Badlands National Park : Ask Biography

Protected area information

Name

Badlands National Park

IUCN Category

Location

Jackson, Pennington, and Shannon counties, South Dakota, U.S.

Nearest city

Rapid City, South Dakota

Area

244000 acre

Established

January 29, 1939 as a National Monument
November 10, 1978 as a National Park

Visitors

977778 (2010)

Governing body

National Park Service

Home | Protected Area | Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota, United States preserves 244000 acre of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States.

The Badlands Wilderness protects 64144 acre (25958.2 ha) 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 Lakota tribe and includes sites of 1890s Ghost Dances, a former United States Air Force bomb and gunnery range, and Red Shirt Table, the park's highest point at 3340 ft (1351.7 ha).

Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was not established until January 25, 1939. Under the Mission 66 plan, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was constructed for the monument in 1957-58.

It was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978. The park also administers the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.