other hand, the SCS had land utilization tracts under its jurisdiction within the boundary.[146]

EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL MONUMENT

Under the general direction of the NPS, various relief agencies such as the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), the Resettlement Administration, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked on development projects in the area. Only a few scattered reports are now available on the work of these agencies. About 150 persons were employed at the area in January 1937 on such projects as resurfacing, backsloping, ditching, and grading roads.[147] This included major reconstruction of the Sheep Mountain Canyon road, completed the same year.[148]

One project of interest completed June 30, 1940 by ERA labor, under the Public Roads Administration, was the obliteration of two tunnels along the Pinnacles-Cedar Pass road. They were constructed during the first half of the 1930’s (see Figure 19) when the road was built by the State of South Dakota; the road was completed in 1935. The tunnels proved to be impractical because of inadequate width and maintenance problems.[149]

In July 1940 the ERA project in the area was discontinued. Among the types of work accomplished since July 1, 1938, when the project was initiated, were the construction of five project headquarters buildings, prospecting for water on the national monument, the development of a well near the site of the old Pinnacles Checking Station, and ten road jobs which included road construction, widening, graveling, building culverts, and banksloping. The construction of parking overlooks, and the obliteration of buildings and clearing of 16 farmstead tracts, also took place during that time.[150]

During the 12 months between July 1939 and July 1940, the ERA project employed an average of 150 relief workers.[151]

Since the national monument is located a relatively short distance from Wind Cave National Park, the older area co-ordinated the business of Badlands during its early years. On August 11, 1939, Chief Ranger Howard B. Stricklin of Wind Cave became acting custodian of the newly designated area and was later placed in charge of the local ERA and CCC projects.[152] Although the ERA project was terminated in July 1940, the CCC work continued until June 1942.[153]

When Stricklin arrived to take charge, there were no living quarters of any kind in the area. He lived at the CCC camp at Quinn Table while his family remained at Wind Cave. Temporary offices were established in Wall pending a decision regarding the location of permanent headquarters.[154]

Considerable thought was given to the selection of a headquarters site. For a time the Pinnacles area was considered.[155] However, in late 1939 it was finally decided to locate the center of operations at Cedar Pass.[156] This decision was due, in part, to the offer by Mr. Ben H. Millard, owner of Cedar Pass Lodge,

to donate approximately 28 acres of strategically located land in the
Cedar Pass area to the Service to be used as a headquarters area.[157]

The lodge was begun in 1928 at about the same time the large dance
pavillion building in the background was constructed. People from as
distant as Rapid City came here to dance to the music of Lawrence
Welk and other name bands. More cabins for the lodge were built from
its lumber when the pavillion was removed in about 1934.[159]]

The Department of the Interior accepted Millard’s donation in May 1941.[158]

The decision to develop the Cedar Pass area for headquarters greatly altered development plans. The CCC enrollees numbering 207 in February 1940 were encamped at Quinn Table some 35 miles west of Cedar Pass. Since much of the development was taking place at Cedar Pass, it was necessary to drive them between these two points each day.[160]

One of the great handicaps of Cedar Pass as a headquarters area was the lack of water. To develop a satisfactory supply, the NPS found it necessary to go to the White River, three miles south. One of the major projects undertaken soon after selecting the headquarters site was to dig a trench and lay pipe to the river. Since this stream is intermittent above ground, but has a dependable subsurface flow, water was collected in perforated pipes laid on hard clay and shale about eight feet below the river bed. The pipe brought water to a sump on the river bank where it was pumped to a 100,000-gallon storage tank above the headquarters area.[161] Work was begun on this reservoir in April 1940 and completed by the CCC in September 1941. At the same time the CCC also erected a checking station at Pinnacles which Stricklin and his family occupied from November 15, 1940, until about May 15, 1943.[162]

Handicapped by the location of the original CCC camp at Quinn Table, a new camp was authorized at Cedar Pass and work on it began in June 1941. Five months later the new camp was occupied.[164]

At that time the only visitor-contact point in the Cedar Pass area was at Cedar Pass Lodge. During the summer season Mr. Millard lectured nightly to lodge guests on the geologic history of the Badlands, thereby initiating interpretive programs. He also showed movies of the Badlands and other scenic areas. A temporary park ranger, who checked travel in the Cedar Pass area during the day, took part in the evening programs.[165]

Completed in 1941, the ranger station also served as quarters until
January 1965 when the new Pinnacles ranger station-residence was
completed. The checking station was removed about 1958 to make way
for road improvement, and the old ranger station was razed in April
1967.[163]]

The problem of stock grazing in the national monument grew increasingly worse during the 1940’s. The acting custodian complained early in 1940:

Until the boundary is fenced and we are in a better position to know
what is private and what is monument land, there appears to be very
little that can be done to prevent this.[166]

In December 1941 he wrote in a similar vein:

During past winters it has been the practice of local stockmen to
allow herds of horses and cattle to drift into the monument area to
graze unrestrictedly over public as well as private lands and along
the monument highways. There is such a large amount of private and
county-owned land within the monument boundaries (31,000 acres out of
a total of 150,000) that it is difficult to restrain stock from
grazing on National Park Service land as well as on the land that is
owned or leased by private individuals.[167]

It soon became obvious that Badlands National Monument would be a popular attraction because of its location near U.S. Highways 14 and 16, both well-known national highways going through the Black Hills. In 1941 there were 70.02 miles of road in the national monument. Of this, 61.52 miles were constructed by the state and 8.5 miles by the federal government; 29.87 miles were graveled and 40.15 were dirt roads.[168]

Although the roads through the area were only partially developed, thousands of travelers turned off the through highways to view the scenic Badlands.

Stricklin reported in September 1941:

More than a quarter of a million visitors had passed through Badlands
National Monument by the close of the travel season on September 30,
representing an increase of approximately 30 percent over the previous
year, for the period during which an actual count was made.[169]

The entrance of the United States into World War II in December 1941 had a great impact on the area and its operations. Since many of the CCC enrollees would be absorbed into the armed forces, the project work soon came to an end. The acting custodian reported in the spring of 1942, “On March 25, after two years and five months of productive work in Badlands National Monument, CCC Camp Badlands, NP-3 [located at Cedar Pass], was abandoned.”[170] Work was continued on several projects undertaken at Camp Badlands by a CCC side camp with the view toward completing the projects or leaving them “in such condition that the facilities involved may be used, and the materials, all of which have been on hand for some time, may be protected against deterioration and loss.”[171] However, the side camp was also closed in the following June, leaving practically all of the construction projects in various states of completion.[172] In December 1942 most of the CCC buildings at Cedar Pass were dismantled and removed by the armed services.[173]

Another result of the nation’s entrance into the war was a sharp drop in visitors to the Badlands. Stricklin wrote in June 1942 that “Most of these visitors appeared to be genuine vacationists ... [who] had a vacation coming, and were trying to get it in before gas rationing became nation-wide.”[174] He estimated that travel in March 1943 was 87 percent under that for March 1942, and that “All foreign [out-of-state] visitor cars stopping for information were headed for defense jobs, or were military personnel, changing their headquarters from one part of the country to another.”[175] The effect of the war on travel to the national monument is reflected in the travel figures of the area for the years from 1941 to 1945. (See Appendix A.)

Efforts at the national monument during the war were devoted largely to preventive maintenance. Changing his headquarters from Pinnacles to Cedar Pass in June 1943, Stricklin was able to give closer attention to the headquarters area.[176] Such routine tasks as filling washouts, cleaning ditches, reclaiming gravel, cutting roadside weeds, repairing guard rails, cleaning up debris, and temporary patching of roads occupied most of the staff’s time. Other tasks, such as repairing water lines, painting signs, keeping the buildings in repair, and servicing and repairing the area equipment also required much attention.[177] The cottage that the custodian and his family rented from Millard at Cedar Pass was destroyed by fire on November 27, 1943.[178]

The buildings of Cedar Pass Lodge can be seen behind the white frame
structure, which served as a visitor center and headquarters until
1959. Remnants of two spires on Vampire Peak remain on the left. It
was observed on November 22, 1950, that one of the two spires of
this famous landmark had fallen, apparently during a thunder
storm.[189]]

During the ten years following the end of World War II, there was slow progress in the area’s development. Work on the custodian’s residence at Cedar Pass, begun in 1941, was completed in 1946.[179] Early in 1953 two additional houses, both prefabricated, were completed.[180] In January 1948 commercial power was brought to Cedar Pass and Interior with the completion of a single-phase power line by the Rural Electrification Administration.[181] The Northwestern Bell Telephone Company extended telephone service to the national monument headquarters in September 1952.[182] (This service was officially taken over by the Golden West Telephone Cooperative, Inc., in October 1960.)[183]

During the travel seasons of 1946 and 1947 there was much adverse criticism of the national monument roads. The maintenance equipment was in poor condition and usually undergoing repairs when most needed.[184] In the summer of 1948 about 4 miles of road was black-topped between the Cedar Pass junction and Norbeck Pass; this represented the first paving of U.S. Route 16A in the national monument.[185] The present northeast entrance road, about 3½ miles long, was completed in October 1951. It opened up a new area of the Badlands known as the Window Section.[186] This road was made possible by the donation in 1946 of a 160-acre, strategically located land parcel by Mr. Ben Millard who had purchased it from Jackson County in March 1941 for this purpose.[187]

During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s buildings constructed as temporary structures in the ERA and CCC period were remodeled and continued in use for headquarters and utility purposes.[188]

Both the grazing and the land ownership problems at the national monument were compounded by the war. With increased rainfall in the region during the decade of the 1940’s and the rising price of beef, the situation of the ranchers greatly improved. Under a plan suggested by Congressman Case in January 1943 to help in the “Beef for Victory Program,” the Service authorized for the first time in April the issuance of grazing permits on federally owned grasslands within the national monument. Under this program, the lands were divided into seven grazing units. An orderly grazing plan was established with the cooperation of the Soil Conservation Service.[190] Stricklin was able to identify and locate all cattle and sheep outfits that claimed to be using the national monument lands in conjunction with their SCS allotments.[191] Following the war authorized grazing remained one of the area’s major management problems for over a decade.

Stricklin wrote about an interesting sidelight of the grazing problem:

The roundup and disposal of several hundred head of unclaimed and
so-called wild horses in the Sage Creek basin was a source of much
concern on the part of both ranchers and the Custodian, the ranchers
claiming the wild stallions were enticing away their mares. The
Custodian’s concern was partly because of the damage these herds were
doing to the range, but largely because it was practically the only
program of any kind on which the National Park Service and the
ranchers could even remotely agree. Several roundups were collaborated
in, during which the herds were drastically reduced. Airplanes were
used on at least one of the roundups to flush horses out of the
canyons and keep them from breaking back on their route to Scenic and
the loading chutes. Jack and Mamie Close, ranchers on Quinn Table,
were the leaders among the ranchers in this work.[192]

Feral horses were eventually eliminated through roundups and returned to their owners. The last roundup took place in the national monument in 1963.[193]

With the improvement of their lot, many ranchers who had been destitute only a few years earlier were in a position to purchase county lands within the national monument boundary. The custodian reported in April 1943 that practically all such land within the boundary was leased for grazing and that much of it was recently bought by sheep and cattle ranchers.[194] In 1946 Stricklin reported a considerable change in land ownership where much of the land formerly controlled by Pennington County had passed into private ownership.[195] Later the same year Jackson County auctioned all of its 3,000 acres of land within the boundary to private individuals. Practically all of the 14,000 acres which was owned by the two counties two years earlier had passed into private ownership.[196]

The location of the boundary had been a subject of discussion since the national monument was established in 1939. The area contained a large acreage of grassland which the Soil Conservation Service believed should be released for grazing purposes. There was also overlapping jurisdiction between the two federal agencies.[197]

After several years of study, the NPS and the SCS arrived at an understanding on the national monument boundary and mutual land problems. In 1946 the two agencies signed an agreement known as Recommended Program of Procedure for boundary adjustment of Badlands National Monument. The NPS agreed:

(1) to transfer to the Soil Conservation Service NPS lands outside the
existing national monument boundary in order to compensate for
1,220 acres the SCS had turned over for inclusion in the national
monument prior to its establishment in 1939;

(2) to transfer to the SCS equivalent lands (computed on a
livestock-carrying-capacity basis) for lands that were to be
acquired from the SCS by the NPS as the result of revised boundary
studies;

(3) to transfer to the SCS federal lands which the NPS planned to
eliminate from the national monument to use in exchange for
non-federal lands remaining in the national monument after the
boundary changes were made.[198]

The plan made it possible to transfer, without legislation, 3,678.19 acres of NPS lands lying outside the park boundary to the SCS. This was done by order of the Secretary of the Interior in July 1949.[199] These lands were acquired under the Resettlement Administration program and, in 1936 were transferred to the NPS. When Badlands National Monument was established in 1939, these lands were not within the boundary.[200]

In order to carry out the main objectives of the plan, Congressional action was necessary. In 1950 bills (H.R. 7342 and S. 3081) were introduced in the 81st Congress by Representative Case and Senator Chandler Gurney to implement the proposed land exchange. H.R. 7342 was passed by the House without amendment, but later the bill died in the Senate. The senate bill (S. 3081) was not considered.

In 1951 Senator Francis H. Case, who had just been elected to that office, and Congressman E.Y. Berry introduced identical bills (S. 896 and HR. 3540) in the 82nd Congress. These were similar to the ones proposed a year earlier. Berry’s bill passed the House on July 2, 1951, without amendment. The House Act was referred to the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, which recommended that section five of H.R. 3540 be dropped. This section would have provided authority to include 4,000 acres of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the Sheep Mountain area provided certain conditions were met. The committee believed “that a satisfactory solution should be worked out with the Tribal Council of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of Indians, and any others interested, before legislation with regard to these lands is enacted.”[201] The bill in its amended form, including another minor change recommended by the committee, passed the Senate on January 24, 1952.[202]

]

Area authorized in 1929 (dashed line) 50,830.40 acres
Area upon establishment in 1939 154,119.46 acres
Area after changes of 1952 122,642.52 acres
Area after changes of 1957 (heavy line) 111,529.82 acres

Acreage figures are latest available and may be different from figures which were current during each of the four times the park boundary has been redesignated. Because of these acreage revisions, additions to and deletions from the park do not total correctly.

Badlands National Monument
South Dakota

One section (1 mile square—640 acres)
Eliminated in 1952 31,442.52 acres
Added in 1952 4,449.29 acres
Eliminated in 1957 11,234.09 acres
Added in 1957 241.39 acres

Shortly afterwards on February 8, telegrams were sent to Congressmen Berry, Senator Case, and Senator Karl Mundt by the executive committee of the tribal council of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The messages urged the congressmen to do their best to get Section 5 restored so it would be possible for the tribe to negotiate with the federal government for exchange of the land in the Sheep Mountain area for other lands.[204] The House, however, did not heed this resolution but voted instead to concur with the Senate’s amended version. The bill became Public Law 328 after being signed by President Harry S Truman on May 7, 1952.[205]

Under this law, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to adjust and redefine at his discretion the exterior boundary of the national monument by appropriate reductions or additions. The law specified, among other things, that the adjusted area could not exceed the existing 154,119 acres.[206] (An official figure of 150,103.41 acres was used as the total acreage of the area at the time it was proclaimed as a national monument in 1939. A revised figure, listing 154,119.46 acres for the same area, was used as the total acreage from about 1943 until October 1952.[207])

Immediately after the bill became law, proposed boundary changes received considerable attention. Some believed that the area of the national monument should be reduced. A strong supporter of this view was the South Dakota Stock Growers Association. It was the organization’s belief that the size could be reduced by about one-half without destroying any of its scenic value. They estimated that 3,000 head of cattle would be without grass if the NPS carried through its plan to fence the area and eliminate grazing from the national monument. One of the biggest problems was the large acreage of private lands located within its boundary. Many ranchers believed that these lands ought to be eliminated “from the Badlands National Monument wherever a reasonable boundary adjustment can be made.”[208] Others contended “that all of the grassland west of Pinnacles [Sage Creek Basin] could be removed from the Park and that such removal would in no way destroy the attraction to the tourist.”[209]

A 1953 memorandum from the Regional Director to NPS Director Conrad L. Wirth explained how Sage Creek Basin had become largely government-owned:

Sage Creek Basin was a submarginal waste in the 1930’s due to
prolonged and severe drought conditions and considerable acreages of
private lands were acquired by the Resettlement Administration in
connection with its submarginal land program.... Other private parcels
became tax delinquent and were ultimately sold to private owners by
Pennington County in the 1940’s. Because of favorable climatic
conditions of the past several years, the basin has recovered from its
condition of the 1930’s; it now contains a considerable acreage of
good grasslands.... We venture the opinion that had vegetative
conditions of the basin in the 1930’s resembled those of today, a
submarginal land program would not have been undertaken so far as the
basin is concerned.[210]

Owing to the great interest generated by the proposed boundary changes, the NPS issued a statement in July 1952 giving reasons why it would not be “advisable to eliminate from the Monument the grasslands west of the Pinnacles, as suggested by the South Dakota Stock Growers Association.”[211] It said in part that

These flatter lands with their cover of native grasses and
wildflowers, typical of the surrounding prairie country, are valuable
for park and wildlife purposes. The preservation of this relatively
small exhibit of native grass is an important responsibility in
itself, since no comparable section of the Great Plains has been set
apart to be preserved in its natural condition.[212]

The statement also indicated that about 31,700 acres of other lands were to be eliminated from the national monument, including more than 12,000 acres of privately owned lands. It indicated that the Soil Conservation Service agreed to these revisions and that they were “the same as those which the Congress considered when it authorized boundary revisions by enacting Public Law 328.”[213]

On October 3, 1952, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Joel D. Wolfsohn issued an order revising the boundary of the national monument. The order showed that 30,802.52 acres, more or less, were “hereby transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture for use, administration, and disposition in accordance with the provisions of Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act....” This reduced the size of Badlands National Monument, according to the order, to 121,883.12 acres.[214]

The Order was performed to provide lands for the Soil Conservation
Service to enable those persons having private land in the monument to
trade for Soil Conservation Service lands outside the monument, and to
make a few administrative adjustments in the monument boundary.[215]

However, discrepancies in the land records led the NPS to investigate the status of lands within the former boundary.[216] By late 1953 it was found that 31,442.52 acres were eliminated from the national monument by the October 3 order instead of 30,802.52 acres. Of these 12,916.32 acres were private lands; the remaining 18,526.20 acres were transferred to the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture.[217]

There were also lands totaling about 4,449 acres added to the national monument by the October 3 order; these lands included

“2,581.88 acres of public domain, 336.88 acres of purchased land,
981.79 acres of Soil Conservation Service land and 548.56 acres of
private land.... The net result of the boundary adjustments was a loss
of 26,993.23 acres of land in Badlands National Monument.”[218]

Even before the October 3 order was enacted there was already talk about further reduction of the area boundary. In a memorandum dated December 5, 1952, Director Wirth wrote to the Regional Director in charge of Badlands National Monument:

In 1953 over 25,000 acres were recommended by the NPS for deletion
from this section of the national monument.[219] Later, studies
revealed that the area should be retained. Today it is home for
bison, deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and other animals. Sage Creek
Primitive Campground is located in its northwest section.]

The basis for a final solution [of the boundary problem at Badlands
National Monument] lies in a reassessment and restatement of Monument
objectives and significance. If it is found, as appears likely, that
our chief concern and purpose should be with the badlands formations,
then the boundaries should be drawn accordingly, with due regard for
badlands protection, interpretation and attendant development needs.
If we are to retain some or all of the grasslands, we must have strong
and valid justification for doing so and be prepared to disclose and
defend what specific Monument purposes and uses they are to
serve.[220]

In order to determine if the grasslands west of Pinnacles should be kept, the NPS contracted with a number of prominent scientists to make studies of the area in 1953. Dr. Theodore E. White, a paleontologist with the Smithsonian Institution, determined in June 1953 whether or not potentially fossiliferous areas would be excluded by proposed boundary readjustments.[221] Late that summer archeological investigations were undertaken by Archeologist Paul L. Beaubien of the NPS Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska. He recorded some 30 prehistoric Indian sites and one historic Indian site believed to have been used by Chief Big Foot’s band a few days before the infamous battle at Wounded Knee in December 1890.[222]

Professor F.W. Albertson of Fort Hays Kansas State College submitted a Report of Study of Grassland Areas of Badlands National Monument in September. In brief he said, “it seems to me that the Park Service has an extremely interesting area, which should be preserved for all interested public through the years to come.”[223]

Meanwhile, support grew for retention of the boundaries as spelled out by the October 3, 1952, secretarial order. The Rapid City Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, the South Dakota State Highway Commission, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, the Black Hills and Badlands Association, and prominent local persons, including Sid Soma, Dr. G.W. Mills, Ted Hustead, and Leonel Jensen, all from the town of Wall, were but a few of the many who advocated retention of the present boundary.[224]

Although the South Dakota Stock Growers Association and some local ranching interests continued to advocate “the transfer of administration of all grazing lands within the monument not needed for road and development purposes,” it became evident to these people that opposition was building up against further acreage reduction in the park.[225]

In April 1954 the NPS recommended no boundary changes until the problem was explored further. Director Wirth said:

it seems apparent that there is a very considerable number of people
... which strongly support the retention of the Badlands National
Monument not only as a striking example of geological formations, with
areas of paleontological interest, but also for preservation of a
segment of the plains grassland and native wildlife as added
attractions. On the other hand, there is also a difficult problem of
inholdings and grazing complications, with strong sentiment from the
livestock owners for a reduction of the Monument.[226]

He recommended, among other things, that exchanges of private land inside the boundary for federal lands outside be pushed vigorously, and that Dr. Adolph Murie, NPS Biologist, should study the wildlife possibilities of the national monument.[227]

In his report Dr. Murie said:

Badlands National Monument has national significance, first of all
because it is a sample of the Badlands. The values of this monument
are of outstanding significance in the fields of geology,
paleontology, archeology, and biology. The eroded terrain has scenic
value for many, and in Sage Creek Basin and in the section north of
Cedar Pass one finds the atmosphere of the early scene, when this
country was far beyond the frontier....

In Sage Creek Basin we have an opportunity to preserve the prairie
dog-blackfooted ferret community, with many other associated species
of the region.... Likewise the rare kit fox may possibly be preserved
in the basin. The value of Sage Creek Basin for preserving these rare
native species is contingent on size and its present size is none too
large....

Concerning boundaries in general over the monument it appears that any
eliminations would be harmful to public values. Only in minor details,
in connection with land adjustments, should any territory be
sacrificed. Sage Creek Basin, especially, should not be
reduced....[228]

Also during the summer of 1954, the NPS requested Dr. James D. Bump, Director of Museum of Geology of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology at Rapid City, to make a geological and paleontological appraisal of Badlands National Monument. Quotations from his report point out his strong feelings for the area:

The Big Badlands of South Dakota, from a paleontological standpoint,
probably constitutes the richest Oligocene region in the world....
[The quantity of] paleontological materials given up to man over the
past 100 years is of astounding proportions. This prehistorical
treasure represents more than 250 species of the vertebrate life of
thirty million years ago....

The Badlands National Monument is a part of the greatest
badland-eroded section in North America.... I can think of no other
geographic area of like-size that has the unusual natural beauty, the
undisturbed plant and animal life and the wealth of scientific
information to offer the public....[229]

He ended his report by making a number of recommendations, some of which follow:

The present boundaries must remain intact. Removal of any lands,
except perhaps some thin scattered fringes, would seriously cripple
future development and greatly reduce the attractiveness of the
Monument....

Under no circumstances should any part of the Sage Creek Basin be
withdrawn. Its scientific and natural value cannot be overestimated
and it is my opinion that this section will in the future become one
of the most interesting and educational of the entire Monument.[230]

As a result of Dr. Murie’s wildlife study and Dr. Bump’s geological and paleontological appraisal, the Service began formulating definite ideas in April 1955 concerning further revision of the boundary. An elimination of 11,124 acres including 4,234 acres of privately owned lands was proposed. This is only about one-third of the 32,000 acres which was being widely talked about as a possible reduction in size during 1953. The larger reduction would have included much of the grasslands west of Pinnacles. Addition of 4,460 acres, including 3,954 acres of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation lands and 246 acres of Department of the Army lands located on the Indian reservation, was also proposed. Net reduction in area would be about 6,664 acres.[231]

Since the mid-1930’s there have been various suggestions that a road be constructed to connect Sage Creek Basin with the Sheep Mountain locality. Although it was not in the master plan for the national monument in the 1950’s, planning for the ultimate boundary was done so that the road could be built if ultimately needed.[232] However, Dr. Murie recommended against the road proposal in his report.[233]

Dedicated in 1959, the building houses the national monument’s
administrative offices, exhibits on the Badlands, and a small
theater in which there are narrated slide programs on the highlights
of the Badlands. The facility is open all year.]

On April 12, 1956, an open meeting was held in Wall, South Dakota, to discuss proposed boundary changes with ranchers, stockmen, and local businessmen. No opposition to the proposals was voiced. The meeting also provided an opportunity for discussion of development plans, including fencing and grazing matters.[234]

On March 22, 1957, Acting Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson issued an order eliminating 11,234.09 acres from the national monument, of which about 4,000 acres were private land. The total area of Badlands National Monument was fixed at 111,529.82 acres. This also included an addition of 240 acres of federal land which, among other things, increased the utility area at headquarters and provided a much needed disposal area. An additional 1.39 acres of federal land, located along the White River three miles south of headquarters, were added, since water storage tanks and a water pump, all part of the area’s water system, are located there. More than 7,000 acres of the 11,234.09-acre reduction were transferred to the Department of Agriculture, under provisions of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, and became available for exchange for private land remaining inside the new boundary. As a result of the secretarial order, there was a net reduction of 10,992.70 acres in the size of the national monument. The new boundary included 98,486.39 acres in federal ownership and 13,043.43 acres of non-federal land.[235] Since then, the Service has acquired title to 6,356.71 acres of the non-federal land within the boundary. As of December 1967 there were 104,843.10 acres of federal land and 6,686.72 acres of non-federal land within the boundary of Badlands National Monument.[236]

On January 2, 1954, the Secretary of Agriculture transferred the Land Utilization Program, including lands in the vicinity of the national monument, from the Soil Conservation Service to the U.S. Forest Service.[237] This, in part, prompted a Program of Procedure for Land Exchanges, a revision of the Recommended Program of Procedure, to be drafted. The new agreement was signed in September 1954 by officials of both services. It states in part that all future land exchanges are to be handled by the Forest Service. This includes exchanges with private parties who own land inside the national monument boundary. One objective of such land exchanges is to eliminate all non-federal lands from within Badlands National Monument.[238] Since 1954 elimination of such lands has come about largely through exchanges, although in a few instances actual purchases were made.

Left to Right: NPS Regional Director Howard Baker, Region Two (now
Midwest Region); Conrad Wirth, NPS Director; Fred Seaton, Secretary
of the Interior; Congressman E.Y. Berry; Mrs. George H. Sholly,
widow of Badlands National Monument Superintendent; Mrs. Ralph
Herseth; and Governor Ralph Herseth of South Dakota.]

Concurrently with boundary adjustments, the NPS gave considerable thought to a grazing management plan for the area whereby grazing might be eliminated without serious hardship to the local ranchers. As a result the Service presented a plan in May 1948 to grazing permittees outlining a schedule for the gradual termination of grazing on federally owned national monument lands by December 31, 1961.[239]

MISSION 66 DEVELOPMENT

In 1956, the National Park Service launched a 10-year park conservation development program known as Mission 66. This was to have great impact on the national monument. Under the program an expenditure of nearly $5,000,000 for roads, trails, buildings, and utilities was planned. Among the major projects undertaken and completed between 1956 and 1960 were a realinement and oil surfacing of main roads, the development of the Conata Picnic Area and the Cedar Pass and Dillon Pass campgrounds, and the erection of utility and storage buildings, three multiple-housing units, five employee residences, and an amphitheater.[240]

In May 1955 the Millard family donated two tracts of land totaling 18.50 acres to the NPS. Of this total, 5.85 acres, located in front of Cedar Pass Lodge, were donated for the right-of-way of the relocated highway; the remaining 12.65 acres made possible the development of Cedar Pass Campground.[241]

The visitor center was completed in May 1959. This large structure houses the national monument headquarters, interpretive exhibits, and an audiovisual presentation of the Badlands story.[242]

The installation of exhibits in the visitor center was essentially completed by November 1960.[243] Some of the materials used in the exhibits were donated by a number of individuals and institutions. Mr. Herbert Millard, son of the late Ben Millard, gave a large mass of sand calcite crystals now in the Small Wonders Exhibit. Dr. Winter of the University of South Dakota at Vermillion donated the plant collection in the Great Plains Grasslands Exhibit. The mounted badger in the Wildlife of the Grassland Exhibit was a gift from Orville Sandall of Kadoka, South Dakota. The skull of an Audubon Bighorn, on display above the Breaks in the Grassland Exhibit, was donated by Willard Sharp of Interior, South Dakota. In the exhibit showing a number of Indian artifacts are casts of early-man points donated by the University of Nebraska State Museum.[244]

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota, donated both the lower jaw and the upper jaw, including skull, of a fossilized titanothere, which is in the Badlands Bones Exhibit. The materials for the articulated oreodont fossil in the same exhibit were also donated by the school. The oreodont fossil is of particular interest because it was found northwest of Imlay, South Dakota about 100 feet from where a famous fossilized oreodont with unborn twins was excavated. The latter fossil is on display at the Museum of Geology at the school (see Figure 5).[245]

The first full-time resident park naturalist for Badlands National Monument was assigned in June 1958 to aid with the local interpretive program.[246] For a number of years previously, a park naturalist who had been assigned to Black Hills areas of the NPS also served the national monument on an irregular basis.[247]

The loop trail, completed in 1962, is constructed over a geological
slump which has lush plant cover. To acquaint the visitor with the
area’s natural history, a trail leaflet is provided. Here,
naturalist-guided walks are offered daily during the summer
months.[250]]

On September 16, 1959, following the completion of the visitor center, the NPS dedicated Badlands National Monument. The featured speaker for the event was Fred A. Seaton, Secretary of the Interior, who gave the dedicatory address. Some 350 persons attended the ceremony.[248]