The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1908-11-20
Manvaises rexes or Bad Lands.

bdu LANDS was written Dy Dan Blel
wagon, of Hardingrove, S. D.:
A stretch of land commencin
near Kadoka in Stanley county
South Dakota, and extending to tn
southwestward for a distance Of six
ty miles or more along White rive
on both sides, is called Bad Lands
These so-called Bad Lands haw
aroused wonder and curiosity in tn
mind of everyone who has eve
visited and studied their peculiar
formation.
The thickness of the differen
stratas have been estimated by Hay
den at 1000 feet, and considered {
fresh water deposit of the Older
Miacene. These beds are the buria
grounds of many Miacene mammals
| and fresh water fossils. The re-
mains are found in the upper beds
which are Tertiary, and their thick.
ness is estimated by Meek and Hay.
den at from 800 to 400 feet, and
according to these authorities con-
tain the remains of camels, rhin-
oceroses, elephants, horses and OF
numerous other species.
Facing White river from the
north is what is called the wall of
the Bad Lands. This wall has a
height varying from 800 to 400 feet
above the river. This grand wall
which is only passable in a few
places, has been conundrum as
to its origin to the many who have
seen it, and the object of this article
is to explain to those who have not
made geology study, how this wall
came into existence
The Bad Lands, during the later
Tertiary age, was still the bottom
of an inland sea, and in my opinion
this sea extended from Pine Ridge
on the south to Fox Ridge on the
north. the Black Hills being its west
ern border, and the chain of hills
extending from Bijou Hills north to
the Bald Mountains it's eastern
shore. Its deepest place was where
now the Bad Lands are situated,
and the Cheyenne river the inlet.
AT this age the interior forces
which had brought about the up
heaval which is now known as the
Black Hills were not entirely spent,
but partially choked at the main
craters and consequently seeking
another outlet. Thus the under
lying stratas became heated to such
an extent that the water was set in
rapid motion, the heated water flow
ing toward the heated section to
take the place of the departing hot
water. During this process the fish
and other sea animals were killed
and their heavy remains deposited,
while the lighter parts were carried
off. Thus, during long and sue
cessive disturbances the different
stratas were found. From time to
time the interior force created small
assures, which permitted the escape
of mineral gases, which gave the
different stratas their varied shades
and colors. According to the min
eral nature Of the esca ping gases
these assures can still be traced by
horizontal veins running through the
highest peaks. The remains of the
sea animals become decomposed as
a result the action of the hot water
and thus formed a chalk-like de-
posit. This process of bad land
continued until the early
part of the Glacial age, when the
ice forces from the northeast had
advanced as far as Pierre now
stands. Here the warm water held
It's own with the ice king of the
north, melting away it's front of ice
as fast as it advanced. The num-
erous granite houlders which are
now in evidence at Pierre bear testi-
mony to this fact.
About this time, however, another
of large extent trans
pired, which raised the bottom of
this inland sea to such an eleva-
ton that the water was thrown
against the eastern shore, cutting
A new channel for the Missouri and
thus starting it's present bed. At
his time commenced the cutting and
shaping of the great wall. White
river started as deep and narrow
,hasm and gradually widening out,
the lower stratas being unprotected
by rocks eroded the easiest, and
he upper strata, on account of it's
greater darkness, would only give
way after it had lost its support
from beneath. The entire mass,
though, is subject to easy decom-
position by air and water, and thus
t was dissolved and carried away
Turing the thousands of years which
nave come and gone since the begin
1ing of the Quaternary age. The
same process which is going on to-
lay in the Bad Lands is the same
process by which the great wall was
process of erosion.
The reader may ask How did the
'emains of land mammals come to
oe deposited there If it was an in
and sea during the Tertiary age,
he age to which these animals be-
onged?" The fossil remains of
and animals which are found in
:hese beds are fragments, and not
entire carcasses. and were carried
here from the western border land,
which they inhabit during the
alter Tertiary or Mammalian age,
out became extinct during the be-
ginning of the Ice age For this
reason their bones are not found
in the stratas last laid down, neither
are they found in the lower beds
bordering on the crotoooanc ~ +ho