The North Dakota Badlands have much to offer visitors and travelers—if cultivated into a national park, proclaimed Delta R. Connolly on this date in 1927 to readers of the Hettinger County Herald.
The North Dakota Federated Clubs had adopted a resolution at their 1926 convention to give loyal support to converting the Badlands into the Roosevelt National Park. The natural beauty of the region and its rich ranching history, including the impact the area had on former President Theodore Roosevelt are among the many reasons the area is so special, and perfect for national park status.
Club members were urged, if they had not already done so, to visit this natural wonderland found within their own state and to share its beauty with others.
Plans for a national park in the Badlands continued into 1930, when Governor Shafer directed Phelps Wyman of Milwaukee to create a preliminary park study of the region. At the end of that report, Wyman made several recommendations for converting the Badlands into a national park. Among them: building a highway to connect the Badlands to new railways and highways; establishing hotels and recreation centers within the park connected by more primitive trails; and restoring the region's wildlife.
Like the Club members of 1927, Wyman urged leaders to preserve the natural beauty and spirit of the Little Missouri Badlands by transforming it into a national park.
Not everyone supported the idea. In 1947, the National Parks Association wrote that the region being considered for the park at that time was “not superlative nor unique to warrant national park status.”
Despite these objections, the bill to establish the park, sponsored by Congressman William Lemke, and moved forward.
At the dedication of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 1949, there was much to celebrate. The rich history of ranching, the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, and the wildlife of the region go hand in hand with the unique geography that makes the Badlands so remarkable.
As one speaker put it: “Every continent has its bad lands, but no other bad lands have the beauty of color added to the beauty of form as have the Badlands of the Little Missouri.”
Dakota Datebook by Ashley Thronson
Sources:
- Hettinger County Herald, May 12, 1927.
- “Proposed Theodore Roosevelt National Park.” Parks & Recreation Magazine. April 1947.
- Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park : dedication, June 4, 1949. Greater North Dakota Association. 1949
- A preliminary park study of the Bad Lands of western North Dakota. Landscape Architecture Pub. Co. 1930.
- Park History. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/park-history.htm
