Day 17 – The Badlands

Imagine being a pioneer with a wagon train rolling along on the prairie for days or weeks. Low rolling hills and prairie grass waving in the wind had been your companion all that time. Suddenly, you come to a gaping chasm of forbidding looking land with ragged cliffs of sandstone that extend for miles! In places the jagged cliffs drop into steep canyons and in other places they just step down to a lower level.

That is the area which the Lacota people termed “mako sica” which translates to “bad lands”. Early travelers in this area were frustrated trying to work their way through this steep terrain with sandstone and shale that would be unstable to walk on. Although a distinctive and mesmerizing environment in South Dakota, it provided a challenge to the early people.

Geologically speaking, the various color bands on the exposed mountains and ridges present evidence of times long past. The Badlands information center provides very interesting and detailed information regarding the various layers and the conditions of the habitat as it changed over the past millions of years. 

For example, the “yellow mounds” Chadron Formation were created 37 - 34 million years ago when the area was covered by an inland sea. The yellow color was created when vegetation along the shore of this prehistoric body of water decomposed and eventually settled to the bottom as sediment.

Other layers that have been exposed in the Badlands include the top ragged peaks of the Sharps Formation. These “young” rocks were deposited in the past 17 million years. The peaks of the “Castle” and “Pinnacles” sections of the Badlands are examples of the Sharps formation. Much of these layers were the result of ash fall from huge volcanic eruptions in surrounding states.

In between the Sharps formation layers and those of the Chadron Formation are the Brule Formation layers. The primary source of sediment for these layers were ancient rivers that covered the land. The rivers deposited rock, sand and ash that was moved from elsewhere. These layers also hold many fossils of animals that lived in a cool and dry climate.

This information shows that for millenia the environment of this area has been changing – seas, rivers, and plains. In the fairly recent past, less than 500,000 years, the area of the Badlands have been eroding. It is amazing to us that it took millions of years to deposit the sediment in the area of the Badlands, but it has only recently, geologically speaking, begun eroding due to the forces of wind and rain. 

Some scientists believe that within another 500,000 years the badlands will have eroded away completely.

As we have traveled through many states in North America, we have seen evidence in road cuts and exposed bluffs of other parts of the country that have similar layers of sediment. Evidently, the top surface in those locations is more durable, thus preventing the erosion of the layers below. However, it does make us wonder if there will someday be additional “Badlands” (in addition to those in North Dakota)?

At times we feel like we are pioneers, except that we have all the conveniences of modern life without the hardships they endured. While we enjoy the rugged views of the Badlands, we imagine that the early people were daunted by the thought of crossing that region. For our part, we are grateful to have a chance to observe and explore the Earth that God created in all its varied forms.