CHAPTER III

The Badlands

We cross the Missouri River on the morning of June 29th and speed along through comparatively new but highly productive agricultural land, through Hayes, Midland and Philip to Cottonwood. In Philip we find one of the most modern small cities of the state. It is worth stopping to see. When we arrive at Cottonwood, about three hours from Pierre, or a little less than one hundred ten miles, the weather seems favorable and the roads good so we turn south off U. S. highway 14. Only a few miles out of Cottonwood we look ahead and see the city-like elevations far in the distance. As we draw nearer this great wall of clay takes on a more artistic contour of multicolored towers, peaks, and walls, resembling ruins of ancient cities.

Countless theories and possibilities enter one’s mind to account for these magnificent walls, rising directly from a few feet to several hundred feet from level country. The level plains are grass covered, but the walls are practically bare. They are of almost pure sandy clay, with a little soft shale in a layer near the top. They average from a hundred to five hundred feet in height and are composed of several colors each, some containing yellow, pink, orange and blue, others having still different colors. For the most part the colors are plain or washed, but some are very pronounced.

Other sections of the Badlands are depressions from the grassy flats, with enormous areas seemingly fallen straight down two to twenty feet, with perpendicular sides. The beds of these great depressions are bare yellow or white clay.

Theories of the formation of these structures include “sea bottom,” “erosion,” “volcanic eruptions,” etc.

Seventeen miles from Cottonwood we drive through Cedar Pass into the Badlands. The road winds around and around, through depressions and through valleys between the great clay banks, ever leading upward. The grandeur of the enormous colored banks and walls would impress even the most barren minded person.

If one is coming over the C. B. H., (or A Y P.); (U. S. 16 to be specific), he must leave for S. D. No. 40 about fifteen miles west of Kadoka, and he will emerge at Cedar Pass the same as though he came from the north. The view is magnificent.

Finally the road gets narrow and precipitous. The passes become more crooked and the grades more steep. The road is bordered by profuse scrub cedar trees. There is a thrill in that drive! At first it looks dangerous, but the danger seems to minimize as we approach each more steep and more crooked and more narrow section. By taking it slowly the risk is small. (The road has since been improved.)

We descend the south slope of the ridge, past the new Cedar Pass Camp, and drive five miles or so over a good road into Interior. On the way, however, we stop and walk for some distance among the hills. We find the clay to be hard and firm, resembling baked mud in texture. Each rain washes a little of the clay down, causing a gradual erosion through the years. This process has gradually uncovered the remains of life of this country at the time of its formation. We find a petrified tooth of some great animal. The tooth is about four inches long and two wide. Some distance farther we run across a mammoth rock formation embedded in the clay. It resembles and may have been the remains of a turtle six or seven feet in diameter, with head and feet protruding out of the bank. From these same environs scientists have taken great petrified skeletons of ancient mastodons, reptiles, birds and beasts of all shapes and sizes. We can easily imagine how these beasts got bogged down in this once soft, spongy ex-sea-bottom, there to remain through these centuries.

We spend more time than we had planned examining the place, so we find ourselves in Interior for the night. We pitch camp, and during the night receive our first rain on the trip. Our sympathy for the poor little mouse who had appropriated a little of the tent roof for his nest is not very pronounced.

The next morning we rise early. We hike to “Big Foot,” a high clay ridge south of town, and climb it. It proves much higher and more difficult to climb than first appearances indicate. The climb is a thriller, especially as the clay is a bit slippery this morning.

We return for breakfast, stopping in a field on the way to examine a huge oil drilling rig which has been wrecked many years ago. It is made almost entirely of oak, some timbers being two feet square and very long. The main belt wheel is twelve feet in diameter, made also of wood. To us this is a sight.

The bacon and coffee are more than welcome when we return. After breakfast we strike camp and drive into town. There Palmer’s Curio shop attracts us for some time. We leave with several calcium silicate crystals and specimens of the world’s only sand crystals.

The most interesting person met on our trip is found in Interior. He is Mr. Henry Thompson, who runs a little souvenir stand called “The Wonderland.” He wears long, flowing white hair and a great flowing moustache of the same color. His acquaintance with the country dates back many a year.

No one going through Interior should miss him. He tells some very interesting tales of early days in the West. Recently a motion picture company used him in the role of the Patriarch Moses in the mountains. He gives us a rehearsal of the role he played and recounts the garb of animal skins he wore, and other interesting features of the adventure. We listen with open mouths, and find it difficult to tear ourselves away for the continuance of our journey.

Twenty-four miles west of Interior, after traveling through the scenic splendor of the Badlands we come upon a vast expanse of land covered with a crust of once molten rock about an inch thick, now all broken into fragments. The formation consists of two hardened layers of once molten rock, probably of calcium silicate composition, smooth on the outer edges and joined together by countless papilae, making the whole look like two layers joined by a porous center. There is no doubt in one’s mind, upon viewing it, that Satan must surely have had his headquarters here at some time or other.

We follow State Highway Number 40 through other Badland wonders five miles farther. The road is very good. At Scenic we visit the widely known Museum Filling Station. Here we see a beautiful and interesting collection of stones from the Black Hills. In fact the entire building is covered with rocks, fossils and other interesting things embedded in concrete. Prehistoric animal bones and Indian relics from the Badlands are within. The bones, the curious animals, the pictures, the petrified eggs, the skeletons, Indian relics and numerous other curios are remarkable.

They have attracted people from throughout the world, not for a hasty examination but for extensive study. This place is one of the important places to see in the Badlands. One cannot afford to miss it under any circumstances.

The vicinity of Scenic is known to scientists as the greatest fossil field in the United States. Scenic is also an Indian trading post.

South of Scenic are some of the most spectacular examples of erosion in the United States. Some of the names assigned to them are: “Castle of the Ancients,” “The Altar of the Gods,” “Castle Rock,” “Castle Turrets,” “The Sphinx Twins,” “The Silent Sentinel,” “Amphitheater of the Wilds” and “The Devil’s Golf Course.” These remarkable formations almost hold us in reverent awe, so stupendous are they in their unusualness and grandeur.

“Hell’s Ten Thousand Acres,” from Scenic south are equal in some ways to the Grand Canyon of Colorado in their ruggedness. “Hell’s Sunken Gardens,” south also, surpasses in beauty and magnitude anything of its kind in the world.

Wounded Knee Battlefield, the last stand of the Sioux, is also south of Scenic. Here hundreds of Indians, men, women and children, were massacred by the soldiers when they stubbornly resisted the coming of law and government to take from them their hunting grounds. These Indians were all buried in one long grave, marked now with a tall marble slab on which are chiseled the odd names of the Indian dead.

The management of the Museum Filling Station is very enthusiastic about the “Great Badlands.” They will furnish any additional information desired and will furnish guides at a reasonable cost to those who desire such in visiting the wonders to the south.

From Scenic, trail 40 leads on to Rapid City. Some of the finer views of the Badlands are found along this road.

On to Rapid City we drive, over an excellent dirt road. We stop on the Cheyenne River to eat our lunch. These little picnic grounds all help to make the trip a really enjoyable vacation. We must stop at the turn in the road for a drink of Nature’s purest nectar flowing through a huge fountain. This is just a few miles before we reach Rapid City.

From Scenic to Rapid City is about forty-five miles. After leaving Scenic the silhouetted black mountains, soon come into view. They are visible in their magnificent grandeur, fifty miles distant, growing more distinct as they are approached. Upon nearing them, if one is familiar with the various peaks, he can pick each out and call it by name.

We reach Rapid City in the eastern foothills, at four o’clock. The School of Mines museum at the entrance to the city, also nationally and internationally known, is our first point of interest in the “Hills.”