Black Hills National Forest
Encyclopedia
Black Hills National Forest is located in southwestern South Dakota
and northeastern Wyoming
. The forest has an area of over 1.25 million acres (5,066 km²) and is managed by the Forest Service
. Forest headquarters are located in Custer, South Dakota
. There are local ranger
district offices in Custer, Rapid City
, and Spearfish
in South Dakota, and in Sundance, Wyoming
.
Predominantly ponderosa pine
, the forest also includes hard woods like aspen, bur oak, and birch. The lower elevations include grassland prairie
, but the National Forest System lands encompass most of the mountainous region known as the Black Hills
of South Dakota and Wyoming
. Within the forest is Harney Peak
which is the tallest mountain
in South Dakota and the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains
in the United States
.
s in 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland
created the Black Hills Forest Reserve on February 22, 1897. Upon the creation of the Forest Service in 1905, the reserve was transferred to the new agency under the United States Department of Agriculture and redesignated as a National Forest
two years later. Lakota
words Paha Sapa meaning "hills that are black" may be one of the factors in the regions naming. Early settlers and explorers called the Laramie Range the Black Hills prior to Lt. G. K. Warren
's expedition in 1857. Prior to explorations by the La Verendrye brothers
in 1742, many tribes frequented the Black Hills including Ponca
, Kiowa Apache, Arapaho
, Kiowa
and Cheyenne
for at least the past 10,000 years. The small pox epidemics of 1771 to 1781 broke the wall of the Arikara who prior to that time held the Sioux east of the Missouri. American Horse's winter count of 1775-76 is interpreted as depicting the Sioux discovery of the Black Hills (Raymond J. DeMallie, Jr - 2006). The mountains and other key features in and around the Black Hills and now within the Forest were considered sacred to indigenous peoples and many came here on vision quest
s, for hunting
and for trade.
, Custer
, Lawrence
, Crook, Fall River
, Meade
, and Weston counties. (Crook and Weston are the only counties in Wyoming; only one-seventh of the forest acreage lies in Wyoming.)
The Forest is located immediately west and south of Rapid City
and can be accessed from Interstate 90
. The forest headquarters is located in Custer, South Dakota
. The Peter Norbeck National Scenic Byway passes through the forest in proximity to Mount Rushmore and along with the Spearfish Canyon National Forest Scenic Byway, provide two of the more scenic drives in the Country.
Although surrounded by Black Hills National Forest, both Jewel Cave National Monument
and Mount Rushmore National Memorial are separate areas administered by the National Park Service
. Wind Cave National Park
, which is another area administered by the National Park Service, borders portions of the forest in the southeast. Black Elk Wilderness
is a wilderness
within the Forest and no motorized transport is permitted. Outside of the wilderness, mining
, logging
, and ranching are permitted on public lands through land leases with companies and private parties, referred to as "permittees."
can be found in the higher elevations. Elk
, mule deer
, pronghorn
and white-tailed deer
are commonly seen. Black bears
do not exist in the Black Hills. Mountain lions are increasing dramatically as a result of prolific herds of deer and elk. Coyote
, bighorn sheep
and mountain goat
s are also frequently seen. Bald eagle
s, hawks, osprey
, peregrine falcon
and another 200 species of birds can be found in the forest, especially along streams and near water sources.
. 450 miles (725 km) of hiking
trails provide access to more remote destinations and to the summit of Harney Peak. With over 5000 miles (8,046.7 km) of Forest system roads, the Forest is also a haven for motorized travel.
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
and northeastern Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. The forest has an area of over 1.25 million acres (5,066 km²) and is managed by the Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
. Forest headquarters are located in Custer, South Dakota
Custer, South Dakota
Custer is a city in Custer County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,067 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Custer County.-History:...
. There are local ranger
National Park Ranger
National Park Service Rangers are among the uniformed employees charged with protecting and preserving areas set aside in the National Park System by the United States Congress and/or the President of the United States...
district offices in Custer, Rapid City
Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota, and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek on which the city is established, it is set against the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range. The population was 67,956 as of the 2010 Census. Rapid...
, and Spearfish
Spearfish, South Dakota
Spearfish is a city in Lawrence County, South Dakota,United States. The population was 10,494 at the 2010 census.- History :Prior to the Black Hills Gold Rush of 1876, the area was used by Native Americans who would spear fish in the creek...
in South Dakota, and in Sundance, Wyoming
Sundance, Wyoming
Sundance is a town in Crook County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,161 at the 2000 census. The town is named for the Sun Dance ceremony practiced by several North American Indian Nations.-Sundance in popular culture:...
.
Predominantly ponderosa pine
Ponderosa Pine
Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the Ponderosa Pine, Bull Pine, Blackjack Pine, or Western Yellow Pine, is a widespread and variable pine native to western North America. It was first described by David Douglas in 1826, from eastern Washington near present-day Spokane...
, the forest also includes hard woods like aspen, bur oak, and birch. The lower elevations include grassland prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
, but the National Forest System lands encompass most of the mountainous region known as the Black Hills
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
of South Dakota and Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. Within the forest is Harney Peak
Harney Peak
Harney Peak is the highest natural point in South Dakota. Harney Peak is located within the Black Elk Wilderness area, in southern Pennington County, within Black Hills National Forest...
which is the tallest mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
in South Dakota and the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
History
After a series of devastating wildfireWildfire
A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
s in 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
created the Black Hills Forest Reserve on February 22, 1897. Upon the creation of the Forest Service in 1905, the reserve was transferred to the new agency under the United States Department of Agriculture and redesignated as a National Forest
United States National Forest
National Forest is a classification of federal lands in the United States.National Forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Land management of these areas...
two years later. Lakota
Lakota language
Lakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages , and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux...
words Paha Sapa meaning "hills that are black" may be one of the factors in the regions naming. Early settlers and explorers called the Laramie Range the Black Hills prior to Lt. G. K. Warren
Gouverneur K. Warren
Gouverneur Kemble Warren was a civil engineer and prominent general in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
's expedition in 1857. Prior to explorations by the La Verendrye brothers
Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye
Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye was a French Canadian fur trader and explorer who took part in extending these activities westerly from the Great Lakes during the eighteenth century, an enterprise for which he and other members of his family were largely responsible...
in 1742, many tribes frequented the Black Hills including Ponca
Ponca
The Ponca are a Native American people of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan-language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma...
, Kiowa Apache, Arapaho
Arapaho
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
, Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
and Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
for at least the past 10,000 years. The small pox epidemics of 1771 to 1781 broke the wall of the Arikara who prior to that time held the Sioux east of the Missouri. American Horse's winter count of 1775-76 is interpreted as depicting the Sioux discovery of the Black Hills (Raymond J. DeMallie, Jr - 2006). The mountains and other key features in and around the Black Hills and now within the Forest were considered sacred to indigenous peoples and many came here on vision quest
Vision quest
A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures.In many Native American groups, the vision quest is a turning point in life taken before puberty to find oneself and the intended spiritual and life direction. When an older child is ready, he or she will go on a personal,...
s, for hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and for trade.
Geography
The forest is located in parts of seven counties in South Dakota and Wyoming. In descending order of forestland area they are PenningtonPennington County, South Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 88,565 people, 34,641 households, and 23,278 families residing in the county. The population density was 32 people per square mile . There were 37,249 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
, Custer
Custer County, South Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 7,275 people, 2,970 households, and 2,067 families residing in the county. The population density was 5 people per square mile . There were 3,624 housing units at an average density of 2 per square mile...
, Lawrence
Lawrence County, South Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 21,802 people, 8,881 households, and 5,559 families residing in the county. The population density was 27 people per square mile . There were 10,427 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
, Crook, Fall River
Fall River County, South Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 7,453 people, 3,127 households, and 1,976 families residing in the county. The population density was 4 people per square mile . There were 3,812 housing units at an average density of 2 per square mile...
, Meade
Meade County, South Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 24,253 people, 8,805 households, and 6,700 families residing in the county. The population density was 7 people per square mile . There were 10,149 housing units at an average density of 3 per square mile...
, and Weston counties. (Crook and Weston are the only counties in Wyoming; only one-seventh of the forest acreage lies in Wyoming.)
The Forest is located immediately west and south of Rapid City
Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota, and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek on which the city is established, it is set against the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range. The population was 67,956 as of the 2010 Census. Rapid...
and can be accessed from Interstate 90
Interstate 90
Interstate 90 is the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It is the northernmost coast-to-coast interstate, and parallels US 20 for the most part. Its western terminus is in Seattle, at Edgar Martinez Drive S. near Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field, and its eastern terminus is in...
. The forest headquarters is located in Custer, South Dakota
Custer, South Dakota
Custer is a city in Custer County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,067 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Custer County.-History:...
. The Peter Norbeck National Scenic Byway passes through the forest in proximity to Mount Rushmore and along with the Spearfish Canyon National Forest Scenic Byway, provide two of the more scenic drives in the Country.
Although surrounded by Black Hills National Forest, both Jewel Cave National Monument
Jewel Cave National Monument
Jewel Cave National Monument contains Jewel Cave, currently the second longest cave in the world, with just over of mapped passageways. It is located approximately west of the town of Custer in South Dakota's Black Hills...
and Mount Rushmore National Memorial are separate areas administered by the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
. Wind Cave National Park
Wind Cave National Park
Wind Cave National Park is a United States national park north of the town of Hot Springs in western South Dakota. Established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the seventh U.S. National Park and the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world. The cave is...
, which is another area administered by the National Park Service, borders portions of the forest in the southeast. Black Elk Wilderness
Black Elk Wilderness
The Black Elk Wilderness is located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. The wilderness was designated by an act of Congress in 1980. Managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Black Elk Wilderness is part of Black Hills National Forest. This 13,426 acre region is considered sacred to Native Americans,...
is a wilderness
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
within the Forest and no motorized transport is permitted. Outside of the wilderness, mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
, logging
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
, and ranching are permitted on public lands through land leases with companies and private parties, referred to as "permittees."
Flora and fauna
While ponderosa pine is the most common tree species found in the forest, spruceSpruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
can be found in the higher elevations. Elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
, mule deer
Mule Deer
The mule deer is a deer indigenous to western North America. The Mule Deer gets its name from its large mule-like ears. There are believed to be several subspecies, including the black-tailed deer...
, pronghorn
Pronghorn
The pronghorn is a species of artiodactyl mammal endemic to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope, as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and...
and white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
are commonly seen. Black bears
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
do not exist in the Black Hills. Mountain lions are increasing dramatically as a result of prolific herds of deer and elk. Coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
, bighorn sheep
Bighorn Sheep
The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to , while the sheep themselves weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae...
and mountain goat
Mountain goat
The Mountain Goat , also known as the Rocky Mountain Goat, is a large-hoofed mammal found only in North America. Despite its vernacular name, it is not a member of Capra, the genus of true goats...
s are also frequently seen. Bald eagle
Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...
s, hawks, osprey
Osprey
The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...
, peregrine falcon
Peregrine Falcon
The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...
and another 200 species of birds can be found in the forest, especially along streams and near water sources.
Recreation
30 campgrounds are located in the forest and there are 11 reservoirs that are well stocked for sport fishingFishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
. 450 miles (725 km) of hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
trails provide access to more remote destinations and to the summit of Harney Peak. With over 5000 miles (8,046.7 km) of Forest system roads, the Forest is also a haven for motorized travel.