The Kadoka press and Kadoka reporter. [volume] (Kadoka, S.D.) 1910-1923, 1912-03-22
ABOUT NATURES
WONDERLAND

Mrs. S. e. Beatty, of Watertown,
who conducted the classes in the
Home Economics department at the
Short Course, while here wrotesan in
teresting letter concerning the won
derful Bad Lands to friends in her
home city. The letter was published
in the Watertown Herald and we
herewith republish it from that paper:
Songs have been sung about portions
/ of the globe which have made an ap-
peal to the poet muse and the musical
muse. but no such song has reached
my heart like the eloquent language
of South DakotS's "Bad Lands"
Truely the sections so called has been
wrongly baptized, The name is mis-
leading, for while / was informed be-
fore leaving Watertown that I" the
bad lands are not at all interesting"
/ found three hours of delight between
Rapid City and Kadoka Three hours
of wonder and genuine praise, for
among the awe inspiring, gorgeous
wonners of nature the Bad Lands Of
Stanley County must rank. Nearly
seventy-fiYe miles of earthworks
stretch north, south, east and west,
always gladdening the eye with pict-
uresque outlines, resembling multi
tudes of castellated RUNS, ancient
battlements, primeval-teh voicef OF
silence.
1t is my privilege to be the guest in
family whose name is associated
with Bad Lands for years past. To
my host much is due for his untiring
research in some OF these vast caverns
now untenanted. For some years he
was exploring the heights and the
gulches, the caves and the fathomless
pits for geological information and
specimens, for Yale university. He
tells me that professor Hatcher was
his instructor in geology and first in
spired him TO undertake the work,
As a guide to parties through these
bypaths of Nature what dId he not
learn? 1t appears to the conviction
of those thoroughly versed in geo
logy, that South Dakota was, in the
bygone days, a tropical country.
Petrified palm trees and other tropical
growths attest this. And while our
state athorities are agitating the
project of irrigation" it is hard to
believe that this country was once
" Il, t,.y no
various forms OF animal and horticul-
tural life indigenous to this soil, res
urrected from the Bad Lands within
the past forty years, are found in the
museums of Yale, Princeton, Smith
sonian Institute and other places of
learning.
Cold winds, avalanches loosened in
the Arctic Zone, snow storms and in
tense cold have changed tins tropical
region TO our snow-swept blizzardy
prairies. With the gradnal on-rusb
of this Arctic visitation, in tiiDe the
animal life suffered and in self pres
ervation they betook themselves to
TO the submarine cayerns. Years
still futher changed the country, the
ocean dried up, the waters stood on
one side, so to speak, and all that
was left after the complete process of
evaporation was over was chain of
fresh water lakes, whichno tell of
their existence only to the eye of the
Initiated geologist, for they are but
dry rocky beds of irregular depths
size and outline.
1t is said that among the rich fossils
which these Bad Lands have Welded
as the laborer,s reward of diligence,
nothing has yet been found toindicate
the presence of primeval man. This
fact only adds solidity to the theory
that South Dakota was formerly a
part of some great ocean.
Scientists also assert that could we
of this generation extend our earthly
existence over about a million years,
we would probably see anothhr order
of Cosmos, resulting from present eli
matte effects which in all liklihood
will re-conyert this frigid zone into a
tropical one.
From another source / learn that
the bad Lands' were so named by
some French Explorers who, coming
upon them as gigantic impediments,
named them bad Lands for Tourists
to cover" Ever since, they have
born the name "Bad Lands" which,
to the uninformed, suggests pestilence
p.ague and all kinds of horrors.
TAnother yisitant to and guide thru
these lands tells me that he has found
petrified eels, snakes, and fish of
many kinds in great quantities. The
remains of these and other cretures
Usually appear in large groupes. under
the shelter of very cavernous crag.
supporting the theory that the on-rush
of cold winds and ice-fows induced
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