USA - South Dakota - Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park

SOUTH DAKOTA

You and your family will have a great exploring the many rooms in Wind Cave. The informative tour, offered a number of times a day by the National Park Service, is not fatiguing. In this card yu can see the interesting boxwork on the ceiling.

Sent by Karolyn who lives near St. Louis in Missouri, USA.

Wind Cave National Park is a national park of the United States located 10 miles (16 km) north of the town of Hot Springs in western South Dakota. Established on January 3, 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the sixth national park in the U.S. and the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world. The cave is notable for its calcite formations known as boxwork, as well as its frostwork. Approximately 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave.

Wind Cave is one of the best known examples of a breathing cave. The cave is recognized as the densest cave system in the world, with the greatest passage volume per cubic mile. Wind Cave is the sixth longest cave in the world with 168.02 miles (270.40 km) of explored cave passageways (as of 2025) and the third longest cave in the United States, though it is only the second longest cave in Custer County, South Dakota behind Jewel Cave. Despite the close proximity, no connection has ever been found between Wind Cave and Jewel Cave and most geologists believe the caves are not connected. Above ground, the park includes the largest remaining natural mixed grass prairie in the United States, as well as the southern terminus of the South Dakota Centennial Trail (read more).

USA - South Dakota - Badlands National Park (2)

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK
South Dakota
Established in 1939 to preserve the unusual examples of erosion by wind and water as well as the remains of prehistoric animals.

Sent by Jodi from South Dakota, USA.

USA - South Dakota - Mount Rushmore

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL
Black Hills, South Dakota
Carved by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, each head measures 60 feet from the top to the chin.

Sent by Jackie, a WiP partner from USA.

This is from Wikipedia : Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States. Sculpted by Gutzon Borglum and later by his son Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (in order from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km2) and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.

South Dakota historian Doane Robinson is credited with conceiving the idea of carving the likenesses of famous people into the Black Hills region of South Dakota in order to promote tourism in the region. Robinson's initial idea was to sculpt the Needles; however, Gutzon Borglum rejected the Needles site and chose the larger Mount Rushmore. Borglum also decided the sculpture should have a more national focus, and chose the four presidents whose likenesses would be carved into the mountain. After securing federal funding, construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Upon Gutzon Borglum's death in March 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum took over construction. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in October 1941.

The U.S. National Park Service took control of the memorial in 1933, while it was still under construction, and manages the memorial to the present day. It attracts approximately two million people annually.

USA - South Dakota - State Bird

THE RING-NECKED PHEASANT, state bird of South Dakota, surprisingly is not native to the state or even the U.S. Imported from China during the late 1890s, it apparently liked what it found here and proliferated, becoming the most popular game bird in the region.

Sent by Josie from South Dakota.

This is from Wikipedia : The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). It is native to Caucasus and Russia and has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe (where it is naturalized), it is simply known as the "pheasant". "Ring-necked Pheasant" is a collective name for a number of subspecies and their crossbreeds. As of 2005, it has the smallest known genome of all living amniotes, only 0.97 pg (970 million base pairs).

It is a well-known gamebird, among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The Common Pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds; it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially bred. Ring-necked Pheasants in particular are commonly bred and were introduced to many parts of the world; the game farm stock, though no distinct breeds have been developed yet, can be considered semi-domesticated. The Ring-necked Pheasant is the state bird of South Dakota, one of only three US state birds that is not a species native to the United States.

The Green Pheasant (P. versicolor) of Japan is sometimes placed as subspecies within the Common Pheasant. Though the species produce fertile hybrids wherever they coexist, this is simply a typical feature among Galloanseres, in which postzygotic isolating mechanisms are slight compared to most other birds. The species apparently have somewhat different ecological requirements and at least in its typical habitat the Green outcompetes the Common Pheasant; its introduction to Japan has therefore largely failed.

USA - South Dakota - Badlands National Park (1)

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK
Delicate spires are the hallmark of the predominately buff and pinkish-orange Sharps Formation located at the top of the Badlands Wall. Made up of sands, gravels, mud, and wind-deposited ash, the Sharps group is harder than other layers and erodes more sheerly. Averaging 150 feet thick, this layer is 26 to 28 million years old.

Send by Hadley, a postcrosser from USA.

This is from Wikipedia : Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota, United States preserves 244,000 acres (98,740 ha) of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States.

The Badlands Wilderness protects 64,144 acres (25,958 ha) of the park as a designated wilderness area and is the site of the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret, the most endangered land mammal in North America.

The Stronghold Unit is co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe and includes sites of 1890s Ghost Dances, a former United States Air Force bomb and gunnery range, and Red Shirt Table, the park's highest point at 3,340 feet (1,020 m). Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was not established until January 25, 1939. Under the Mission 66 plan, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was constructed for the monument in 1957-58.

It was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978. The park also administers the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.

USA - South Dakota - State Capitol

SOUTH DAKOTAMarble balustrades, scagiola pillars, stained glass skylights and mosaic floors lavish the rotunda of South Dakota's state capitol in Pierre. Today, this striking limestone structure looks much as it did when it was completed in 1910 and is one of the most fully restored state capitols in the United States.

Sent by Karen, a Swap-Bot partner from Rapid City in South Dakota, USA.

USA - South Dakota - Mapcard

SOUTH DAKOTA
Capital - Pierre
Area - 77,047 sq. miles (16th)
Population - 764,309
Motto - Under God the people rule
Flower - Pasque flower
Bird - Ring-necked Pheasant
Tree - Black Hills Spruce
South Dakota was admitted to statehood on November 2, 1889. The origin of the name Dakota comes from an Indian name meaning "allies" or "confederation of tribes".

Sent by Karen, a postcrosser from Rapid City in South Dakota, USA.

USA - South Dakota - Dakota Wesleyan University

Sent by Joshua from South Dakota. This one shows Matthew D. & Loretta Smith Hall at The Dakota Wesleyan University.

This is from Wikipedia : Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) is a four-year university located in Mitchell, South Dakota, and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The student body averages slightly less than 800 students. It was founded in 1885. The campus of the university is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.