Also, it was not until three years later, in 1938, that the United States formally accepted title to 1,395.79 acres of land donated by the trustees of the Custer State Park board who acted as purchasing agents for the State of South Dakota. Senator Norbeck had been a member of this board. The land was purchased from private owners with funds authorized by the state legislature for the expressed purpose of fulfilling partial requirements of Public Law 1021. Cost to the state was approximately $12,000 for 1,280 acres of this donated land.[141]
By early July 1938 Director Cammerer considered that South Dakota had met all the conditions of Public Law 1021. Under this act the federal government had acquired title to about 48,000 acres of the 50,830 authorized. Within the extension authorized by the act of June 26, 1936, the NPS included an additional 97,976 acres. In all, the boundary recommended by the Service included some 148,806 acres (later revised to 150,103.41, and still later revised again to 154,119.46 acres for the same amount of land[142]) of which the government owned 113,578.59 acres. Director Cammerer therefore asked the Secretary of the Interior to approve the establishment of the national monument and that a proclamation be submitted to the President for final approval.[143] On January 25, 1939, President Roosevelt formally proclaimed the establishment of Badlands National Monument.[144] It became the 77th national monument and the 151st area in the federal park system which is administered by the National Park Service.[145]
Figure 19 UPPER (PINNACLES) TUNNEL, 1938
This 175-foot by 16-foot tunnel was located in the national monument about two miles southeast of the present Pinnacles Ranger Station. It and Lower (Norbeck) Tunnel, situated about three miles west of Cedar Pass Lodge near the base of Norbeck Pass, were in use only about four years before being obliterated.[140]
The complicated land-ownership pattern in the national monument along with grazing would plague the NPS for years. When the area was proclaimed in 1939, the NPS administered substantial tracts of land outside the national monument’s boundary. These tracts were located in the land utilization projects of the Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service. On the other hand, the SCS had land utilization tracts under its jurisdiction within the boundary.[146]
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL MONUMENT
Under the general direction of the NPS, various relief agencies such as the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), the Resettlement Administration, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked on development projects in the area. Only a few scattered reports are now available on the work of these agencies. About 150 persons were employed at the area in January 1937 on such projects as resurfacing, backsloping, ditching, and grading roads.[147] This included major reconstruction of the Sheep Mountain Canyon road, completed the same year.[148]
One project of interest completed June 30, 1940 by ERA labor, under the Public Roads Administration, was the obliteration of two tunnels along the Pinnacles-Cedar Pass road. They were constructed during the first half of the 1930’s (see [Figure 19]) when the road was built by the State of South Dakota; the road was completed in 1935. The tunnels proved to be impractical because of inadequate width and maintenance problems.[149]
In July 1940 the ERA project in the area was discontinued. Among the types of work accomplished since July 1, 1938, when the project was initiated, were the construction of five project headquarters buildings, prospecting for water on the national monument, the development of a well near the site of the old Pinnacles Checking Station, and ten road jobs which included road construction, widening, graveling, building culverts, and banksloping. The construction of parking overlooks, and the obliteration of buildings and clearing of 16 farmstead tracts, also took place during that time.[150]