On March 3, 1923, Congressmen Christopherson and Williamson presented memorials from “the Legislature of the State of South Dakota urging Congress to set aside the Bad Lands as a national park....”[79]
In December 1923, in the 68th Congress, Williamson again introduced a bill (H.R. 2810) to establish Wonderland National Park. This proposal was identical to the one he and Norbeck introduced in the preceding Congress.[80] Like the earlier bill it, too, died in committee.
If the Norbeck papers, now at the University of South Dakota, are any indication of the public support the Senator received for his park proposal, only a few people in the early 1920’s shared his views. Attorney General Byron S. Payne of South Dakota, Professor W.C. Toepelman of the University of South Dakota Geology Department, and W.H. Tompkins of the U.S. Land Office in Rapid City, all endorsed the Wonderland National Park proposal.[81] However, at that time the highways were relatively undeveloped. The automobile industry and tourism were both in their infancies. It was to take nearly another decade to gain the support of local and state chambers of commerce and other promotional groups for national parks and monuments.
It appears that the National Park Service did not give Norbeck encouragement for his idea of a national park in the Badlands. In a letter to a constituent in May 1924, the Senator wrote:
... regarding the Bad Lands National Park, [I] will state that the Park Service here will not approve a bill of that kind,—and therefore, we can not secure the legislation. They are, however, willing to approve the plan of having it designated by the President as a “National Monument”. In practice, this means nearly the same thing, so Congressman Williamson and I have come to an agreement that we are going to accept that plan and work it out that way.[82]
Nevertheless, Norbeck continued to work for a national park instead of a national monument.
To insure that he would include the most scenic parts of the region in the proposed park, Norbeck made frequent trips there. In answer to a constituent’s letter, he wrote in November 1927, “I have visited the Bad Lands every year for sixteen years. A year ago I spent four or five days in them and this year I have made five trips into that area.”[84] During 1927 a number of eastern newspapers carried photographs of the Badlands in their Sunday photo sections.[85]
Figure 14 VAMPIRE PEAK, 1930’s
Located near the present national monument visitor center, the peak has since lost its spires to erosion. According to local tradition the presence of bats around the formation caused J.I. Peterkin, a traveling artist, to give it this name around 1915.[83]