South Dakota’s surface geology is among the simplest of the fifty states. The state generally slopes from the northwest corner diagonally towards the southeast corner, basically following the Missouri River towards the Gulf of Mexico. The Missouri River divides South Dakota into two great regions, eastern South Dakota and the “West River country.”
Eastern South Dakota
The Central Lowlands stretch across the Midwest, from Indiana across Iowa and Minnesota and into eastern South Dakota. Eastern South Dakota is the entire region east of the Missouri River. This is where the state’s most fertile farms and largest city, Sioux Falls, are located.
West River Country
West of the Missouri River, the climate is a little more arid, the grasses a little shorter. This is a region of rolling hills and cattle ranches, punctuated here and there with stone-capped buttes. Geographers call it the Great Plains, while South Dakotans often refer to it as the “West River Country.”
The Badlands
In the Great Plains, areas that have been seriously eroded are often called “badlands.” The most famous badlands is located along the mud-choked White River in western South Dakota. This region was generally avoided by Indians and settlers. However, hardy explorers who ventured into the Badlands were astonished at the fossils that lie strewn about the barren landscape.
Today, the White River Badlands (“The Badlands” to South Dakotans) are known as Badlands National Park to the many visitors who pass by each summer. One of the world’s great fossil sites, it’s also famed for its eerie beauty.
The Black Hills
In far western South Dakota are the Black Hills, forested granite mountains that rise like an island from the Great Plains. At 7,242 feet, Harney Peak is the highest point in North America east of the Rocky Mountains.
Life-sized dinosaur statues standing on a hill in Rapid City’s Dinosaur Park remind tourists from the East that they have entered dinosaur country.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - 
