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Badlands National Park Facts & Worksheets

Badlands National Park is a picturesque landscape and geological formation in South Dakota

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The Badlands National Park is a picturesque landscape and a historical geological formation near the Black Hills of South Dakota. It charms tourists from all around the world with its rugged formation of beauty.

See the fact file below for more information on Badlands National Park, or you can download our 28-page Badlands National Park worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

OVERVIEW

  • Considering all that the Badlands National Park has to offer, it was labeled as “mako sica” or “bad lands” by the Lakota people. Its landscapes span layered rock formations and extreme temperatures made it difficult for people to traverse.
  • It is believed that this scenic landscape is millions of years old. Various fossil remains of ancient wildlife were found within the 244,000 acres of the ecological area. 
  • The Badlands used to be clothed with a shallow sea when it first formed and left behind sediment as the water receded. The terrain was molded and shaped by the water that makes up today’s incredible graphic landscape.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

  • Badlands was established as a national monument on January 25, 1939, though it was already authorized on March 4, 1929. It was then made a national park and redesignated on November 10, 1978.
  • Badlands was originally an Oglala Sioux Indian reservation, revered as a territory for ceremonial purposes that is a sacred site rather than an area to live.
  • The (Lakota people) Oglala Sioux Tribe members consist of the remarkable Native American leaders and warriors who have lived in Badlands since time immemorial (but first encountered the Europeans in the early 1800s.)
  • At the Treaty of Laramie (Sioux Treaty of 1868), the United States and Oglala made an agreement that the Badlands shall be the property of the Sioux. However, in 1889, the agreement was broken, and the Badlands were confiscated by the United States.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court awarded the Sioux Nation compensation (valued at over $1 billion) in 1980, which was declined by the tribe.
  • The Sioux Indians held a ceremony at the end of the 19th century. It was called the Ghost Dance to resuscitate the souls of buffalo and the dead. 
  • The U.S. banned the ceremony after the last dance in 1890. But the Red Power Movement was born and restored Indian rights (1960).
  • An area within the park that is managed by the Oglala Lakota Tribe and National Park Service, the Stronghold District, extends its history beyond the Ghost Dances. It was used as a bombing range during World War II.
  • When Badlands Park was just authorized as a national monument, the United States Air Force seized a total of 341,726 acres of Oglala Lakota land and turned it into a gunnery. It is a large portion of the Pine Ridge Reservation. 
  • From the year 1942 up until 1945, the space was used for air-to-air and air-to-ground firing practice, explosives, and demolition bombing exercises. Undetonated bombs are still being found and discovered in the area today.
  • The National Park Service, in 1968, revealed that the United States Air Force declared most of the range as excess property in the area. After the war, the portions of the bombing range were used by the South Dakota National Guard as an artillery range.
  • The Badlands National Park is significantly well known for its paleontological resources. The Lakota found massive fossilized remains and bones of animals and seashells. It is believed that the area had once been under water, and the discoveries are ancient and legendary.
  • Paleontological interests in Badlands began in the 1840s. Travelers who were trappers and traders traveled the 480 km (300 miles) from Fort Pierre to Fort Laramie along a route that was the edge of what is now the national park.
  • In 1843, Alexander Culbertson of the American Fur Company collected a fossilized jaw fragment and announced it through a published paper (American Journal of Science) by Hiram A. Prout in 1846, where he stated that it had come from a Palaeotherium.
  • The White River Badlands became famous fossil hunting grounds shortly after publication. Numerous fossil species were discovered within a couple of decades, and it continues today. 
  • The Badlands has gained an international reputation as a fossil-rich area. The land contains the richest deposits of Oligocene mammals known, giving us a glimpse of the past’s 33 million years of life.

GEOGRAPHY AND TOURIST ATTRACTION

  • Located in the Back Hills region of South Dakota, Badlands National Park is nowhere near an airport or terminal of any size. 
  • Interstate 90 gives direct access to the area, which makes the park often a side-stop for people traveling on the I-90, but there’s so much more the Badlands has to offer.
  • In the area, sightseeing and hiking are the usual activities visitors and tourists do. Badlands offers many opportunities for a worthwhile hiking experience in the backcountry wilderness. Designated hiking trails range in length and difficulty from ¼ mile fully accessible boardwalks to 10 miles of varied natural terrain. 
  • The night in Bandland is as beautiful as the sunrise peeking between pinnacles. Over 7,500 twinkling stars fill the park’s skies. Constellations and the milky way, along with its galaxies, light up the exceptionally dark skies of Badlands, giving its visitors a starry night evening.
  • It has two campgrounds for overnight visits in the park— Cedar Pass and Sage Creek Campgrounds. The visitor services offer and accommodate full-service dining in Cedar Pass lodge, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center offers museum exhibits, and the White River Visitors center provides information about the region’s Lakota heritage.

FLORA AND FAUNA

  • The Badlands National Park is home to numerous creatures, resilient to the environment that lies in an ecological area known as the mix-grass prairie. The park is one of the country’s largest expanses of mixed-grass prairie. It contains many native types of grass, including taller species such as cordgrass and big bluestem, along with shorter types like buffalograss and blue grama.
  • Badlands isn’t all about pinnacles and fossils. In its rugged beauty, flora has found a way to flourish, and the colorful patches of wildflowers balance the greens of the land. Among the wildflowers in spring is tufted evening primrose, also known as Oenothera Caespitosa; it’s relative to the pale evening primrose, prairie turnip, scarlet globemallow, prairie rose, sego lily, and hood phlox. Autumn bloomers include sunflowers and curlycup gumweed.
  • Even in midsummer’s baking sun, yucca, wooly verbena, wavy leaf thistle, and purple coneflowers bring color to the Badlands. The beauty of these plants charms the 69 species of butterflies; around the fifth to sixth month of the year presents the best time for the scenic byway, adding beauty to a barren landscape.
  • Because Badlands National Park is the sanctuary of flora and fauna, some of America’s famous mammals can also be found roaming freely around the greens of the park. 
  • It is the home of the Bison, commonly known as Buffalo. While along the unpaved Sage Creek  Rim Road, prairie dog towns can also be seen throughout your visit.
  • Animals that live in the Badlands vary in kind. The wildlife consists of bighorn sheep, black-tailed prairie dogs that live in large colonies called “towns,” badger, pronghorn, and prairie rattlesnake that blends well in the spine of narrow buttes.
  • Endangered species such as the black-footed ferrets and whooping cranes are also living amidst these rock formations in the Badlands and are considered a non-self-sustaining wild population.

Badlands National Park Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Badlands National Park across 28 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Badlands National Park, a picturesque landscape and geological formation in South Dakota.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  • Badlands National Park Facts 
  • Fact or Bluff?
  • Maze Runner
  • Let’s Hunt!
  • Keep Digging
  • My  Own Badlands
  • Video Analysis
  • Build Me Up, Buttercup!
  • Word Search
  • Crossword Puzzle
  • Pair and Share 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is so special about Badlands National Park?

Badlands National Park is well-known for having a lot of fossil beds. This is special because it allows scientists to study how animals like horses, rhinos, and saber-toothed cats have changed over time. The park also has many mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and butterflies.

How did Badlands get its name?

For centuries, the Lakota people referred to this region as mako sica – “badlands” in English. When French fur trappers traversed these badlands, they called them les mauvaises terres a traverser, aptly describing their difficulty crossing through this rugged landscape.

How big is the Badlands?

Sprawling across 244,000 magnificent acres of mixed-grass prairie, this park is home to a plethora of wildlife, including bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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