South Dakota is bordered by 5 states,Iowa, Minnesota.North Dakota,Montana & Wyoming.
Admitted to the Union in 1889. State Capital is Pierre
State Motto:"Under God the People Rule".Nickname:Mount Rushmore State.
State Song:"Hail! South Dakota"
State Flower:Pasque. State Tree:Western White Spruce. State Bird:Ring-necked Pheasant
The seal pictures the state and the kind of work the people do. Farming, Ranching, Dairying, Mining, Manufacturing and Lumbering. Mining began with gold rushes to the Black Hills in the 1870. s. The Missouri River is pictured with the Black Hills in the distance. The steam boat represents transportation and trade. The sun's rays encircle the seal. The flag adopted in 1909 had the state seal on one side and a blazing sun and the nickname on the other. In 1963, the state official flag has had only one design on the front. In 1992, a new state motto, The Mount Rushmore State, was adopted, changing the flag.
I will start my tour with the Badlands National Park.
Located in southwestern South Dakota it consists of nearly 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United states.
The Bandland Wilderness Area is made of 64,000 acres 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 Sioux Tribe and
includes sites 0f 1890 Ghost Dances Established as Badlands National Monument in 1939. The area was redesignated "National Park"in 1978.
Over 11,000 years of human history pale to the ages 0ld paleontological resources.
Badland National Park contains the world`s richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds dating 23 to 35 million years old. The evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep,rhinoceros and the pig can be studied in the Badlands formation.
Here we are getting close to the Bad Lands
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Enterance To The Badlands
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