South Dakota School of Mines 



13 



while prices are paid for land undreamed of before the coming 

 of the railroads and their attendant comforts. Plate 23 shows 

 one of the old time ranches near Imlay, including its well kept 

 vegetable garden within the very heart of the Big Badlands and 

 Figure 1 shows the proportion of occupied and unoccupied land 



-y~, 



Figure 1 — Southern part of eastern Pennington County. Ruled portion 

 shows land patented or filed upon, including school sections. 



in the southern part of eastern Pennington County, within and 

 immediately adjacent to the most typical of all the badlands. 

 Approximately three-fourths of this occupied land has been pat- 

 ented and is now under private ownership. 



But it is to the badland formations as an educational asset 

 that I would call particular attention. Nowhere in the world 

 can the influences of erosion be more advantageously studied 

 or more certainly or quickly understood. Nowhere does the 

 progress of mammalian life reveal itself' with greater impres- 

 siveness or clearness. Nowhere do long-ago days connect them- 

 selves more intimately with the present nor leave more helpful 

 answers to our wondering questions as to the nature and im- 

 port of the earth's later development. 



Knowing the help of even a hasty examination of this won- 

 derful work of nature I have during the past twelve years taken 

 most of my students of geology at the State School of Mines 



