6 Facts of Badlands National Park, South Dakota
The Badlands National Park is situated in South Dakota while having some dramatic and out the world landscapes. The landscape span over a large area with rock formations, steep canyons, and towering spires.
The Badlands were covered by a shallow sea when they first started forming 75 million years ago. As the water receded, it left behind sediment (grains of clay, sand, or silt) that helped form the plateaus and pinnacles that make up the landscape today.
The site is home to more late Eocene and Oligocene mammal fossils than any other place on Earth. Some of the ancient creatures whose remains have been uncovered there include three-toed horses, rhinoceroses, and marine reptiles.
A Native American prophet named Wovoka began organizing "Ghost Dances" on Stronghold Table in the Badlands where his followers danced while wearing "Ghost Shirts".
Black-footed ferrets, once widespread across the Great Plains, came close to extinction in the 20th century. Prairie dogs are their main food source, and the destruction of this prey population had a drastic effect on ferret numbers.
During World War II, The Badlands was used to test air-to-air and air-to-ground explosives, and undetonated bombs are still being discovered in the area today.
