Established January 3, 1903, Wind Cave is established as the country's eighth National Park and the first National Park in the world to recognize and protect a cave. Although it's one of the nation's oldest national parks, its relevance is much older. It is sacred to the Lakota people whose oral tradition acknowledges their arrival into this world through the cave.
Wind Cave is one of the longest and most complex caves in the world. It's named for the winds at his entrance, and it's home to boxwork, a unique formation rarely found elsewhere. The Lakota emergence story begins at a time when there were no people or bison living on the Earth. People at that time lived underground in the Spirit lodge and were commanded by the Creator to wait until the Earth was prepared for them to live on it.
People would need to take a passageway, a place where the earth breathes inside. The legend says some people were tricked into leaving the Spirit Lodge before the Earth was ready. When they realized they had been tricked, they fell to the ground and wept. The creator heard their cries and transformed them into the first bison herd. After time passed and the earth was finally ready for people to live upon it, the first people were led through the passageway in the cave and onto the surface of a new Earth. On the way, they paused to pray four times, stopping at the last entrance. On the surface, the people saw the hoof prints of a bison, and they were instructed to follow the herd. Everything they would need for survival in this new place would come from the bison.
When the people exited the cave crater shrunk the hole from the size of a man to the size. It is now much too small for most people to enter. This is a reminder to never forget the beginning of humanity today when Cave is managed by the National Park Service. And although the weather outside varies inside the cave, 54 degrees Fahrenheit.
Production assistance for this week in South Dakota. History comes from Brad Tennent, professor of history at Dakota Wesleyan University