Badlands National Park (Courtesy NPS) |
Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands National Park is a United States national park that consists of 379 mi² (987 km²) of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. The Badlands Wilderness Area protects 64,000 acres (259 km²) of the park as a designated wilderness area and is the site of the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret, the most endangered land mammal in North America. The Stronghold Unit is co-managed with the Oglala Sioux tribe and includes sites of 1890s Ghost Dances. Established as Badlands National Monument on January 25, 1939, the area was redesignated as a national park in 1978. Over 11,000 years of human history in the park pales in comparison to the ages-old paleontological resources also found there.
Badlands National Park contains the world's richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 million years old. Scientists can study the evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig in the Badlands formations.
Erosional features at Badlands NP
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