Badlands

“ Firepits containing Indian artifacts have been found in the Pinnacles area of the national monument. Radiocarbon studies leave little doubt that hunters were already using this site by 900 A.D. [2] More archeological research will probably show that man hunted and made his home in the Badlands long before that date. [3]
Since about 1000 AD. the Black Hills area has been occupied by a number of nomadic Indian tribes. Some of these subsisted primarily by hunting, while others lived on local food plants. ”

“ Badlands generally describes any deeply eroded and weather-beaten landscape. The play of light and shadow over endless naturally sculpted shapes and the colors of naked rock give these badlands their special beauty. In 1976 a major portion of Badlands National Park was designated wilderness and a new south unit extended the boundaries into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The park has paleontology exhibits, a program on the history of the Oglala Sioux, a variety of nature trails, and a long road system with wayside exhibits at many scenic overlooks. ”

“ Visitors also came on passenger trains. [70]
However, accessibility to the scenic sections of the Badlands Wall from the Washington Highway were already being closed in 1919 by the construction of fences, except for a few low passes in the wall where side roads had been constructed. The Washington Highway and the railroad are both located two to six miles from the most picturesque Badlands features. The same report recommended that a road be built “along the course of the scenic points of interest” and that campgrounds should be constructed “at well chosen camp sites.” ”

“ Stimulated in part by various individuals and groups, the South Dakota Legislature in 1909 petitioned the federal government to establish a township of Badlands as a national park. As read before both houses of Congress on March 16, 1909, the petition stated in part:
Whereas there is a small section of country about the headwaters of the White River in South Dakota where nature has carved the surface of the earth into most unique and interesting forms, and has exposed to an extent perhaps not elsewhere found ”

“ Nevertheless, Norbeck continued to work for a national park instead of a national monument.
To insure that he would include the most scenic parts of the region in the proposed park, Norbeck made frequent trips there. In answer to a constituent’s letter, he wrote in November 1927, “I have visited the Bad Lands every year for sixteen years. A year ago I spent four or five days in them and this year I have made five trips into that area.” [84] During 1927 a number of eastern newspapers carried photographs of the Badlands in their Sunday photo sections. ”

“ Because of this great increase in travel, the summer visitor may find some of the scenic-overlook parking areas full, the visitor center crowded, and the nightly campground amphitheater program with “standing room only.” Since increased visitor use is practically assured in the foreseeable future, plans are already being made to provide additional facilities for visitors to Badlands National Monument. ”

“ Located near the present national monument visitor center, the peak has since lost its spires to erosion. According to local tradition the presence of bats around the formation caused J.I. Peterkin, a traveling artist, to give it this name around 1915. [83]
In the late 1920’s Badlands visitors who arrived from the east via Kadoka or Cottonwood probably used Cedar Pass. The narrow and precipitous route through Cedar Pass was aptly described by one of those early visitors:
The passes become more crooked and the grades more steep. ”

“ Note: Not only were Norbeck and Millard linked together by their common interest in the Badlands, but also through the marriage of Mr. Norbeck’s daughter to Mrs. Clara (Millard) Jennings’ son (information from Nelsons, February 9, 1968) .
[116] Memorandum, G.A. Moskey, Chief Counsel, NPS, to NPS Regional Director, Region Two, May 20, 1941; Receipt signed by B.H. Millard and S.N. Millard dated October 24, 1946; Superintendent’s Monthly Narrative Report for March 1955.
[117] Program, “Millard Ridge Dedication,” Badlands National Monument, Interior, South Dakota, June 28, 1957. ”

“ Suddenly, an advance of a step or two would bring us to the edge of an immense mountain chasm. At its foot, nearly a thousand feet below us, we should perceive the coast region stretching out towards the Indian Ocean.
When the Dutch took possession of the Orange River Free State, it was inhabited by different native tribes. Most of these have been driven off to other sections, just as the Indians of America have been driven out by the white man to seek new hunting grounds. A few of the more powerful tribes, however, still dispute the possession of the soil with the settlers. ”

“ He is tormented by the fear that, in the course of time, his cattle and his sheep will increase to such an extent that he will not have grass enough to offer them, nor land enough on which to pasture them.
A Dutchman finds nothing forbidding in the aspect of the dreary country lying north of the Orange River; the stranger, however, finds the change from the most unattractive sections of the Cape to either the Orange Free State or the Transvaal a most depressing one.
There is nothing of a picturesque nature. ”

“ An attendance among the fragments of antiquity round the Ursprung must convince the most credulous that Baden, as I said before, is not the Pool of Bethesda, as far as its healing virtues are concerned, though its waters are daily “troubled” by angels somewhat different from those that descended, for benevolent purposes, near the Holy City. Baden is, in fine, neither more nor less than a fashionable place of pleasure, dissipation, vice, and gambling—abounding in hot-baths, hells, hotels, scandal, and good scenery. ”

“ Everybody has heard of Baden Baden, so famous as a fashionable watering-place, and all who have visited it can speak of the beauty of its locality, surrounded by hills and mountains, and its narrow valley with its delightful shady walks; but this year they are quite deserted. The princes have enough to do to take care of their subjects; citizens remain at home to look after their interests; the blacklegs find their avocation almost gone. There is not one-third the usual number of arrivals, consequently the balls, concerts, and gaming tables are less frequented. ”

“ I must say that I never left a place, which had so many attractions, with keener regret, and a more fixed determination to revisit it. That "revisit" may possibly never arise; but I recommend all English travellers to spend a week, at the least, at Baden--called emphatically, Baden-Baden. The young may be gratified by the endless amusements of society, in many of its most polished forms. The old may be delighted by the contemplation of nature in one of her most picturesque aspects, as well as invigorated by the waters which gush in boiling streams from her rocky soil. ”

“ The badger, taxidea americana, is so plentiful throughout Oregon, especially that part east of the Cascade Range that it is not surprising that many geographic features were named for it. Badger holes are in evidence almost everywhere, and Badger Creeks are particularly plentiful. The creek mentioned at the head of this paragraph has its source in Badger Lake, in Hood River County, with an elevation of 4435 feet. A mile southeast is Badger Butte, with an elevation of 5992 feet, a well-known landmark. ”

“ The number of strangers calculated to have visited Baden, during the season of 1835, are said to have amounted to thirteen thousand. The scenery for a great part of the way from Carlsruhe to Baden, is considerably varied, and the old castle of Eberstein appearing on an eminence, with well planted hills, forms a lively contrast. We also passed through a handsome town called Rastadt, situated on the river Murg, where a palace, belonging to the grand duke of Baden, appears conspicuous from the road. ”

“ These preparations being made, Major Badger returned to convey his family to their new abode, in the town of Compton, Lower Canada, for which place they set out in February, 1802, in eight sleighs, laden with provisions and furniture, [Pg 27] and after nineteen days of slow and expensive journeying, experiencing the alternations of good and evil fortune, they arrived on the 4th or 5th of March at their new home in the woods. Woman is ever the natural conservative, loving her established and long-tried home. ”

“ Baden is one of the enticing places of the earth,—is so lovely that whenever, however, wherever you may look, you always spy some fresh beauty, and the Black Forest legends are hanging all about it, investing it with an endless charm. ”

“ Wealthy families of rank all over Germany are making it a home. Do I seem to dwell on Baden and its grand duke? Well, I may as well admit, all the homage I am capable of is evoked by such a man and such a work. I have his photograph and many little pictures of his Baden! Have you ever read in a way that impressed you to remembrance of the beautiful situation of Baden? The highest compliment that can be bestowed, as the guide-book says, is this: “It vies with Hiedelberg.” It lies among picturesque wooded hills, at the entrance of the Black Forest, on the Oehlbach ”

“ Often the arrieros imitate its vicious hum, and it will frequently prove sufficient.
The trail was distinct enough—there was no fear of wandering away from it—a slender ditch worn in the bed of the arroyo. Here and there 70 a ragged little hole dug in the soft walls of white rock marked the lonely home of some desert badger; and again we would ride past whole colonies of them. In these badger villages the holes fairly honeycombed the sides of the trail and the bluff walls of the arroyos, and the shuffling claw-marks of the badger trails scarred the dust in all directions. ”

“ CHAPTER XXXII FROM FREIBURG TO BADEN-BADEN—THROUGH THE WOODS TO GERNSBACH—SUPERB ROADS—PEOPLE OF THE BLACK FOREST—CROSSING THE DANUBE—CUSTOMS REGULATIONS AS TO AUTOS—AN OLD SWISS MANSION—THE RIDE TO GENEVA AND AIX-LES-BAINS
The ride from Freiburg to Baden lies along the foot of the Black Forest Mountains through the Rhine valley and is hot and dusty, rough and without interest of any kind until we enter the valley of Baden-Baden, and find that lovely spa nestled under the shadow of the mountains. All the world knows the town. ”

“ The peculiar characteristics of the Dutch settlers were not always pleasing to Great Britain, and she had occasion many times to exercise her power in sections to which she could lay any possible claim. Now, however, that the management of their own affairs has passed into the hands of the Dutch settlers, Cape Colony has made great progress towards good government and prosperity.
The chief industries still continue to be pastoral and agricultural. In the vicinity of the Great Karroo grazing plains, agriculture can be carried on only where there is running water. ”

“ The plain, I have said, is everywhere broken by piles of stone forming knobby hills. Leaving the outlined sphinx to the right, we ascended a second block, which rises on the west of the chief watercourse, further down than the “Owl’s Hill.” This Tell el-Ahmar (“Red Hill”) , alias Ja’dat Badá (the “Curved Hill of Bada’”) , is a quoin of grey granite bluff to the south-west. The north-eastern flank shows the normal revetment of ruddy and black heat-altered grit, which gives a red back to the pale-sided, drab-coloured heap. ”

“ Window frames and the glass to fit them were for years almost unobtainable by such settlers as located themselves north of the Orange and Vaal rivers. In many of the houses the windows were not only few in number, but exceedingly small, often seeming like mere shot holes.
The Dutch farmer has been called slow, and he no doubt is slow; for he belongs to a race not noted for its swiftness of thought or action. For generations his ancestors have lived in the wilds of Africa, and such surroundings have not tended to quicken the nature of the average farmer. ”

“ Bathurst is said to be a very healthy climate; wonders are told of the climate of New South Wales generally, and yet we are informed that “the cheeks of the children beyond the mountains have a rosy tint, which is seldom observable in the lowlands of the colony.” However, notwithstanding all that may be said, disease and death can find out their victims even in Bathurst Plains.
“Guilt’s fatal doom in vain would mortals fly,
And they that breathe the purest air must die.”
The county of Northumberland is one of the most important and valuable in the colony ”

“ Lang thus refers to it in his "History":—"The place was pointed out to me by a respectable settler of the Bathurst district on crossing the mountains for the first time in the year 1826. It is certainly a most remarkable locality, nothing being visible in any direction but immense masses of weather-beaten sandstone rocks, towering over each other in all the sublimity of desolation; quite a deep chasm, intersecting a lofty ridge covered with blasted trees, seems to present an insurmountable barrier to all further progress." ”

“ The Badá plain is backed by a curtain so tall that we seemed, by a common optical delusion, to be descending when we were really ascending rapidly.
Anxiety to begin our studies of the spot made the ride across the basin, soled with rises comfortably metalled, and with falls of sand unpleasantly loose and honeycombed, appear very long. The palm-clump, where men camp, with its two date-trees towering over the rest, receded as it were. ”