Small Town Western South Dakota

Taking a drive in the early morning through the Badlands of South Dakota is an experience that will remain in your memories for a lifetime. Spring and Summer are the most ideal times to visit the Badlands. Taking the trip in late spring allows you to see them in full splendor. The new grass and the wildflowers blanket the basins and plateaus of the ever changing outcroppings. Wildlife abounds all throughout the National Park. I have not once driven through the park with out seeing some sort of critter from the side of the road.

The roads that wind through this national treasure lead you to some truely unique places as well. One small town, Interior, population 68, hosts a filling station, a small grocery store with post office connected, an elementary school, two churches, and if your looking for something cold to dring and to get to know the locals there are two bars as well.

If you find yourself heading toward the White River you can even get to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where the Wounded Knee Massacre Occured.

Another destination point from the Badlands National Park is the city of Wall. You may have heard of the famous Wall Drug Store and it's free ice water. Yep, free ice water, but the store also as an array of shops containing everything from western wear to a T-Rex in the back yard.

So much to see and so much to do. If your planning a trip through western South Dakota, make sure to stop by the small towns and get to know the people that make you feel at home.

WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. -- On crystal-clear nights, when winter winds whistle through the hills and canyons around Wounded Knee Creek, the Lakota elders say it is so cold that one can hear the twigs snapping in the frigid air.

They called this time of the year "the Moon of the Popping Trees." It was on such a winter morning on Dec. 29, 1890, that the crack of a single rifle brought a day of infamy that still lives in the hearts and minds of the Lakota people.

After the rifle spoke there was a pause and then the rifles and Hotchkiss guns of the 7th Cavalry opened up on the men, women and children camped at Wounded Knee. What followed was utter chaos and madness. The thirst for the blood of the Lakota took away all common sense from the soldiers.

The unarmed Lakota fought back with bare hands. The warriors shouted to their wives, their elders and their children, "run for cover," Iynkapo! Iyankapo!

Elderly men and women, unable to fight back, stood defiantly and sang their death songs before falling to the hail of bullets. The number of Lakota people murdered that day is still unknown. The mass grave at Wounded Knee holds the bodies of 150 men, women and children. Many other victims died of their wounds and of exposure over the next several days.

http://www.danielnpaul.com/WoundedKnee.html

Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, President Franklin Roosevelt issued a proclamation on January 25, 1939 that established Badlands National Monument. In the late 60's, Congress passed legislation adding more than 130,000 acres of Oglala Sioux tribal land, used since World War II as a U.S. Air Force bombing and gunnery range, to the Badlands to be managed by the National Pakr Service. An agreement between the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the National Park Service governing the management of these lands was signed in 1976. The new Stronghold and Palmer Creek units added lands having significant scenic, scientific and cultural resources. Congress again focused it's attention on the Badlands in 1978 on 10 November, it was redesignated as Badlands National Park.