148 THE WHITE RIVER BADLANDS 



this wonderful country lies a few miles south of Scenic. It 

 may be seen from the car window but its strange grandeur 

 can be understood only by a special visit and its chief fea- 

 ture — School of Mines canyon — should be traversed only 

 with proper equipment and guide. Those wishing to study 

 the Great Wall will find it accessible from any of the near- 

 by railway towns. Interior is the largest and in some re- 

 spects the most convenient place from which to drive or 

 walk but there are facilities at every station and at some of 

 them they are nearly or quite as good as at Interior. 



Those desiring to visit remote areas either in south- 

 western South Dakota, northwestern Nebraska or south- 

 eastern Wyoming will have little difficulty in obtaining 

 direction and suggestion. The people generally will be 

 found accommodating to the point of urgent hospitality. 

 One needs of course to bear in mind that much of the coun- 

 try is still sparsely settled and that as in any other place 

 annoying weather conditions may at times prevail but the 

 real lover of the great out-of-doors, man or woman, will 

 usually find little of real hardship. He who has oppor- 

 tunity to ramble over this strange country in the bright 

 mornings of early summer when the short grasses are bril- 

 liant green or who in the on-coming autumn can camp near 

 some good spring and enjoy the beauty of the prairie even- 

 ing and the stillness of the arid night is blest with a golden 

 privilege. 



The Badlands are strange, and inspirational and good. 

 For many years only those technically trained in nature's 

 ways could appreciate them but now in these days of wider 

 opportunity with railway facilities, good roads, numerous 

 settlers and the omnipresent automobile every one can 

 cultivate a growing comprehension of their meaning. Even 

 the name is rapidly losing its forbidding aspect. Until 

 recently the country was to the causal visitor but a gro- 

 tesque quarry for dry bones. It should be to all men a 

 living storehouse of wonderful works. 



