Charles Badger Clark, Jr. 1883-1957
Charles Badger Clark, Jr.
1883-1957
Badger Clark, poet, lecturer, and traveler, was South Dakota's Poet Laureate for twenty years. He came to Dakota Territory from Iowa with his family in 1883.
A lover of the outdoors, Clark reflected the cowboy's lifestyle in his more than two hundred poems and thirty short stories. His best-known poem, "A Cowboy's Prayer," was read into the Congressional Record twice, and his patriotic "Lead My America" was set to music.
Clark's affection for the Black Hills prompted his permanent settlement in Custer State Park in 1925. His hand-built cabin, called "Badger Hole," now belongs to the state.
A more detailed profile is printed in Volume 1 Number 2 of South Dakota History, the journal of the South Dakota State Historical Society.