Establishment of Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park in South Dakota protects a striking landscape of eroded buttes, pinnacles and canyons, together with the largest protected mixed-grass prairie in the United States. It was first set aside as a national monument, and upgraded to a national park in the late twentieth century. The rock layers preserve a remarkable fossil record of the Oligocene epoch, with the remains of ancient mammals such as early rhinoceroses, horses and sabre-toothed cats. The area is part of the traditional homeland of the Lakota people, and part of the park lies within the Pine Ridge Reservation. Wildlife includes bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs and the reintroduced black-footed ferret.

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