South Dakota. South Dakota is located in the northern part of the mid-western states. It lies about 250 miles south of the Canadian border surrounded by Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. The state is bisected by the Missouri River running north to south.
South Dakota is large, sparsely populated and seldom visited by many tourists. It gained a reputation as “the wild west” during the frontier days of the nineteenth century when many fortune seekers flocked to this beautiful land in search of gold. They established many mining towns in the Black Hills area. The most famous of these frontier towns is Deadwood. Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday are just a few of the people that helped give Deadwood its infamous reputation as a wild western town. Today, many of the saloons and shops in Deadwood have been restored to the wild west era. It has now become a popular tourist destination for shopping, gambling and sightseeing.
East of the Missouri, the state is extremely flat with endless grasslands and gently rolling prairies. One can easily imagine millions of giant buffalo roaming these great plains in endless herds. This used to be the fertile hunting ground of the Dakota, also known as the Lakota, the Nakota or the Sioux. The movie “Dances with Wolves” was filmed entirely in South Dakota.
Badlands National Park
Many South Dakota attractions are concentrated on the western border of the state. Badlands National Park contains many spectacular rock formations and is full of wildlife like bison, coyote, prairie dogs and antelope. In the nearby Black Hills, Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument contain many wonderful rock formations and can be toured. Custer State Park has the largest bison herd in the US with over 1500 animals. They and many other animals can be viewed from a scenic drive.
To the west of the river, the land becomes hilly and interspersed with dramatic buttes. On the western edge of the state, The Black Hills rise dramatically out of the plains as an isolated mountain range. Southeast of them lies the fabulously eroded landscape known as the Badlands.
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