Wind
Cave History
Discovery
American
Indians of the area have many stories about holes in the Black Hills that blow
wind, but the first recorded discovery of Wind Cave was in 1881. Jesse and
Tom
Bingham were attracted to the cave by a whistling noise. As the story goes, wind
was blowing out of the cave entrance with such force that it blew off Tom's
hat.
A few days later when Jesse returned to show this phenomena to some friends,
he was surprised to find the wind had switched directions and his hat was
sucked
into the cave. Today, we understand that the direction of the wind is related
to the difference in atmospheric pressure between the cave and the surface.
The first person reported to have entered the cave was Charlie Crary
in the fall of 1881. He claimed to have left twine to mark his trail, others entering
the cave later found his twine. These early explorers were the first to see a
rare cave formation called boxwork. |
| McDonald
Family Several mining claims were established at
Wind Cave, but the most noteworthy one was by the South Dakota Mining Company
in 1890. J.D. McDonald was hired to manage the claim. The mining was unsuccessful,
but McDonald and his family realized they could make money by giving cave tours
and selling formations from the cave. They filed a homestead claim over the opening
and worked on improving a manmade entrance and enlarging passageways for tours.
One of J.D.'s sons, Alvin, spent much of his time exploring and mapping
the cave, faithfully keeping a diary and making a map of his findings. On January
23, 1891, Alvin wrote that he had "given up finding the end of Wind Cave".
| Stabler
Family In the summer of 1891, business was improving
and more modifications to the cave were needed. A man known as "Honest John"
Stabler formed a partnership with the McDonalds. The two families created the
Wonderful Wind Cave Improvement Company. Cave passages were widened and wooden
staircases were installed. A hotel was built near the cave entrance and a stage
coach provided rides to the cave. |
Feuding
During
the fall of 1893, J.D. and Alvin McDonald went
to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago to advertise the cave. On the trip Alvin
caught typhoid fever and was never really well again. He died that year at the
age of 20. Shortly after Alvin's death, things began to go sour for the Wonderful
Wind Cave Improvement Company. The McDonalds accused the Stablers
of keeping profits for themselves and demanded additional money. Meanwhile Peter
Folsom had gained control of the mining claim on the cave. Folsom and the Stablers
joined forces against the McDonalds in court with both sides trying to prove that
the other party had no claim to the cave. In December 1899, the Department of
the Interior decided that since no mining nor proper homesteading had taken place,
neither party had any legal claim to the cave. In 1901, the land around the cave
was withdrawn from homesteading. | |
A
National Park is Created On January 3, 1903, President Theodore
Roosevelt signed the bill creating Wind Cave National Park. It was the seventh
national park and the first one created to protect a cave. The parklands at that
time were small and there were no bison, elk, or pronghorn. They came later as
the park boundaries expanded. |
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Game Preserve In
1912, the American Bison Society was looking for a place to reestablish a bison
herd. Because of the excellent prairie habitat around the park, a national game
preserve was established bordering Wind Cave. It was managed by the U.S. Biological
Survey. In 1913 and 1914, the animals began to arrive. Fourteen bison came from
the New York Zoological Society, twenty-one elk arrived from Wyoming and thirteen
pronghorn came from Alberta, Canada.
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Civilian
Conservation Corps Interest in the wildlife attracted
more visitors to the park and additional improvements were necessary. Some happened
in the 1920's but the major work was accomplished by the Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC) in the 1930's. The CCC camp was located in the park and operated from
July 16, 1934 to October 3, 1939. Some of the projects they worked on can be seen
today. These include roads, the entrance to the cave, concrete stairs in the cave,
the elevator building and shaft, and other structures. |
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Wildlife Management
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In July of 1935, the
game preserve became part of Wind Cave National Park. During the early years of
the preserve, the animals were kept in small enclosures. Eventually, it was realized
that they needed more space. The bison and elk needed additional forage and the
pronghorn needed room to escape from predators. With the help of the CCC, fences
within the park were removed. And in 1946, 16,341 additional acres were added,
enlarging the park to 28,059 acres. | |
During the 1950's
and 60's, park wildlife was the focus of much attention. Because of the lack of
large predators, like wolves and grizzly bears, the bison and elk herds had grown
to the point that they were literally "eating themselves out of house and
home." Park rangers began to evaluate the carrying capacity of the park.
Carrying capacity is the number of animals that can exist in a habitat without
damaging it. To solve the problem of overgrazing, the bison and elk herd sizes
were reduced. Park rangers began an active program to manage the herd size. They
began rounding up the animals and shipping the excess live from the park to other
parks and reserves. Rangers also worked to improve the grassland by reseeding
overgrazed areas with native grasses and controlling exotic plant species.
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| In the 1970's and
80's, managers continued to focus on caring for the wildlife and rangeland by
building an understanding of how the natural systems should function. The reintroduction
of fire as a natural means to improve the range and to limit the expansion of
the forest onto the prairie was researched. An active fire program was started,
with the first prescribed fire occurring in 1972. | |
Cave
Exploration While investigating the naturally operating systems,
park managers realized that the cave is not an isolated environment. What happens
on the land can and often does influence the cave. Understanding where cave passages
are located in relation to the land above helps us avoid damaging the cave. For
example, if the land is altered, it might change the way water travels through
the cave and change cave formations. Exploration is important and is a continuous
project with several miles of new cave being surveyed each year. |
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Wind
Cave Today The
mission of Wind Cave National Park is to preserve and protect the natural resources.
Wind Cave National Park is 28,295 acres. Because of its relatively small size
and because there are missing parts, park managers must take an active role in
helping the ecosystems function as they might have in the past. This requires
understanding how everything in the park relates and how the naturally operating
system would have functioned. Park rangers work with researchers to replicate
that natural system using prescribed fires, bison and elk round-ups, and biological
control of exotic plant species. How we accomplish the mission
of the park is determined by what we know about the park. The land, the animals,
and the cave are all related and it is only when we understand the resources and
their connections that we can best protect Wind Cave National Park. | |
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