The Spearfish Canyon State and Forest Scenic Byway runs for 22 miles through Spearfish Canyon, which was chosen as a Scenic Byway because it embodies four of the six qualities required for that distinction: scenery, history, nature, and recreation. In a September 28, 1935 letter, architect Frank Lloyd Wright praised the canyon’s vast and richly decorated walls. Picnic areas were built throughout the canyon by the Homestake Mining Company in the early 1900s as tourist attractions along Spearfish Creek. Early Native American groups traveled there for hunting, gathering native plants, and fishing, and many people continued to visit for those purposes as the canyon opened to modern use first by railroads and then by automobiles. From Native American groups to miners, early pioneers, local residents, and Forest visitors, people have long sought there the same solitude and abundant natural resources. The natural resources of Spearfish Creek support a special variety of plant and animal habitat in the canyon, and fishing has been a popular pastime there for centuries.