The White River Badlands 



THEIR IMPORTANCE AND DISTRIBUTION 



The White River Badlands constitute the most im- 

 portant badland area of the world. They lie chiefly in 

 southwestern South Dakota but a prominent arm known as 

 Pine Ridge extends through northwestern Nebraska into 

 eastern Wyoming. Most of the drainage is by way of White 

 river, hence the name. The area is very irregular and there 

 are many outliers particularly to the west and northwest of 

 the central portion. Southward geological formations 

 similar to those of White river extend over much of Ne- 

 braska and eastern Colorado but here, except along the forks 

 of the Platte the badland feature is not prominent. 



Originally the badland formations made up a vast earth 

 blanket stretching for hundreds of miles north and south 

 along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountain front. Their 

 greatest plainsward extension cannot now be definitely de- 

 termined, but in South Dakota they reach beyond the Mis- 

 souri to near the James river valley. They seem to have en- 

 tirely surrounded the Black Hills and of this uplift only 

 the higher portions remained uncovered. From these re- 

 stricted areas and from the rising Rocky Mountains detrital 

 materials had opportunity throughout a long period to add 

 their volume to the deposits of the bordering lowlands. 

 Later this vast series of sediments was elevated and was 

 gradually trenched by innumerable streams and most of the 

 material washed away. Along with these changes the bad- 

 land topography developed and has continued to develop to 

 the present time. 



The Badlands do not readily lend themselves to ac- 

 curate definition nor to brief description. They are in con- 

 sequence a much misunderstood portion of American terri- 

 tory. The name is a literal translation of the Mauvaises 

 Terres of the early French Canadian trappers who had in 

 turn appropriated the still earlier Mako Sica (mako, land; 

 sicha, bad) of the Dakota Indians. It signifies a country 

 difficult to travel through chiefly because of the rugged sur- 



