Descriptive Summary

Biographical Note

Charles Badger Clark was born New Year´s 1883 in Albia, Iowa. He grew up on a South Dakota Prairie homestead and latterly at Deadwood. He had a bout with TB at age 21 and had to spend 4 years in Arizona. Near Tombstone, on a ranch, he mixed his rest curing with cowboying. He liked the lifestyle, but in 1906 he received a letter that changed his life. His stepmother in Deadwood relayed the letter from Pacific Monthly to him. They said that they liked his poetry and that it was above the average and would be sending him a check. They sent him a check for $10; this was the changing point in his life and a start of a new career, composing poetry.

He never married. He died on September 27, 1957. He is buried in the cemetery at Hot Springs where he lived many years.

He graduated from Deadwood high school is 1902. His father was minister of the Methodist church in Deadwood. He worked on a newspaper in Lead, until the doctor sent him to Arizona. His last years, he spent in Custer State Park. He built the four-room cabin himself.

Scope and Contents

Certificate, articles, letters, graves registration, notice of Dakota History Conference, Request form, Christmas card, Black Hills History Scholarships at BHSC, Program of Black Hills History Conference, Announcement of Leland D. Case Award in Western History.

Related Material

Clark Photograph Collection; Wilson Photograph Collection; Bob Lee Photograph Collection

Preferred Citation

Badger Clark Papers, Leland D. Case Western Historical Studies

Processing Information

Dora Jones

Inventory

Certificate-1978, Articles about Badger Clark, Letters 1983, 1961, 1916, 1982, 1957, 1953, 1933. Graves registration project record of Charles Badger Clark, Notice of Dakota History Conference 1983, Request form for printed material, Christmas Card, 1983, Black Hills History Scholarship at BHSC, Program of tenth annual Black Hills History Conference, Announcement of Leland D. Case Award in Western History 1983.