Wind Cave National Park

Park Information

• Date Established: January 3, 1903
• Location: South Dakota
• Area: 28,295 acres

Overview

Wind Cave National Park was America’s eighth national park and the first park to be designated to preserve a cave. The caves rest beneath deceptively flat prairie land and some forested areas that form part of an animal preserve. About 167 miles (about 268.7 km) of the cave had been mapped by 2024, with more remaining unexplored, making it the third-longest cave system in the United States and the sixth-longest known cave in the world.

The cave complex is named for winds of changing direction that are strong enough to blow the hats off the heads of visitors. Barometric pressure, or the pressure of air in the atmosphere, affects the direction of the wind, which can sometimes blow out of the cave and sometimes suck air into its opening. The Wind Cave is also known for the abundance of the rare boxwork formations that make up large portions of its underground structure.

Although it originally included just the caves and the land near them, the prairie land near the park was seen as an excellent site for bison and other prairie animals that were relocated to the area. The park was expanded in 1935 to include the game preserve that housed the animals. Over the next several decades, preserving and protecting the animal life became a focus of the rangers who worked at the park.

History

The Lakota and other Native American tribes indigenous to the Black Hills area of South Dakota were familiar with the cave for decades and considered it sacred. They called it Maka Oniye, or “breathing earth.” According to the ancient spoken history of the Lakota, people first emerged on the earth’s surface from the hole that is now the only known natural entrance to the Wind Cave.

The first non-indigenous people to find and document the existence of the cave were a pair of brothers who were hunting in 1881. Jesse and Tom Bingham reportedly heard a whistling sound that led them to the cave entrance, where Tom’s hat was blown off his head by the breeze coming out of the cave. A few days later, Jesse returned with friends and discovered that the wind had reversed directions. Instead of blowing his hat off, the cave’s winds sucked his hat inside.

The cave was made a national park on January 3, 1903, by President Theodore Roosevelt. Nine years later, the American Bison Society identified the prairie grasslands around the cave entrance as a good area to begin a bison herd in an effort to rebuild the bison population. Fourteen bison were brought to the area, along with elk from Wyoming and antelope-like animals called pronghorns that were sent from Canada. The animals began to arrive in 1913 and, with few natural predators, the herds quickly began to grow. By 1935, the preserve that housed the growing herds was made part of Wind Cave National Park.

The park’s history also includes its role in helping American workers recover from the Great Depression of the 1930s. This time of severe economic hardship began with the crash of the stock market in October 1929 and saw many people end up jobless and homeless in the next ten years. During the 1930s, the US government created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Thousands of unemployed Americans were given jobs with the CCC, through which they built or rebuilt America’s infrastructure. Many of the facilities at Wind Cave National Park were built by members of the CCC.

Geology and Ecology

The rock that forms the Wind Cave originated around 350 million years ago when changing temperatures led to the evaporation of seawater rich with calcium carbonate from broken pieces of shells. This formed an area of limestone now known as the Madison Limestone formation, or the Pahasapa Limestone formation in Lakota.

At the same time this limestone was forming, a different form of calcium known as calcium sulfate, or gypsum, was crystalizing in the evaporating seawater. The gypsum created unstable gaps and masses in the limestone as the water continued to evaporate and the limestone continued to form. Eventually, the gypsum turned to calcite, releasing sulfur that created the first portions of the cave openings.

Some 300 million years ago, seawater covered the area and brought with it other types of rock and sediment. This sandstone, red clay, and limestone from other areas settled in and near the cave before the sea retreated again. This process of seawater advancing and retreating continued for more than 240 million years, and led to the creation of the miles of maze-like tunnels for which Wind Cave National Park has been named. The water was also important to the formation of the boxwork in the cave; this rare cave formation, which resembles honeycomb, is created when limestone is dissolved by water and leaves boxlike structures formed of traces of other material that was around the limestone.

This boxwork makes the cave rare, as few caves in the world are known to have it. The Wind Cave is also unusual because all 167 explored miles of its tunnels fit under 1.25 square miles of land as measured above ground. It is also among the oldest caves in the world; parts of it have been dated to around 300 million years ago.

However, the ecosystem of the cave has been threatened by the intrusion of modern life, including additional openings that have been cut into the cave network; the introduction of electric lighting; and the dust, lint, and other unintentional debris left behind by human visitors. The park’s ecosystem is also endangered by seepage from chemicals from above ground and by changes to the flow of water above ground that alter how water moves into the cave areas.

The area above ground is an attraction because of its prairie grasslands and animal preserve. In addition to the bison, elk, and pronghorn that were introduced in the early twentieth century, the park is also home to prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, bobcats, and badgers, as well as birds of prey such as eagles, hawks, and owls. Park rangers take steps to ensure the animal populations remain appropriate for the size of the preserve by moving excess animals to other facilities. To control the growth of the prairie grass and ponderosa pines that would easily overwhelm the park and its animals, park rangers use controlled burns to help keep the park’s ecosystem healthy and in balance.

Bibliography

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Paul, Catherine A. “Civilian Conservation Corps.” Virginia Commonwealth University, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/civilian-conservation-corps/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Welcome to Wind Cave National Park.” National Park, www.national-park.com/welcome-to-wind-cave-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

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“Wind Cave National Park.” National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/wind-cave-national-park. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Wind Cave National Park.” National Park Service, 1 Dec. 2024, www.nps.gov/wica/index.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Wind Cave National Park.” Travel South Dakota, www.travelsouthdakota.com/explore-with-us/great-8/wind-cave. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.