Cowboy Legacy & Western Ways

Cuny Table fascinates both the eye and the mind, a 15 mile long and 4 mile wide gently rolling mesa that rises nearly 300 feet above the floor of the South Dakota Badlands.  The edge, or “the wall”, of this mesa is a steeply creviced cliff, allowing only four natural access locations.  The Stronghold Table is a polyp-like plateau that connects to Cuny Table by a 35 foot narrow neck, measuring 50 feet long.  In all but a few places, “the wall” consists of pinnacle ridges and crevices, some of which drop 50 to 100 feet at a time.  Many head of livestock died when driven over the edge by a blizzard or hailstorm. The blue silhouette of the Black Hills paints the horizons, and sets the stage for some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets of South Dakota.  At mid-day in summer, the parched soil is a barren, unforgiving wasteland. At twilight, it becomes a fairyland of pastel pinks and purples.  In reality, it is a land sanctified by the blood, bones, spirits, and history of its People.