Bismarck weekly tribune., 1888-12-21
BAD LANDS OF DAKOTA.
THE GREAT PLAIN REGION AND ITS
GEoLo oGlcAL FORMATION.

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THE GREAT PLAIN REGION AND ITS
GEoLo oGlcAL FORMATION.
The Homo Of Powerful Indian Tribes and
Countless Herds Of Bunslo-oriein Of
the Term ..Bad IAnds"--.what science
Teaches
Imagine, IL you will, vast and seemingly
even by rail for days without leaving them,
and If BY stage or wagon for weeks Gently
undulating, like tidal swells upon quiet
ocean, without tree or bush, the surface
greenish yellow, or golden brown, or dull
purple with sun cured grasses. The cool
air. 5cloudless sky lin September) and you
have Dakota-at least -four: :fifths Of the whole
surface oft And this description applies not
only to Dakota but to the by far the largest
portion Of our northwestern territory out
side the mountain regiona This boundless
prairie averages above the sea about 1900
feet Its drainage and that Of the mountains
behind it is by the Missouri, which fows
southeasterly fully 1000 miles within Da-
kota. The Big Cheyenne, made up Of two
forks. one taking the water shed Of the Black
Hills ot the north and west and the other
from the south and east, forms the principal
afauent Of the Missouri river in Dakota. All
these waters are clay colored and roily from
fine clays held in suspension.
This great plain region Of Dakota Is wholly
made up Of level strata Of vast deposits Of
the chalk and other periods, formed when q
great inland sea covered this and other like
regions Of the northwest After the drainage
Of this sea it's bed has since been cut through
by the Missouri, the Cheyenne and other
rivers, deep into the level strata, showing,
where you look from the top Of the bluffs
bounding the rivers, q thread of dull yellow
water, finding its winding way, perhaps
hundred feet or more below you, through a.
food plain of shifting sand and clay, which
varies from half a mile to five miles wide be-
tween the bluffs This food plain at high
water is covered many feet deep. but at this
season is dry and irregularly covered with
cottonwood poplars, aspen like in their silver
and bright green leaves. The descent to the
food plains may be bold or gently slopine,
Here and there at frequent intervals the
water shed of the plains finds its way to the
rivers by gentle sloping valley or draw, as
1t is called, down which teams and loaded
wagons can easily follow.
BELIEVED TO BE WORTHLESS.
It is curious to note that these great plains
were believed until very recently to be worth
less for any purpose of agriculture, that they
were arid and desert like and that no crops
could be raised upon them except by costly
irrigation. This, however, was the home Of
the powerful Lacotahs Dakotas) aud here
roamed the countless herds of buffalo, an ami
mai without which the Indian could not live:
whose skin gave him shelter and clothing; its
body food
An animal that reckless slaughter has made
extinct; an animal whose extinction has made
the red man dependent upon the whites for
support; an animal which could have been
doubtless easily domesticated and which
would have formed a source of food and labor
service of great value to this region, in which
it was Indigenous; an animal slaughtered for
the mere pleasure Of killing; its meat and its
hide abandoned; its extinction is blot upon
the-prevention Of cruelty to animals-civili-
zation or upon the legislation of people
which permitted it,
Notwithstanding the belief that these plains
were worthless, they were and are covered
with hardy wild grasses, these including the
buffalo or gramma grass, consisting of low
tufts Of curling blades, holding up here and
there q seed stem, looking for all the world
like an ordinary bristle counter brush in
miniature. As stated before, these grasses
cure on the ground, and furnish food more
nutritious than tame hay, and one which
cattle can be turned out upon the winter
through and come out in the spring fatter
than they were in the beginning of winter.
These wild grasses are now cut by the farm
ers, stacked the same day as cut, and will
keep good in stack for seven or eight years
4 This hay crop forms source of cash income
to the settlers until such time as they can in
close their lands and get other crops.
WHY CALLED stBAD LANDS"
The Bad Lands are so called, not because
they were useless or sterile, but because they
were ''bad lands to travel through" accord
ing to the accounts Of the early French voy-
ageurs up fhe Missouri The Bad Lands form
q pre- historic cemetery in which the remains
Of extinct animals are abundant, and many
Of which were giants in their way-repGiles
from ten to seventy feet long, sea animals
reaching eighty feet in length, turtles whose
fippers reached fifteen feet, and bird-like
creatures whose wings spread twenty-five
feet
These plastic clays smoothly leveled, the
streaks of differing strata clearly defined, be-
long to the later cretaceous deposits and are
200 feet thick and stretch from Pierre, on the
Missouri. westward along the Cheyenne and
i White river regions The geologic age
which produced this deposit was tho
age of mammals, and is splendidly de-
veloped in this region Quantities Of re-
mains exist of extinct creatures typical Of
the elephant, rhinoceros, camel, lion, tiger,
etc. Nowhere does the erosion of the ancient
rocks by ice and food seem more wonderful
such vast accumulation Of drift material,
clays, sands and gravel, in places hundreds
of feet in depth and covering hundreds Of
thousands Of equare miles in area.
Science shows conclusively that our conti-
n nent is one of the Oldest in its uplift-that
4 many portions Of it were prepared for the
existence of man at time when Europe and
the east was slowly forming under the sea.
The extent of the fossil remains Of gigantic
but extinct animals shows that the region Of
{ the Bad Lands was densely crowded BY
. living creatures, which, though now extinct,
existed long before the allied types now found
in the newer regions Of Africa and Asia
Stoo,s,,c II, na<rrSt Tro<, px..r