National Parks:
Wind Cave National Park

Hot Springs, South Dakota -- Wind Cave National Park protects the most complex three-dimensional maze cave in the world. Wind Cave's 111 miles of known passages are filled with incredible displays of boxwork, honeycombed shaped calcite formations adorning the walls and ceilings. The park's 28,295 surface acres are a combination of rolling mixed-grass prairie and ponderosa pine forest and are home to such animals as bison, elk, pronghorn, and deer. The park has over 68 known archeology sites and 21 structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

DID YOU KNOW

• Created by President Theodore Roosevelt on January 9, 1903, it marked the first national park created to protect a cave.
• The park's mixed-grass prairie supports one of the most genetically diverse bison herds in the country.
• Wind Cave is the sixth longest cave in the world and has the world's best example of a formation called boxwork.
• Annual park visitation is approximately 800,000 of which 90,000 tour the cave.
• Wind Cave National Park's operating budget for fiscal year 2004 is $2.03 million.
• It is estimated that only 5 percent of the total cave has been explored.

DON'T MISS ATTRACTIONS

• The Wind Cave Visitor Center houses exhibits on early cave exploration, cave geology, and park wildlife. A twenty-minute video details the critical connection between the prairie and cave ecosystems.
• Cave tours are offered daily throughout the year with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. For more information on tour times, visit the park website or contact the park for current tour information.
• Explore the backcountry by hiking the numerous trails in the park. The trails range in difficulty from easy to strenuous and allow visitors to view breathtaking vistas and park wildlife.
• Wildlife watching is a favorite activity of park visitors. Numerous pullouts are found along park highways allowing visitors to view wildlife, including bison, elk, pronghorn, mule deer, and prairie dogs. Many of the pullouts offer interpretive signs about the park's plants and animals.
• Interpretive programs are offered throughout the year. Most programs are offered during the summer months between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. For a complete listing of park programs, visit the park website.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PRIORITIES

To protect Wind Cave, the National Park Service is replacing asphalt in the existing parking lot with concrete. This will prevent hydrocarbons in the asphalt from leaching into the cave below. This backlog maintenance project will also install a storm water treatment system to capture and treat fuel spills, and other contaminated parking lot run-off, keeping such pollutants from finding their way into the cave.

In 2003, Wind Cave National Park celebrated its centennial year. The park's establishment stopped the practice of selling cave formations and led to the creation of the Wind Cave National Game Preserve. Later made part of the park, the game preserve provided a habitat for bison that were near extinction at the time.

Source: National Park Service