Happy birthday Badlands National Park

Forty-four years ago today, a rugged, inhospitable area of South Dakota was designated a national park to protect the many fossils found on the land. The area had an 11,000-year previous history as hunting grounds for Native Americans. In fact, the name we know it by today, Badlands, comes from the Lakota phrase 'mako sica,' which literally translates to 'bad lands.' Covering nearly 380 square miles, its harshly eroded rock formations make it one of the most distinct landscapes in the United States.
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