Badlands National Park
, located in South Dakota, contains over 244,000 acres of land. Most visitors come in the months of June through August. The landscape is a mixture of peaks, gullies and wide prairies. The earliest people known to come to this area were hunters.
History
The Badlands was declared a national monument by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1929 to protect the land and resources. In the 1960s, over 130,000 acres owned by the Ogala Sioux Indians was set up to be managed by the National Park Service. It was made a national park in 1978 by Congress.
Time Frame
The earliest people in the area were mammoth hunters and nomadic tribes. The first tribe to have inhabited the White River area hunted bison. They were followed by fur trappers, soldiers, miners and cattle farmers.
Function
Bison were replaced by cattle in the Badlands, and wheat fields eventually replaced the prairies where farming took place. The Pine Ridge Reservation, which makes up 50 percent of the Badlands, is where the Lakota Indians live.
Features
Early fossil hunters came to the Badlands in between 1840 and 1860. They marked the beginning of the study of vertebrae paleontology, or fossils. The Badlands Park provides education in four areas: fossil study, geology, prairie land study and history.
Identification
The White River of the Badlands contributed to the study of fossils. It has one of the oldest fossil beds, dating back 23 to 35 million years. The evolution of some animals can be studied in the Badlands rock formations.
Tags: National Park, area were, Badlands National, Badlands National Park, earliest people
