WIND CAVE Rules and Regulations 1920

SIDE TRIP TO THE NATIONAL AND STATE RESERVATIONS IN VICINITY OF WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK.

Visitors to the Wind Cave National Park traveling by their own conveyance, either by team or automobile, can profitably spend a few days in visiting some of the national and State reservations in the Black Hills region. In a trip of about 300 miles, five interesting reservations, including a national monument, a fish hatchery, a bird refuge, a reclamation project, and state game preserve may be inspected.

Traveling north from the Wind Cave Park to Custer, the first point of interest is the Jewel Cave National Monument in the Black Hills National Forest. This cave is located 13 miles west of Custer and may be reached by a good automobile road from that point. An abundance of good spring water is found near the cave.

At Spearfish, about 100 miles from Custer, and about 40 miles from Deadwood, visitors interested in fish culture will find an important fish hatchery of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. From this point fish are distributed to many places in the Rocky Mountain region.

Continuing north from Deadwood about 20 miles is the town of Belle Fourche, and 8 miles northeast of this point is the reservoir of the same name which supplies the water for irrigating the lands for the Belle Fourche Reclamation Project. The lands immediately adjoining this reservoir which covers about 90,000 acres have been set aside as the Belle Fourche National Bird Reserve, one of the 70 bird reservations in charge of the United States Department of Agriculture and the only one in the State of South Dakota. Here in spring and autumn may be seen flocks of ducks and various other kinds of waterfowl which stop on their way north and south for a few days' rest on this refuge.

At Newell, about 20 miles east of Belle Fourche, is the headquarters of the reclamation project, where about 50,000 acres of land irrigated from the reservoir are now under cultivation.

Southeast of the Belle Fourche Project and situated between Hermosa and Custer is the State Game Preserve, This can be most conveniently reached by way of Hermosa, about 20 miles south of Rapid City, on the line of the Chicago & North Western Railroad. Here the State has inclosed 61,440 acres with a woven and barbed wire fence, 40 miles in length and 8 feet in height. Construction work on this fence began in July, 1913, and was completed in November, 1914. The section of the Black Hills in which the game preserve is located is extremely rugged and includes the Harney, French, and Squaw Creek ranges with several lofty peaks and deep canyons. Among the highest elevations are Harney Peak, 7,254 feet; Sheep Mountain, the highest point in the preserve, 6,200 feet; and Buckhorn Mountain, 6,000 feet. This region is the natural habitat of deer, elk, buffalo, mountain sheep, bear, and many kinds of small game. The preserve has been already stocked with several species of big game. A nucleus herd of 36 buffalo was obtained from the Phillips herd at Pierre, S. Dak., and about 75 elk were shipped from the Yellowstone National Park. Deer and a small herd of antelope have also been added. This preserve is only 15 miles in an air line north of the Wind Cave National Park, but, in following the road via Hermosa and Buffalo Gap to Hot Springs, the distance is about three times as far.

Those who make this tour will have an opportunity of comparing two of the recently established big-game preserves, where species indigenous to the Black Hills region may be found living under natural conditions.