title: Goodlands: A Meditation and History on the Great Plains (The West Unbound-social and Cultural Studies)
author:  Frances W. Kaye 
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  HOUR OF CONFLICT
  
    
  
  By: Don Pendleton
  
    
  
  CHAPTER 1
  
    
  
  You can never tell about the Badlands.
  
    
  
  They received that nickname for a reason, after all, long years ago when
  travelers were heading west in wagon trains. Those early wayfarers saw
  something in the region that repelled and frightened them, something beyond
  the simple scarcity of water during summer months or the inherent risk of
  clashes with marauding native warriors.
  
    
  
  There was something else.
  
    
  
  It seemed to be the kind of land where God-fearing boys went bad somehow,
  turned to drinking whiskey, rustling cattle or robbing stages for the hell of
  it.
  
    
  
  Some of their sisters ran away to Kansas City or Chicago or St. Louis, and
  pursued the kind of life their parents wouldn't talk about. The Badlands were
  a breeding ground for outlaws and a refuge for the damned.
  
    
  
  It takes some time for history to come full circle, but she always gets there
  in the end.
  
    
  
  The target was in Rosebu