Travel Guide Wind Cave National Park

16 km north of Hot Springs, this impressive cave, the "Wind Cave", was erected in a national park because of its geological specificities. It is known above all for an amazing mineral structure, boxworks, or "speleogen." These boxworks are a mineral ceiling of calcite, very tormented, formed by erosion, which gives the impression that the mineral slab was laced with knife. 95% of boxworks discovered around the world are found in the Wind Cave cave.The cave was discovered because its hole scattered a pronounced wind, hence its name. It is located in a prairie environment where bison and prairie dogs live. It is the fifth largest cave in the world (219.76 km 2 discovered) and one with the largest volume of passage.GeologyThe Madison limestone rocks that shelter Wind Cave are over 300 million years old. The slow drainage of water in the cave began 40 to 50 million years ago, making it one of the oldest caves in the world. Apart from seniority, other features make it a unique cave. On the edges of the former gypsum present in irregular masses, cracks emerged where limestone dissolved leaving a dramatic relief of crystals called ╚ boxworks. Large and extremely complex, 81 ¾ km on some 1 ¥ 000 m ², Wind Cave has undergone many geological changes and the process continues. Geologists still ask about many unanswered questions. Perhaps over time, they can understand the incredible wealth of this underground world. The guided (and paid) tour allows you to appreciate the progress of the research. To the north of the park are the oldest rocks, metamorphic shale and eruptive pegmatites giving, in places, these characteristic needles.HistoryOn January 3, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill on the creation of the Wind Cave National Park. This is the seventh national park, but the first one created to protect a cave. The exploration of this cave, considered sacred by the Indians, began in 1881. One morning of that same year, a strange whistle draws the attention of the pioneer Tom Bingham, who tramples around the deer. Looking at the brush around, the hunter finds a small opening in the rocks where the air comes out with such a force that it breathes its hat. It was only eleven years later that Jesse McDonald, a foreman in a mine, was passionate about the place. He quit his job to create "The Company for the Improvement of the Wonderful Wind Cave". He will devote the rest of his life to this mysterious site, without ever being able to define the limits. When he died his wife would bury him at the entrance to the cave. Later, the employees of the Military Conservation Corps (CCC) performed a huge job, including roads and trails, and installing the first lighting system. Today visitors discover tens of kilometers of passages and underground rooms, remarkable for their special formations of calcite resembling a bee nest.ClimateIn winter, January is traditionally the coldest, but it is often March that brings the most snow (on average, every year about 75 centimeters). Spring has strong winds. May is rainy (7 ½ cm on average). In summer storms can be violent, particularly in June and July.In the fall, the days are warm and the nights are fresh.NatureWind Cave Park offers an excellent example of mixed grass, mixed grass and short grass. The grassland is not only appreciated for its biodiversity, it is also for its natural beauty, with a wide variety of delicate, endangered flowers. This beautiful space is complemented, on its heights, by a forest of ponderosa pine trees. 25% of the park is covered with trees, with scattered aspen groves, oak trees, orms, birches.Small mammals, such as porcupine, red squirrel, beaver, prairie dog, are safe. Among the large mammals, except bison whose preservation began here, in this park, in 1912, there are also elites and deer. The pronghorn antilope, seriously threatened at the beginning of the century, was reintroduced into the park along with bison, as did elk (the second largest deer in the world after the pulse). Unlike the bison that quickly became accustomed to eating grass grass from the prairie of Wind Cave, the pronghorn antilope, more sensitive to harsh winters, disease and stress, could not adapt. Several predators are currently living in the park, wild cats, eagles, cougars, but the coyote is the one most easily observed, especially in the morning, or at sunset. The most sociable and friendliest of the residents is undoubtedly the prairie dog, a rodent belonging to the family of squirrels. Other animals are visible in their territory, such as snakes, including bell snakes, using abandoned burrows, burrowing owls and, why not, owl. Grassland cradle is a dangerous predator for all rodents.