A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles: Black Hills Tourism, 1880-1941 Suzanne Barta Julin. Print-version Price: $25.95 Cloth 280 pages 6 x 9 inches 20 b&w photographs, maps ISBN: 9780979894060 "This is an excellent, readable, well-researched work."—Montana, the Magazine of Western History Author Suzanne Julin Despite their isolated location on the edge of the Great Plains, the Black HIlls have become an important tourist destination over the past one hundred years. Suzanne Julin examines the early development of this phenomenon and the influences—political, local, and national—that helped create a prosperous tourist industry in the region between the 1880s and the start of World War II. Public policy and state and federal government actions promoted the Black Hills as the vanguard of both the mountain West and the Wild West and developed a national park, two national monuments, the largest state park in the country, and the iconic Mount Rushmore as methods to direct tourist traffic to the region. Julin argues that these promotional efforts affected more than just tourism; they helped form or change local trends and issues and established the identity of the region. A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles addresses the concerted efforts of governmental, quasi-governmental, and private groups to develop the tourist industry in the early twentieth century. While this book is specifically about the Black Hills, its larger themes pertain to the development of tourism as one of the most important industries in the modern United States. Suzanne Julin is an award-winning author born and raised in South Dakota. Read a blog post from Suzanne Julin about her experience publishing this book with the SDSHS Press. Listen to Suzanne Julin being interviewed by Paul Guggenheimer on South Dakota Public Radio. Click on the link to read reviews from LibraryThing.com. "The book's visual content is terrific and makes for a splendid visual document as well as an engrossing read."—LibraryThing.com Seth Tupper reviews this book on his South Dakota-themed blog. The Bismarck Tribune has written a review of Julin's book. A Marvelous Hundred Square Miles "is both substantial and enjoyable."—Pure Pierre Politics blog, Bob Mercer Read all of Bob Mercer's review by clicking here.