Newly plowed sod marks the beginning of a farm in 1911 northwest of Interior near the badlands wall.] [Illustration: Figure 11 GOOD GIRLS IN BAD LANDS S. D. Some Badlands homesteaders lived first in dugouts similar to the one belonging to the Josh Sullivan family as shown on this postcard mailed in 1909. It was located one half mile south of the present national monument boundary just off the Cedar Pass-Interior highway.[62]] [Illustration: Figure 12 Lumber to build the Louis J. Jensen home, located just west of the Badlands, was hauled by rail from the Black Hills to Wall, South Dakota. Taken in 1908, this photograph represents a typical house of the Badlands homesteading era.[68]] From 1900 to 1905 the population in western South Dakota increased from 43,782 to 57,575; by 1910 it was 137,687.[64] From 1910 to 1930 it continued to increase, but at a slower pace. In the decade following 1910 the population of Pennington County increased slightly from 12,453 to 12,720; by 1930 it was 20,079. In Jackson County, which contained no urban centers, the increase was much smaller. From 1920 to 1930 (no figures are available for 1910 to 1920) the population went from 2,472 to 2,636.[65] For a comparison with recent trends, the populations of Jackson and Pennington counties in 1960 were 1,985 and 58,195 respectively.[66] (The western or 87 percent of the present Badlands National Monument is located in Pennington County; the eastern section is in Jackson County.) Between 1910 and 1920, increasing amounts of land in western South Dakota passed out of the public domain and into private ownership. Encouraged by the high prices for farm and ranch products resulting from World War I, many farmers and ranchers took advantage of the liberalized homestead acts. By 1922 less than half of the land which was later included in Badlands National Monument was publicly owned.[67] LEGISLATION FOR PARK ESTABLISHMENT Stimulated in part by various individuals and groups, the South Dakota Legislature in 1909 petitioned the federal government to establish a township of Badlands as a national park. As read before both houses of Congress on March 16, 1909, the petition stated in part: Whereas there is a small section of country about the headwaters of the White River in South Dakota where nature has carved the surface of the earth into most unique and interesting forms, and has exposed to an extent perhaps not elsewhere found; and Whereas this formation is so unique, picturesque, and valuable for the purpose of study that a portion of it should be retained in its native state....[69] However, no legislation was introduced on the proposal until more than a decade later.