Today we continue to serialize A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles: Black Hills Tourism, 1880-1941 by Suzanne Julin and published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.
The conflict over the ownership of Wind Cave may have given impetus to its becoming a national park. In 1896, the Hot Springs Star noted that as long as the McDonald family continued to operate the cave, it could not reach its potential of drawing tourists. S. E. Wilson, a Hot Springs attorney, and Eben W. Martin, a congressman from Deadwood who owned property in Hot Springs, exerted political pressure on the federal government to take the cave out of private hands. At one point, Martin suggested that the area be incorporated into the newly designated national forest. Later, Martin supported the establishment of a national park and complimented the secretary of the interior’s office for saving the property from the “individuals and companies” who were trying to gain title to it.
In January 1900, the secretary of the interior authorized the temporary withdrawal of Wind Cave-area lands from settlement, pending a decision to make the site a national park. Additional withdrawals were made over the following two years. Early in 1902, Senator Robert Gamble of South Dakota and Representative John F. Lacey of Iowa introduced bills to establish Wind Cave National Park, making it one of the earliest national parks. Gamble’s bill passed the Senate and the House with little discussion, and Theodore Roosevelt signed the law early in 1903. Perceived scientific values of the cave strengthened arguments for creating a national park, but its importance as a tourist attraction also played a role. The legislation authorized the secretary of the interior to lease the cave and surface areas of land for development of tourist amenities, with the funds from such leases supporting park maintenance and improvements.
Those improvements were slow in coming to Wind Cave National Park. Congress, the Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service took few steps to further the development of the site during its first quarter century of existence. Congressional appropriations were small, although in 1912 that body provided funds for the establishment of a game reserve at Wind Cave, to be administered by the newly created United States Biological Survey. The park’s first superintendent, William Rankin, reported that Wind Cave’s facilities included a log house at the entrance to the cave, a ramshackle hotel, and a few outbuildings for livestock. Poor roads and four unsafe bridges completed the park’s infrastructure. Perhaps to supplement his salary, Rankin gave his wife a permit to sell lunches to tourists, and she used the otherwise abandoned hotel as a dining room and shelter. Rankin directed some further exploration of the cave, erected fences, made minor repairs, and, in 1905, constructed a superintendent’s residence. The dearth of financial support precluded more than these minimal improvements, and local controversies about services and facilities at the cave continued to simmer.
