Wind Cave and the emergence

One of the longest and densest cave systems in the world, packed with boxwork, a honeycomb of thin calcite fins found almost nowhere else in this quantity. The cave breathes: air rushes in or out of the small natural entrance as the pressure outside changes, which is how it was found in 1881. To the Lakota this opening is Maka Oniye, the breathing earth, and the place where the Buffalo Nation and the people first emerged into this world; it is sacred ground and the park works with the Oglala on how it is presented. PUBLIC national park, tours only.