 Location
The Black Hills rises from a sea of
grass encompassing the northern plains of South Dakota and Wyoming. The
Black Hills is a mountain range that could today have reached an elevation
of 15,000 feet, but the constant erosion of the soft oceans’ deposits
have left a range 7,200’ high. Along Interstate 90, Rapid City to
the south and Spearfish to the north, serve as gateways to this unique
outcropping of a black silhouette against the prairie sky.
The View
Spearfish Canyon is one of
the oldest and most miraculous canyons in the west. Located in the northern
portion of the Black Hills National Forest, the canyon spans 20-miles
along a scenic and unique State and National Scenic Byway. Less than a
mile wide, the canyon is always ‘close and upward’ dwarfing
the one-million annual visitors. Link
to Black Hills National Forest - USDA Forest Service.
Geology
Geologist point to the origin of
the canyon about 62-million years ago, but through repeated invasion
of shallow oceans and resulting
deposits, most of today’s gorge represents erosion activities
from nearly 5-million years ago. Geologists note that the canyon is
12-times
older than the Grand Canyon with rocks of similar age.
Ecology
Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s renowned organic architect,
proclaimed Spearfish Canyon as ‘the’ most magnificent canyon
in the west in his visit of 1935. He stated that had this canyon been
on the throughway to the west”, it would today be as appreciated
and recognized as the Grand Canyon. Much of its magnificence according
to Wright is the convergence of four vegetation communities amongst the
towering high walls and rushing waters of Spearfish Creek. Much of the
Canyon’s pristine ecology is contained in the seventeen isolated
side-gulches.
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