53 



miles from a road," unquote. Now we're not really sure that they 

 really mean real wilderness. 



Tourist frequently use one particular word, an adjective, to de- 

 scribe these Black Hills, and the word they use is "intimate." What 

 they are saying is they enjoy these mountains because they can get 

 right onto them. The Black Hills have 18 peaks over 7,000 feet 

 high. You can climb to the summit of every one of them. Our 

 gorges and canyons are spectacular, and they're accessible. Our 

 wildlife is plentiful, yet there are no wild bears here to eat our 

 campers. You can wade or fish every stream and brook in the 

 Black Hills. Nobody's gotten life-threateningly lost here for dec- 

 ades. 



These Black Hills are friendly mountains. They beg to be hiked, 

 to be explored, and to be experienced. Outlining wilderness tracts 

 on a map really does nothing to improve upon that. The propo- 

 nents claim rising demand for wilderness. I can tell you that it's 

 not a rising demand among tourists. It's not a rising demand from 

 within the tourism industry. 



More federal wilderness in the Black Hills? No, that wouldn't be 

 good for tourism or for small business in South Dakota. We urge 

 Congress to reject these wilderness proposals. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Honerkamp follows:] 



Prepared Statement of Bill Honerkamp 



Senator Pressler and Committee Staff. My name is Bill Honerkamp and I speak 

 today as president of South Dakota's Black Hills, Badlands and Lakes Association. 

 That is a trade association comprised of some 560 small business enterprises in 

 western South Dakota. Their common bond is recreation, tourism and vacation traf- 

 fic. In other words, other people's fun — recreation — is our business and our liveli- 

 hood. Our customers will spend nearly $250 million with us in 1993. More than 

 1,600 Black Hills citizens are employed in the visitor industry. 



Black Hills, Badlands and Lakes Association does not support the Forest Service's 

 recommendations arising from the RARE II studies, which propose the creation of a 

 Sand Creek Wilderness along the State line, nor the Beaver Park (also called Break- 

 neck) Wilderness southwest of Sturgis. 



Black Hills, Badlands and Lakes Association did not support the 7 new wilderness 

 areas proposed for the Black Hills and the Badlands by the Sierra Club in 1991. And 

 we do not support the modified Black Hills Wilderness draft bill of 1993 that now 

 seeks 9 new wilderness districts. 



This opposition is based on several broad concepts important to the success and 

 the viability of the visitor industry. 



This year, we estimate that more than 4 million nonresidents will travel great 

 distances to come and experience the Black Hills. They come to conventions in 

 Rapid City, to gamble in Deadwood and to see Reptile Gardens. But mostly, they 

 come because of these Black Hills mountains. They come to enjoy an impressive in- 

 ventory of natural resources like our forests, lakes, streams, wildlife, minerals, wa- 

 terfalls, canyons and wonderful scenery. Even Mount Rushmore owes a measure of 

 its popularity to its setting in the spectacular Black Hills. Visitors come to enjoy the 

 public lands of our five national parks, two State parks, two national forests, our 

 wildlife refuges, our caves and our grasslands. They come here to relax and to recre- 

 ate — to re-create — their bodies, minds and souls. 



The ornery thing about federal wilderness is that it creates exclusionary zones. 

 Wilderness sets up exclusive preserves for select outdoors men who have the skills, 

 and the stamina and the time to penetrate these tracts, and seek the solitude they 

 crave. 



Not very many of our customers have the outdoor skills or equipment to handle — 

 much less enjoy — wilderness. In other words, most of our visiting guests are "city 

 slickers." 



Wilderness designation has the effect of posting "Keep Out" signs to many types 

 of our customers whose preferred form of leisure might be snowmobiling, four- 

 wheeling, gold panning or trail biking. 



