Dr. Evans drew a map (See [Figure 3]) of Mauvaises Terres (Bad Lands) and Dr. Joseph Leidy prepared a catalog as well as sketches of the most significant fossils the Owen Geological Survey Party found on its journey to the region.[25]
In 1850 Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution arranged for Thaddeus Culbertson, a younger brother of Alexander Culbertson, to visit the Badlands under the auspices of the Institution. Born in 1823 at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, young Culbertson, a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, set out with his brother, Alexander, from Chambersburg in mid-February. The brothers left St. Louis by steamboat on March 19 and arrived at Fort Pierre May 4. With his brother supplying the equipment, Thaddeus and two others set out from the fur-trading establishment three days later. On May 11 they encamped at Sage Creek in the White River Badlands.[26]
Figure 3 AN EARLY MAP OF THE WHITE RIVER BAD LANDS
Culbertson, too, was very much impressed by the Badlands as he approached them:
The road now lay over hills which became more steep and frequent as we approached the Bad Lands. These occasionally appeared in the distance and never before did I see anything that so resembled a large city; so complete was this deception that I could point out the public buildings; one appeared to have a large dome which might be the town Hall; another would have a large angular, cone shape top, which would suggest the court house or some magnificent buildings for public purposes: then would appear a long row of palaces, great in number and superb in all their arrangements. Indeed the thought frequently occurred as we rode along that at a distance this portion of the grounds looked like a city of palaces—everything arranged upon the grandest scale and adapted for the habitation, not of pigmies such as now inhabit the earth, but of giants such as would be fit to rule over the immense animals whose remains are still found there.[27]
Culbertson was also moved by the complete desolation of the Badlands:
Fancy yourself on the hottest day in summer in the hottest spot of such a place without water—without an animal and scarce an insect astir—without a single flower to speak pleasant things to you and you will have some idea of the utter loneliness of the Bad Lands.[28]
The young scientist was disappointed, however, with the fossils. Instead of finding well-preserved skeletons of different animals, he located only the imperfect remains of several turtles, a number of excellent teeth and jawbones, and several good skulls of animals.[29]
After rejoining his brother at Fort Pierre, young Culbertson proceeded up the river to Fort Union. On his trip he collected not only fossils but skulls, skins, and skeletons of buffalo, grizzly bear, white wolf, prairie wolf, and other animals. He also collected plants along the Missouri. Surprisingly, the fossil remains Culbertson collected were declared by Baird as “an exceedingly interesting series of Mammalian and Reptilian species including many that had never been described.”[30]