Perhaps the most noteworthy as well as view-worthy section of the Badlands is Sheep Mountain, located at the far west end of the Monument. Down from the summit runs a great canyon, the School of Mines Canyon, named for the fact that the South Dakota State School of Mines at Rapid City long ago chose that location for the bulk of its paleontological research. Under the guidance of famed Dr. Cleophas O’Harra, for many years president of that institution, groups of Mines students went on extended annual encampments on Sheep Mountain, unearthing, among other rarities, full skeletons of the prehistoric midget horse, the saber-toothed tiger, and camels. It was this last discovery that lent considerable support to the concept, conjectural at the time of Dr. O’Harra’s discoveries, that a land bridge had once connected North America and Asia, allowing the migration of peoples and animals from the old world into the new. School of Mines Canyon, while some distance off the main highway leading from Pierre to the Black Hills, is by all means worth the time required to visit it. The canyon lies only thirteen miles from the town of Scenic. The Badlands are reached by Highway 14-16 and by State Route 40. Coming from the west, from Rapid City, the visitor can take route 40 directly to the town of Scenic, forty-seven miles distant. From Scenic, in addition to connecting with the side trip to Sheep Mountain, 40 continues along the north wall of the Badlands all the way to Cedar Pass and out the east end of the region, merging at Kadoka with Highway 16, or, by means of a nine-mile connection, with 14. Should the weather be bad and State 40 not recommended by local informers, the route is out of Rapid City on 14-16, east fifty-five miles to the town of Wall, thence by the access road through the Pinnacles, down into the Badlands halfway between Scenic and Cedar Pass, and joining State 40. From the east, Highway 16 goes through Kadoka, from which town State 40 should be taken, leading in through Cedar Pass, and out either through Scenic and on to Rapid City, or at the Pinnacles, through Wall and back on 14-16. Coming from Pierre on 14, the tourist must leave that highway a few miles beyond the town of Philip and make the nine-mile detour on 16 to Kadoka, from there going on to Cedar Pass as described. Several railroads serve the Badlands and its general region, notably the Chicago & Northwestern, the Burlington, and the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul. This last road, the “Milwaukee,” offers the traveler the best view of the region, winding up the White River Valley the entire sixty-five miles between Kadoka and Scenic, and providing the passenger with unparalleled if hasty views of some of the most rugged and isolated portions of all the area. Bibliography