Statewide County, SD History - Books .....Bad Lands 1925 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 15, 2007, 11:55 pm Book Title: Doane Robinson's Encyclopedia Of South Dakota Bad Lands. The bad lands area extending along both sides of White River is so irregular that it would be difficult to define its extent—the main portion being confined within about thirty townships. In the vicinity of Wall the Northwestern railroad skirts along the northern edge of the region; the Milwaukee from Weta to the Cheyenne River runs directly through the heart of it. Within this area are present the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene, but the more interesting regions are confined to the Oligocene alone. Dr. O'Harra gives the following section of the Oligocene: | Upper | | 150 | | Protoceras | to | | Beds | 250 ft. | | | | | Fuller's | |- Brule | Earth | | Formation -| | Middle | | Oreodon | 200 | | Beds Oligocene -| to | | | 400 ft. | | | | Volcanic | Ash | | | Lower Chadron Titanotherium | 0 Formation Beds | to | 180 ft. The Protoceras beds at the top are formations in which the chief fossils are the remains of the protoceras, a deer-like animal, found only in this region; the male had six horns and the canine teeth developed into long, wicked tusks. This bed is about 150 feet thick, largely sandy, of fuller's earth. Below the Protoceras beds are the Oreodon beds in which the chief fossil is that of the oreodon, a cud-chewing pig. This formation is sometimes called the Red Beds. This formation, too, is chiefly of fuller's earth, but the lower portion is in the volcanic ash. The oreodon beds are about 80 feet thick. The Titanotherium beds (which are identical with the Lower Oligocene) are of varying thickness, at places very thin and at others up to 180 feet; the chief fossil is that of the brontotherium and Titanotherium monsters, perhaps related to the modern rhinoceros, but much larger. The formation is composed of volcanic ash through which are box-like veins of chalcedony standing vertical; these veins are about a quarter of an inch thick and as the surface weathers these stick up in quite regular squares six to eight inches across, and as the ash is carried away, they break up into small plates. The upper fuller's earth portion is snowy white, while the base of the cliffs is frequently red; but white prevails throughout this region. The genesis of these bad lands is a matter of interesting speculation. It is a relatively young formation, apparently piled down upon the Pierre shale, north of the White River and the Niobrara River south of the White. It is suggested that perhaps when the Black Hills blew out, under the influence of a northwest wind, a vast island of volcanic ash and fuller's earth formed upon the old ocean southeast of the region of the great eruption, and was precipitated to the bottom in the order of its specific gravity. Thus in a relatively small area there was piled up on the bottom of the ocean this island, which is now the bad lands. When the ocean drained away, White River carved a path down through it and small streams running down into White River have worn and carved what remains into the unique forms we now find, varying all the way from the most beautiful imagery and artistic shapes to the most grotesque. This suggestion of the genesis seems very plausible until one comes to consider the characteristic fossils found in the varying beds, which predicate a wide range in time between the deposit of the volcanic ash and the piling of the fuller's earth upon the top of it. In the picturesque language of Dr. O'Hara, the "Badlands are the last piece of cake on the platter, doomed to be eaten up by the voracious appetite of time." The chief early explorations of the Bad lands, with scientific or semi-scientific motive were 1847. Hiram A. Prout brought out the jaw bone of a titanothere which caused great interest among scientists. 1848. Father DeSmet visited the region and wrote vivid descriptions of his observations. 1849. Dr. John Evans, for the Owen Geological Survey. 1850. Thaddeus A. Culbertson, in the interest of the Smithsonian Institution. 1853. Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, for the U. S. Geological Survey. He made subsequent trips in 1855, 1857 and 1866. 1870. Dr. O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, began intensive and systematic examination of the region and adopted improved means of preserving the fossils, as well as for articulating the parts of individuals. Thereafter, down to the present time, the region is thronged annually by scientists and sight seers. Very many institutional museums in America and abroad have collections of Bad land fossils; the most notable being in Peabody Museum, Yale University, in the Smithsonian Institution, in the American Museum of Natural History (New York City) and in Princeton University. For exhaustive studies of genesis of Bad Lands see Mines, IX, 53 et seq. Geol., XI, 34, 35 et seq. Additional Comments: Extracted from: DOANE ROBINSON'S Encyclopedia of South Dakota FIRST EDITION Published by the Author PIERRE 1925 COPYRIGHT BY DOANE ROBINSON. 1925 WILL A. BEACH PRINTING COMPANY PRINTERS AND BINDERS SIOUX FALLS File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/state/history/1925/doanerob/badlands295gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/sdfiles/ File size: 6.3 Kb