Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park is a national park of the United States located north of the town of Hot Springs in western South Dakota. Established on January 3, 1903 Approximately 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave.

Wind Cave is one of the best known examples of a breathing cave. The cave is recognized as the densest cave system in the world, with the greatest passage volume per cubic mile. Wind Cave is the sixth longest cave in the world with of explored cave passageways () and the third longest cave in the United States, though it is only the second longest cave in Custer County, South Dakota behind Jewel Cave. Despite the close proximity, no connection has ever been found between Wind Cave and Jewel Cave and most geologists believe the caves are not connected. Above ground, the park includes the largest remaining natural mixed grass prairie in the United States, as well as the southern terminus of the South Dakota Centennial Trail.

Origin of name

The passages of the cave are said to "breathe" as air continually moves into or out of them, equalizing the atmospheric pressure of the cave and the outside air. When the air pressure is higher outside the cave than inside it, air flows into the cave, raising the cave's pressure to match the outside pressure. When the air pressure inside the cave is higher than outside it, air flows out of the cave, lowering the air pressure within the cave. A large cave such as Wind Cave with only a few small openings will "breathe" more obviously than a small cave with many large openings.

Rapid weather changes, accompanied by rapid barometric changes, are a feature of western South Dakota weather. If a fast-moving storm was approaching on the day the Bingham brothers found the cave, the atmospheric pressure would have been dropping fast, causing the cave's higher-pressure air to rush out all available openings, creating the wind for which Wind Cave was named.

History

The Lakota, Cheyenne, and other Native American tribes who traveled through and made camps around the area were aware of the cave's existence, as were early Euro-American settlers, but there has been no recorded evidence discovered that anyone actually entered it.

The Lakota (Sioux), an indigenous people who live in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, spoke of a hole that blew air, a place they consider sacred as the site where they first emerged from the underworld where they had lived before the demiurge creation of the world. The oral history of these people tell the story of Tokahe, the first human to emerge from the cave, symbolizing an emergence from the underworld. His story and presence at Wind Cave is an important part of Lakota history, and heavily influences their origin story.

Wind Cave and other areas throughout the Black Hills were important to the native people in other ways beyond spirituality. Nicknamed, euphemistically, as a "supermarket", the areas surrounding the cave provided abundant resources for native survival. Often during the winter seasons, such areas served as ideal spots for camps; much of the game they hunted preferred the shelter provided by the cave and made these areas ideal to become Lakota settlements and hunting grounds.

The eventual dispossession of the Lakota people followed the consistent history of dispossession of indigenous peoples across the country. In 1851 a Treaty was formed at Fort Laramie, entering the tribe into a legal relationship with the U.S. government. Another Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 redefined and reduced the borders of Lakota land within the Black Hills.

From 1881 to 1889, few people ventured far into Wind Cave. Then in 1889 the South Dakota Mining Company hired Jesse D. McDonald to oversee their mining claim on the cave site. The South Dakota Mining Company may have hoped to find valuable minerals, or it may have had commercial development of the cave in mind from the start.

No valuable mineral deposits were found, and the McDonald family began developing the cave for tourism. Jesse initially hired his son Alvin (age 16 in 1890) and, beginning in 1891, Alvin's brother Elmer, to explore and help develop the cave. Alvin fell in love with the cave and kept a cave diary. Others who worked at Wind Cave and helped explore it between 1890 and 1903 include Katie Stabler, Emma McDonald (Elmer's wife), Inez McDonald (Emma and Elmer's daughter), and Tommy McDonald (brother of Elmer and Alvin). the standard tour fee was apparently $1.00 (equivalent to roughly $30 in 2021). Tourists explored the cave by candlelight on guided tours. These early tours were physically demanding and sometimes involved crawling through narrow passages.

Jan and Herb Conn played an important role in Wind Cave's exploration during the 1960s, as they did with the nearby Jewel Cave National Monument, currently the fifth longest cave in the world,.

Location

The park is in an unincorporated area of Custer County. The closest municipality is Hot Springs, in Fall River County.

Flora and fauna

thumb|left|A [[American bison|bison scratches against the stone base of a park sign.]]

Wind Cave National Park protects a diverse ecosystem with eastern and western plant and animal species. Wildlife that inhabits this park include raccoons, elk, bison, coyotes, skunks, badgers, ermines, black-footed ferrets, cougars, bobcats, red foxes, minks, whooping crane, pronghorn and prairie dogs. The Wind Cave bison herd is one of only four free-roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Yellowstone Park bison herd, the Henry Mountains bison herd in Utah, and on Elk Island in Alberta, Canada. The Wind Cave bison herd is currently brucellosis-free. The whooping crane population in Wind Cave National Park is considered a non-self-sustaining wild population.

Throughout the years, the great plains have seen a considerable rise in temperature. Being that Wind Cave is located in the great plains, these temperature rises have already started to affect the park and the area around it. The average temperature rise across the plains has been two degrees Fahrenheit, with some areas seeing increases as high as five degrees Fahrenheit.

The Wind Cave visitor center features three exhibit rooms about the geology of the caves and early cave history, the park's wildlife and natural history, and the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the park.

Elk Mountain Campground, located in a ponderosa pine forest, is about from the visitor center. The campground has 75 sites for tents and recreational vehicles and is open year-round with campfire programs offered in the summer and limited services available in the winter.

Boxwork was first noted in Wind Cave. These calcite fins were once cracks filling gypsum and anhydrite. Calcite-gypsum pseudomorphs are common. The released sulfuric acid weakened the bedrock, allowing it to weather faster than the calcite. The resultant intersecting fins form open chambers and protrude from the surrounding bedrock by amounts ranging from 0.6 to 1.2 m. Lower levels of the cave have boxworks mixed with frostwork and cave popcorn. Helictite bushes were also first discovered in Wind Cave. Moonmilk is found on many surfaces, while calcite rafts are found in the lower levels of the cave system. South Dakota public figures, including the state's Representative Dusty Johnson, used it to promote tourism to Wind Cave National Park.

The cave is featured in Dan Jorgensen's novel And the Wind Whispered.

Gallery

File:Calcite boxwork, Wind Cave.jpg|Calcite boxwork removed from the cave; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

File:Cave Frostwork and Popcorn-Wind Cave.JPG|Frostwork and popcorn formations

File:Prairie dog at Wind Cave National Park.jpg|A prairie dog; part of an extensive colony in the park

File:Flora in Wind Cave National Park.jpg|Flora of the prairie

File:Bison and Prairie Dog in Wind Cave National Park.jpg|Bison and prairie dogs are commonplace in the park.

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References

External links

of the National Park Service
Historic American Engineering Record documentation, all filed under Hot Springs, Fall River County, SD: