The White River Badlands : Its History and Characters

The White River Badlands fascinate with dramatic vistas of rugged ridges, canyons, mesas, and pinnacles. Its storied past weaves together indigenous peoples, fur traders, pioneers, and fortune-seekers—all drawn to or defeated by this formidable landscape where nature’s raw power and human ambition intertwine.

Dubbed Mako Sica by the Lakotas and les Mauvaises Terres by the French, South Dakota’s White River Badlands is famous for its stunning vistas of saw-toothed ridges, dry-wash canyons, and looming mesas and pinnacles, which attract millions of visitors to Badlands National Park every year. Over the centuries, this harsh, unforgiving environment has also enticed generations of American Indians, fur traders, trailblazers, would-be tycoons, paleontologists, gold miners, homesteaders, and ranchers, who have either found refuge here or tried, and often failed, to eke out a living.

The White River Badlands: Its History and Characters examines each of these attempts to lay claim to the Badlands. Philip S. Hall, son of multigenerational Badlands ranchers, has spent over half a century exploring and researching this spectacular, forbidding landscape and those intrepid souls who have called it home. As the next chapter in its history is written, will the Badlands prove to be as immutable as it seems, impervious to the conceits of man? You be the judge.