A 1919 report by the U.S. Forest Service recommended that the Badlands area be set aside as a national park. The report also recorded considerable tourist travel to the Badlands. “The travel this year was several hundred times greater than in any former year....” Many visitors came over state route 40 (the Washington Highway) which connects the towns of Interior and Scenic with Rapid City. This road was under construction in 1919 and followed, more or less, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. Visitors also came on passenger trains.[70]
However, accessibility to the scenic sections of the Badlands Wall from the Washington Highway were already being closed in 1919 by the construction of fences, except for a few low passes in the wall where side roads had been constructed. The Washington Highway and the railroad are both located two to six miles from the most picturesque Badlands features. The same report recommended that a road be built “along the course of the scenic points of interest” and that campgrounds should be constructed “at well chosen camp sites.”[71] (Such a road was completed 16 years later by the State of South Dakota; see [page 43]).
While other individuals and organizations played an important part in the establishment of Badlands National Monument, Senator Peter Norbeck deserves more credit than any other legislator. Norbeck was born on a farm in Clay County in southeastern South Dakota, August 27, 1870, and was the son of a member of the 1871 Dakota Territorial Legislature. His public career began when he was elected to the state senate in 1908 and he served there until 1915. In 1914 Norbeck was voted lieutenant-governor of the state, and was elected governor in 1916 and 1918. His achievements as governor were many, including the founding of a state-enterprise program designed to help farmers. Another of his great accomplishments was the establishment of Custer State Park.
In 1920 Norbeck was elected to the United States Senate where he served continuously until his death in 1936. Although his chief interest was in farm-relief legislation, he was instrumental in passing the Migratory Bird Act of 1929 and in securing federal funds for the carving of Mount Rushmore National Memorial.[72]
South Dakota’s congressmen, William Williamson from Oacoma and Charles A. Christopherson from Sioux Falls, assisted Norbeck by their work in the U.S. House of Representatives. Christopherson’s services in the House began in 1919, Williamson’s in 1921.[73]
Figure 13 EARLY ROAD THROUGH CEDAR PASS, 1908 or earlier
On May 2, 1922, during the second session of the 67th Congress, Senator Norbeck introduced the first bill (S. 3541) for making the Badlands area a national park. Entitled “A bill to establish the Wonderland National Park in the State of South Dakota,” it proposed to set aside and withdraw from entry “all public lands lying and being within townships two and three south, ranges fifteen and sixteen east of the Black Hills meridian, and township three south, ranges seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen east of the Black Hills meridian.”[74] The proposal provided that the Secretary of the Interior might add to the park from time to time any lands which may be donated to the United States for such purposes. It also stated that the Secretary of the Interior may authorize exchange of non-federal lands in the park for certain public lands of equal value outside the park. Finally, the bill provided that a sum not exceeding $5,000 annually be appropriated by Congress for the maintenance and improvement of the park, if the State of South Dakota made an equal contribution. After the bill was read, it was referred to the Committee of Public Lands and Surveys.[75]
On the same day, Congressman Williamson introduced a bill (H.R. 11514) in the House of Representatives, identical to the first one submitted by Norbeck in the Senate. This bill was referred to the Committee on the Public Lands and ordered to be printed.[76] No further action was taken on either the Norbeck or Williamson bills in the 67th Congress.
However, in October 1922 President Harding issued an executive order temporarily withdrawing all public lands in the seven townships to be included in the proposed park for the purpose of classifying them “pending enactment of appropriate legislation.”[77] The total area within the seven townships was about 161,000 acres, of which 35,410 were classified as vacant.[78]