Badlands National Park covers some 244,000 acres of western South Dakota prairie land, throughout which are strewn a collection of the coolest terrain in the state. With all that Bad Land around out here, you’d have to suspect that there are a few cool Badlands Facts to be known… You’d be right my friend.
Here are our Badlands Fun Facts!
Guide to Badlands
Badlands Fun Facts
fact 1 – Badlands National Park is the largest swath of protected mixed grassland prairie in the nation.
The Badlands sits on a large prairie. The upper north prairie is divided from the lower south prairie by the White River, which is largely responsible for the many cool features found in the park today. These grasslands contain short ankle-high grasses, characteristic of short grass prairies, which grow in concert with waist-high grasses that are found in high grass prairies.
Scientists report that the Badlands ecosystem provides habitat for more than 400 species of plant life. Included in that number are a variety of colorful flowers that attract nearly 70 different species of butterflies.
fact 2 – Badlands is home to one of the most well-preserved fossil beds in the world.
Turns out, there were a lot of crazy creatures roaming these lands some 35 million years ago. Fossils found here reveal that saber tooth tigers, alligators, rhinos, horses, and dogs lived here during the late Eocene and early Oligocene epochs.
The Badlands have held the interest of paleontologists since the mid-1800s, but the people of the Oglala Lakota Nation knew of the complex arrangement of fossils here long before. They were the first to determine that the lands had once been underwater, after finding countless seashells and turtle shells.
In the 1840s, scientists began to filter into the area, and as the collection of fossils found in the Badlands increased, the area gave rise to the study of vertebrate paleontology in the American West. Within a few years, of the 84 distinct species of animals identified in the North American fossil record, 77 had been found in the surrounding White River Badlands.
Today, visitors with interest in fossils should not miss a visit to the Badlands Fossil Preparation Laboratory, which is open daily during summer months. If you are fortunate enough to stumble upon your own fossil discovery, the NPS instructions indicate that you should leave it in place, and notify a ranger of its location.
fact 3 – The last known Oglala Lakota Ghost Dances of the 19th century are believed to have taken place in what is today Badlands National Park.
The story of the Ghost Dance is a sad one. The end of the US Civil War led in effect, to an explosion in westward expansion by European Americans. Millions of eager settlers moved westward as Native American inhabitants, including the local Lakota Sioux were pushed into ever-smaller reservations with ever-increasing social regulations.
Often during these years, native tribespeople were required to abandon native customs and religions through the threat of violence or imprisonment by the US Government, in order to assimilate their cultures into the more Judeo-Christian mainstream.
Many tribes resisted this overt ethnocentric genocide, and numerous spiritual advisors began to reveal spiritual visions and teachings through a series of community dances. Such dances were not uncommon in native history, as similar events had foretold and celebrated the success of large harvests or hunting parties throughout centuries prior.
As the pressure on their way of life increased, the nature of such ceremonies began to examine an escape from impending social and economic destruction at the hands of an advancing nation of land-hungry foreigners.
In the late 1860s, a Paiute elder named Hawthorne Wadziwob began to tell tales of spiritual journeys to meet the dead during his dances. He conveyed wisdom from the souls of the dead, who assured the respected elder that his deceased brethren would soon return from the land of the dead.
On January 1, 1889, a Northern Piaute spiritual leader named Wovoka who was the son of a respected spiritual leader, told of a vision he had received during a solar eclipse. This vision told of a return to the happiness and plenty of decades past, and a peaceful Earth, filled with food, love and faith.
In order to bring about this elusive utopian world, Wovoka, also known by his English name, Jack Wilson, instructed his followers that all native peoples must take part in a series of five-day “Spirit Dances”. As this term was translated to English, such dances became known to European-Americans as “Ghost Dances”.
Wovoka’s message began to spread through the native tribes, and soon made its way into the Oglala Lakota, who resided in the lands surrounding modern-day Badlands National Park. While Wovoka’s teachings were interpreted by many to be peaceful and of a pacifist nature, not all who studied the way of the dance held such pacifistic ideals.
The Lakota people were entrenched in an increasingly hostile battle for their homeland and way of life, which was becoming besieged by European-Americans. Their interpretation of the Ghost Dance drew upon the renewed Earth concept, in which “all evil is washed away”. To the Lakota of the 1880s and early 1890s, this meant the removal of European-Americans from the ancestral lands.
The tribe’s participation in Ghost Dances drew the ire of the Bureau of Indian Affairs agents, who were sent to supervise the native people’s assimilation into American society. Agents were frightened by the dances, as many similar dances were thought to represent a spiritual precursor to battle.
As word of these dances spread to commanders for the US Army, troops were dispatched to halt such spiritual proceedings. December of 1890 witnessed the arrest of Hunkpapa Lakota tribal leader and elder Sitting Bull. Unfortunately, the 40 officers who were sent to arrest the famous chief lost control of the situation and ended up shooting Sitting Bull, along with eight of his followers.
Following the death of Sitting Bull, some 200 Lakota fled south to join forces with Chief Big Foot and the Miniconjou Sioux. Upon meeting Big Foot, some 40 Lakota departed with him in effort to connect with a band of Lakota Sioux that were taking refuge in an area known as Oonakizin, or the Stronghold. Today, this is the southern unit of Badlands National Park.
When US Army officials learned that Big Foot and his band were moving toward the Stronghold, they set out to intercept them. Soon, the Army’s 7th Calvary, the same unit that had suffered brutal defeat and massacre at the Battle of Little Big Horn, caught up with Big Foot.
Upon overtaking Big Foot and his group, the Army marched them south to a camp along side Wounded Knee Creek, and once there, attempted to collect their weapons. During the confiscation of Big Foot’s weapons, a struggle began and shots were fired.
The Army held firepower that was far superior to that held by the natives, and far outnumbered Big Foot’s people. The ensuing battle did not last long, and the 7th Calvary, still reeling from their defeat at the Little Bighorn, were merciless.
When the guns fell silent, more than 150 Lakota were dead, including Big Foot and many native women and children, who had hoped to find safe refuge from such fighting. Some 25 US soldiers were also dead, many killed by friendly fire.
Much of the history surrounding Badlands National Park and the treatment of its native people is dark… Unfortunately, much of human history is dark…
fact 4 – The southern Stronghold Unit of the Badlands was once used as a bombing range by the US military.
Following the US entrance into WWII, the US Air Force gained possession to nearly 342,000 acres of land on the Pine Ridge Reservation to be used as an aerial gunnery range. Included in this assembly of destruction were some 337 acres that were located within the boundaries of Badlands National Monument.
Truth be told, the USAF effectively removed the Oglala Lakota people from their homes in order to facilitate creation of the target area. In 1942, an agreement between the Oglala Lakota Tribal Council and the US Air Force set the course for the relocation of many Lakota.
More than 120 families were removed from their privately or tribe-owned ranches during this time. They were given pittance in the form of sub-prime rates for their land, which was considered to be waste-land, according to tax roles.
Subsequently, the USAF tossed millions of rounds into the surrounding landscape. Random vehicles and scrap metal was blown to smithereens in the fossil and grave rich Lakota land. Early models of “drone” aircraft towed large targets across the skies and large swaths of the Badlands were plowed to form ground level targets. Often, exposed fossil remains of large mammals from 35 million years ago were targeted by such missions.
Stories of errant out-of-bounds incidents were reported, in which native people found themselves taking cover from incoming fire at their homes, miles outside the bombing range boundaries. It seems that the actual boundaries were something of a mystery for pilots-in-training flyings out of nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.
Today, untold amounts of live Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) and chemical munitions remain within the Stronghold Unit, from common rifle rounds to large bombs. Do not disturb such UXO and the NPS asks that you report findings of such locations to the White River Visitor Center at 605-455-2878.
NPS – Badlands – Badlands Gunnery Range
Badlands Stat Sheet
established: November 10, 1978 as Badlands National Park
national monument: January 25,1929 as Badlands National Monument
rank of admission: 38
size: 244,000 acres
rank in size: 28
annual visitation: 2018 – 1,088,942
rank in visitation: 25
time zone: Central Time
park phone: 605 433 5361
Guide to Badlands
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