A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles: Black Hills Tourism, 1880-1941 (2009)

Repost of an earlier review accidentally deleted:

The book has a very limited scope, being focussed solely on the Black Hills area of South Dakota before the USA’s entrance into the Second World War; with such a narrow focus it is curious that there is a simple assumption that the reader knows about the area of interest, many of the personalities, the specialised knowledge that ought to be explained before beginning the history. To that end, a map of the Black Hills would have been useful, locating them within the United States; there is a small and not terribly good map showing the location within South Dakota and Wyoming, and placing some of the points of interest within the Hills, the eponymous hundred square mile, but i found it curiously unuseful as a reference, being little more than blobs of colour with a few circles and squiggles as towns and roads. One may argue, saying that any map could be described that way; i merely point to the difference between these two and any production of the Ordnance Survey.

Unfortunately, the quality of writing seems to be of a similar calibre, giving the information promised in the subtitle, but with little of the flair or style which a skilled historical author might have brought to it. (Disclosure: The book may be suffering by comparison, as i am also currently reading Frank Stenton’s volume of the Oxford History of England, Anglo-Saxon England, which is brilliant.)

Complete review at http://rhydypennau.blogspot.com/2009/12/early-review.html

I've spent time in the Black Hills on a few different occasions and I love the history and the landscapes of the area. As such I was looking forward to learning more about the area and how it was started, but I was disappointed in the layout and the writing style of the book. While it is evident that the author has a great passion and knowledge of the area, she lacked a good editor to make the book readable.

It is evident from the beginning that the author has a passion for the area and is extremely knowledgeable about how it came into being. From the introduction I had hopes that it would read more like a travelogue taking the reader on a journey into the areas past and letting us into the hidden details. And although the information is solid, the book doesn't read that way at all. In fact its often downright confusing. Within one chapter we're reading about tourism, but in the span of four pages we start at 1897 go to 1913, then jump back to 1911 and introduced to even more people. There are no clear delineations to help the reader focus on one time period or one area within the chapter and it's very difficult to keep up with what area you're in.

The overall information and photographs used within the book however are fairly solid (she does gloss over the fact that Mt. Rushmore's land was essentially stolen from the Native Americans and was sacred land to them). It's a useful book if someone is writing a history paper on the area or has specific facets of information that they are looking up, not so much for a pleasure read. ( )

This was very informative, a touch dry, but not bad. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the history of the Black Hills or tourism in general. I grew up a couple hours from the Black Hills and it was interesting to see how certain attractions had developed over the years. I'd definitely be interested in a book continuing the post-WWII development of Black Hills tourism. ( )

This book offers a fascinating insight into the history of tourism and of national parks. Despite having read a little on these subjects previously, it wasn't until I read this book that I appreciated just how much of a construct tourism is, despite the apparent arbitrariness of the development of some of the Black Hills sites, where conflicts over land ownership and use were rife in the early days. As a British reader, I don't know the history of the region well, so the significance of some of the historical figures is rather lost on me, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless. It is well-written and elegantly presented, and the period photographs are fascinating. ( )

The growth of tourism in Black Hills, South Dakota and the people from the state to promote the tourist industry that includes many very nice early black & white photos of the area. Would have loved to see the same sites with color photos of today’s time frame included in the book to compare to the black & white's photos included in the book. Overall, a very nice read! ( )

Though I was initially very intrigued to read this book, I found the very specific timeframe focus to be a bit constraining. I enjoyed learning about the development of the natural resources as tourist attractions and the conflict that followed, but I would have appreciated the book more had its focus been broader. Nonetheless, I found this book very well-written and some parts were particularly compelling. ( )

In this workmanlike but pleasant book, Julin looks at the early years of Black Hills tourism. She challenges the notion that tourism is something negative imposed from without, arguing instead that the development of tourism in the Black Hills was a in integral part of the region's evolving identity. She points to three key factors in the development of this industry - the spread of automobile-based recreation, the efforts of local and state interests, and federal agencies. The combination, she argues, has produced a regional identity that is bound up with tourism, an identity that is not damaged by the industry but which was shaped by it almost from the beginning.

This book probably is of most interest to scholars in tourism history, fans of the Black Hills, and people interested in the early twentieth century. The numerous photographs make this an enjoyable book to flip through, and the extensive notes and references provide jumping off points for further exploration. ( )

During Suzanne B. Julin's first visit to the Black Hills as a girl of eleven, she began to ponder the wide appeal of that section of South Dakota while the rest of the state remains little known and sparsely populated. Many decades later she has developed her ideas in this book, A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles: Black Hills Tourism, 1880-1941. Julin lays out the developments of the period that helped make the Black Hills such a popular tourist destination. Julin covers the myriad factors (e.g., public policy, federal funds, promotional efforts, newly developed parks and monuments) that came into play in creating the Black Hills as we know it today. One of the book's best features is the numerous primary source pictures that she incorporates.

In the final chapter, "Tourism, Culture, and Society," Julin works to relate the development of Black Hills tourism to the expansion of the tourism industry in general, but most of the book dives deeply into the Black Hills of South Dakota. This is the intent and this is well done, but, as such, the book may have a somewhat limited audience. Having grown up in South Dakota and been a Black Hills tourist many times myself, I enjoyed reading the history of the region. However, those who don't have ties to the area (or have an avid interest in the history of US tourism), will likely find the book to be a little dry. Still, it's got awesome pictures and a great deal of historical information, and those who have visited the area will be able to find something to appreciate. ( )

One of the things I like to do in my reading is to occasionally pick up a non-fiction book about something almost completely random. This practice enables me to learn something about stuff outside my normal range of intellectual curiosity. The last week or so I read A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles published by the South Dakota Historical Society about Black Hills tourism in the early part of the last century. When the book showed up on LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, I requested the book precisely because it seemed outside of my normal interests, but still possibly filling in lots of useless bits of knowledge.

Both my grandfather’s and my stepfather’s families hail from the Dakotas. However, I’ve only visited a half dozen times, all when I was fairly young. On one trip, my family first visited southern California where some of mom’s high school classmates lived. Then we drove "diagonally" to Bismarck where dad’s family lived. Only three things remain of my memories of that leg of the trip: a bit of camping near St. George Utah, camping on top of a mesa in western Colorado, and seeing Mount Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills.

Mount Rushmore is certainly very memorable, and the entrepreneurs of South Dakota designed it, and quite a bit of their whole economy, in an attempt to get people to come to the area and spend money. As soon as the gold rush waned after 1876, folks saw the possibilities of bringing in outside money in addition to their mining, ranching, and forestry interests. The scenic landscape provides a natural draw, and local hot springs were an initial impetus to get health minded tourists to come.

Julin’s book tells the history of the growth of the industry from 1880 until World War II. A large portion of her history concerns Peter Norbeck, state legislator, governor, and U.S. senator. At each level he championed Black Hills tourism, primarily Custer State Park, but also nearby national parks and monuments. But in addition to being a champion of public lands, he micro-managed these lands. He maneuvered to see that people he approved got the jobs running the parks, and not just for patronage reasons. Norbeck had an aesthetic in mind and he wanted like-minded people implementing it. So when he thought burros would be a bonus for the parks, all he had to do was let his hand-picked people know. From World War I until the Great Depression, Norbeck was the driving force behind Custer State Park.

A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles focuses mostly on the movers and shakers as well as the business owners and entrepreneurs. The politicians who feuded over visions of the Black Hills. The towns competing for tourist dollars who would remove other towns road signs. The hucksters and Native American tribes that sold phony and simulated experiences to eager middle-class white people.

I also quite enjoyed the numerous photographs included. I believe all of them are from the period. I’m particularly taken with photos of the landscape as well as photos of the tourists who came to the Black Hills. While most of them are of the stiff overly-posed variety that was required by photographic equipment and then contemporary style, they still give a really view into just what the experience might have been like at the time. A picture is worth a thousand words and all that.

A couple things I felt were missing though. I never got a sense that I understood how the regular people, those not involved in building the tourist economy felt and lived through it. Those who worked as ranchers or mere workers. But more importantly, the experience of the actual tourists really felt like it was missing from this story. They come into the narrative mostly in the context of being sold the Black Hills, not so much as how they experienced it themselves. What was a day trip to the Black Hills like? How did a tourist experience Wind Cave? Why would they come to Rapid City rather than Deadwood? Sometimes the questions are touched on, but mostly so far as how the entrepreneurs catered to these choices.

I’m not too surprised those were missing though. Julin wrote her graduate school thesis about the political foundations of tourism development in the Black Hills. This appears to be the book version of that; the politics is much more heavily covered than anything else.

This well-written history will appeal to folks who already have an inclination for the subject matter, or for those who like me get into random curiosities. I enjoyed reading it. Pretty awesome stuff, particularly the photos. But for a random person, I don’t think there’s enough to grab them if they aren’t already gravitating toward the subject.

Review also published at my blog: http://reading.kingrat.biz/reviews/marvelous-hundred-square-miles-suzanne-barta-... ( )