Badlands
Eroded terrain of steep slopes, sparse vegetation, and high drainage density.
Last updated
Martin Kraft · via Wikipedia: Badlands National Park · CC BY-SA 3.0
Where it is
Coordinates: 43°45′00″N 102°30′00″W (43.7500, -102.5000) · Open in OpenStreetMap
Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Badlands National Park (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.
The Badlands Wilderness within the park covers 64,144 acres and is a reintroduction site for the endangered black-footed ferret.[1] In southwestern South Dakota, Badlands National Park safeguards sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and the country's biggest undisturbed mixed grass prairie across 242,756 acres.[2][3] The Oglala Lakota tribe co-manages the South Unit of the park, while the National Park Service oversees the entire area.[4]
Geography and history
The Lakota people were the first to call this place makȟóšiča, meaning "bad lands," due to extreme temperatures, lack of water, and exposed rugged terrain.[5] Erosion has carved the park's rocks, which accumulated over about 75 million years, into buttes, walls, and pinnacles; these exposed layers document the transition from an ancient inland sea to river floodplains.[6] Native Americans have hunted in this region for 11,000 years; the paleo-Indians came long before the Lakota, and the Arikara people followed them.[7]
What the cited sources add
The NPS Geodiversity Atlas notes that Badlands National Park encompasses 242,756 acres and contains the world’s richest collection of Oligocene-age vertebrate fossils, with more than 250 vertebrate species represented.[8] The same source states that paleontological resources were a major reason for establishing Badlands as a National Monument in 1939, for adding acreage in 1976, and for elevating it to National Park status in 1978.[8] That source also reports that 125 families were forcibly relocated from their farms and ranches in the 1940s, and that there were no civilian casualties although at least a dozen flight crew members died in plane crashes.[9] The NPS Bigfoot Pass Overlook article describes how after the murder of Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890, approximately 200 Hunkpapa Lakota fled to join Chief Spotted Elk's band at the Cheyenne Reservation.[10]
According to the National Park Service's article on the Badlands Aerial Gunnery Range, the U.S. Air Force acquired 341,726 acres on the Pine Ridge Reservation for a gunnery range, which included 337 acres from the then Badlands National Monument.[9]
References
- Wikipedia, "Badlands National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Badlands Wilderness", Wilderness.net; "Badlands Visitor Guide", National Park Service, 2008, p. 2; "Badlands Visitor Guide: The official newspaper of Badlands National Park", National Park Service, 2016; "Badlands National Park", Rand McNally; "Pine Ridge Gunnery Range/Badlands Bombing Range", South Dakota Department of Environment & Natural Resources; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Badlands National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "New Lakota Dictionary", Lakota Language Consortium, 2011, p. 855 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Badlands National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Badlands National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Badlands Visitor Guide: The official newspaper of Badlands National Park", National Park Service, 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Badlands National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Badlands - Frequently Asked Questions". nps.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved March 1, 2018. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Badlands National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stoffer, "Geology of Badlands National Park: A Preliminary Report", U.S. Geological Survey, 2003 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Badlands National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Article Series (U.S. National Park Service)", Nps.gov (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Badlands National Park, South Dakota", National Park Service. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
- "Badlands Aerial Gunnery Range", National Park Service. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
- "Bigfoot Pass Overlook", National Park Service. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Badlands National Park (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in US National Parks
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Badlands National Park (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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