The great prairie grasslands once covered North America like a whispering blanket a million square miles wide, home to bison, elk, and dozens of Native American tribes. So it was for thousands of years, but in 1862 the Homestead Act granted heads of households the right to claim tracts of government-owned land as their own, provided they settle it, cultivated it, and stayed for at least five years. Almost 6 million settlers headed west, intent on transforming the prairie into farmland. What they didn’t know was that the grass, sometimes growing as high as 8 feet, was what protected the fertile topsoil from the prairie winds. Once they dry winds began to blow, they took the soil with them, leading to the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. By then, the great buffalo herds that had sustained Plains Indians were gone, victims of a planned campaign of extermination. The sea grass, which had seemed limitless and eternal to Indians and explorers alike, was almost completely gone.
Fortunately, beginning in 1933, the federal government began buying and restoring damaged prairie lands, and in 1960 Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson established a system of national grasslands. There are now almost 4 million acres of intermingled public and private lands in 20 states. The largest and most ecologically diverse – the million-acre Little Missouri National Grassland – is located in western North Dakota.
The Little Missouri Grassland surrounds the Theodore Roosevelt National Park encompassing rolling mixed-grass prairie, stark canyons and buttes, and stands of forest. Antelope, deer, cayotes, bighorn sheep, and buffalo make their home here, along with myriad birds and grazing cattle. Visitors come to hike, camp, and explore the Medora Ranger District, which includes the national park’s South Unit. More adventurous souls hike, ride horseback or mountainbike along the 96-mile MaahDaah Hey Trail, which connects the South Unit with the North and is the longest continuous single-track mountain bike ride in the country, and one of the best. In the Mandan Indian language maah daah hey means “a venerable place,” entirely appropriate to the Badlands and the prairie landscape. The route winds from Sully Creek State Park to the edge of the national park’s North Unit, at elevations of 2,000 to 2,700 feet.
It is the beauty of this place that defines that North Dakota has all its best to give.
Fortunately, beginning in 1933, the federal government began buying and restoring damaged prairie lands, and in 1960 Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson established a system of national grasslands. There are now almost 4 million acres of intermingled public and private lands in 20 states. The largest and most ecologically diverse – the million-acre Little Missouri National Grassland – is located in western North Dakota.
The Little Missouri Grassland surrounds the Theodore Roosevelt National Park encompassing rolling mixed-grass prairie, stark canyons and buttes, and stands of forest. Antelope, deer, cayotes, bighorn sheep, and buffalo make their home here, along with myriad birds and grazing cattle. Visitors come to hike, camp, and explore the Medora Ranger District, which includes the national park’s South Unit. More adventurous souls hike, ride horseback or mountainbike along the 96-mile MaahDaah Hey Trail, which connects the South Unit with the North and is the longest continuous single-track mountain bike ride in the country, and one of the best. In the Mandan Indian language maah daah hey means “a venerable place,” entirely appropriate to the Badlands and the prairie landscape. The route winds from Sully Creek State Park to the edge of the national park’s North Unit, at elevations of 2,000 to 2,700 feet.
It is the beauty of this place that defines that North Dakota has all its best to give.
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