Badlands National Monument South Dakota; Natural History Handbook Series No. 2
Washington, D.C. U. S. Government Printing Office, 1962. Revised Edition. Presumed first printing thus. Wraps. [4], 48 pages. Map. Illustrations. Decorative cover. Topics covered include Location of the Badlands; History and Prehistory; Age of the Badlands Rocks; Ancient Climates; Local Life of the Oligocene Epoch; Deposition of the Rocks; Formation of the Landscape; Secondary Features; Future of the Badlands; Plants: Trees, Wildflowers, and Grasses; Animals: Birds, Mammals, Reptiles; Present Climate; Establishment of the Monument; How and When to Enjoy the Monument; Related Areas; and Suggested Readings. Also includes Appendix--Common and Scientific Names of Plants. Excerpt from Badlands National Monument, South Dakota. This publication is one of a series of handbooks explaining the natural history of scenic and scientific areas in the National Park System, administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of he Interior. Excerpt from Badlands National Monument, South Dakota: You will not have to hike into the badlands, however, to appreciate its complex of sharp ridges, steep-walled gullies and canyons, pyramids, knobs, and spires. You can drive along the highway through the monument and stop at parking overlooks to view this landscape of varied forms and pleasing, soft colors. It seems to be another world. The scene that unfolds may raise the question, What is going on here? The story of what is happening began millions of years ago. This semiarid region was then a broad plain of marshes and of sluggish rivers owing eastward and depositing on their flood plains layers of silt, sand, and gravel. Lush vegetation covered the land. Animals that no longer exist were abundant. As they died, the remains of some of them were buried in the river sediment or sank into the ooze and decaying vegetation in the marshes. A long chapter in the majestic story of animal evolution is vividly told by the abundant fossil remains. Gradually, because the land was rising, with the change in elevation affecting the climate, the well-watered land of luxuriant vegetation gave way to the semiarid high-plains-region of today. Aimlessly wandering rivers no longer deposited their loads of sediments across a broad. Region, but rather began to cut into and carry away the layers formerly deposited. This rapid cutting-away action is going on today. As Streams cut back into the high plain, the bad land is forming. As erosion exposes the layers of rock and the remains of plants and animals, it makes it possible for geologists to help us visualize life and landscapes that were here millions of years ago. Badlands National Park is an American national park located in southwestern South Dakota. Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was not established until January 25, 1939. Badlands was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978. Under the Mission 66 plan, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was constructed for the monument in 1957–58. The park also administers the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The movies Dances with Wolves (1990) and Thunderheart (1992) were partially filmed in Badlands National Park. This national park was originally a reservation of the Oglala Sioux Indians and spans the southern unit of the park. The area around Stronghold Table was originally Sioux territory, and is revered as a ceremonial sacred site rather than a place to live. In 1868, at the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, the United States assured the Sioux that the Badlands shall forever be the property of the Sioux. In 1889, however, the treaty was broken and the Badlands were confiscated by the United States and unilaterally incorporated into a national park. The abrogation of the treaty was ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980, and the area is now effectively illegally occupied by the United States. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Natural History, Badlands National Monument, National Park System, Oligocene Epoch, Landscape, Wildflowers, Grasses
[Book #82486]
Price: $25.00