Wind Cave National Park preserves a fragment of an endangered ecosystem, a remnant of the native grasslands that once stretched from Indiana to the Rocky Mountains and from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. In fewer than 100 years, the Great Plains became known as America's breadbasket as settlers turned fertile prairie lands into fields of corn, wheat, and other crops. Vast expanses of prairie also disappeared with the building of railroads, highways, cities, and suburbs. Protected here are nearly 20,000 acres of mixed-grass prairie, a landscape of eastern tall grasses and western short grasses that provides a refuge for a rich diversity of wildlife.

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Buffalo Gap, South Dakota · USA