15The Black Hills are located about 640 km (about 400 miles) due west of Brookings
and SDSU (fig. 2.1). Because many of my initial research proj ects were focused in the
Black Hills, most of my trips to visit students combined business and plea sure. My wife,
Gail, survived shut tles of students to the Black Hills, meetings with state officials or
with foundations where I was serving as a committee member, or just the reschedul-
ing of a recreational adventure that was delayed owing to proj ect needs. There were
times when meetings developed just because I happened to be “in the area.” In one
instance, we transported a student from Brookings to Rapid City, where she stayed
with another student while finding a place to live and assembling survey equipment
stored at the Rapid City office of the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and
Parks. After completing the transfer, we traveled to the middle of the Black Hills
and spent a few enjoyable days camping, hiking, and fishing at Deerfield Lake. On an-
other occasion, we brought two of our grandchildren with us to introduce them to
the region. While I attended a Proj ect Advisory Committee Meeting for the Rocky
Mountain Elk Foundation, they experienced some of the commercial venues (such as
Reptile Gardens) that are found just outside of Rapid City.
The trip from Brookings to the Black Hills generally takes about six hours, as the
Black Hills region straddles west- central South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming.
Geologists consider the range an eastern extension of the Rocky Mountains and, as
such, one of the oldest mountainous regions in North Amer i ca, if not the oldest
(Froiland 1990). The region is elliptically shaped and oriented in a north- south direc-
tion. One reason the Black Hills were left unexplored until Custer’s 1874 reconnais-
sance of the region was that, in the Treaty of 1851, the lands surrounding the range
had been ceded to the Sioux Nation, who referred to the region as “Paha Sapa.” After
the reconnaissance, with the signing of the Treaty of 1876, the Sioux relinquished claim
CHAPTER 2