Wind Cave National Park

A protected area in the Black Hills of South Dakota, centered on Wind Cave, a vast maze cave noted for its boxwork formations and unusual air currents.

Wind Cave: A maze cave in South Dakota known for extensive boxwork and air currents at its entrance. The cave is the park’s central geological feature and namesake.
Maze cave: A cave with an extensive network of intersecting passages and few simple routes through it. Wind Cave’s passages form one of the world’s most intricate maze-cave systems.
Lakota people: An Indigenous people of the Great Plains whose traditional homelands include the Black Hills. Lakota oral tradition describes the cave as a sacred place and an emergence site.
Cave surveying: The measurement and mapping of underground passages, rooms, and features. Surveying documents Wind Cave’s vast, continuing network of passages.
Garden of Eden: A decorated section of Wind Cave containing notable formations and cave passages. This named cave area illustrates the park’s subterranean scenery and guided-tour routes.
Boxwork: A cave formation of thin mineral blades projecting from a rock surface in intersecting patterns. Wind Cave contains one of the world’s largest and most studied displays of boxwork.
Cave air pressure: Differences between cave and outdoor air pressure that drive airflow through cave openings. Pressure changes explain the wind that moves in and out of Wind Cave’s entrance.
Jesse and Tom Bingham: Brothers credited with the 1881 discovery of Wind Cave’s entrance by European American settlers. Their encounter with the cave’s strong airflow brought it to wider public attention.
Speleology: The scientific study and exploration of caves and their environments. Wind Cave is a major site for cave exploration and scientific research.
Fairgrounds: A large, multi-level section of Wind Cave containing extensive passages and rooms. Its scale and complexity exemplify the cave system’s maze-like character.

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