Badlands: The Story Behind the Scenery

Badlands National Park in southwestern South Dakota, first set aside in 1939 to preserve magnificently eroded scenery and fossils, became a National Park in 1978.

Landscape exerts a powerful influence on the human psyche. In few places is that effect as strong as in Badlands National Park. The badlands evoke strong feelings. They astonish, frighten, awe, repel and inspire.