Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota was established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Although we were unable to see the caves, we did drive through the park and admire the rolling hills and numerous bison along the way. The park protects the country’s largest remaining natural mixed-grass prairie.
The park is named for the famous Wind Cave, notable for containing 95% of the world’s boxwork formations and is considered the densest cave system in the world. It is also one of the longest caves in the world, measuring nearly 150 miles. The Lakota people described a hole that blew air, and deemed it a sacred site where they first emerged from the underworld. The air that blows in and out of the cave is due to air equalizing the atmospheric pressure of the caves with the outside air.
