From the Fossil Hills Trail the Visitor Center is a ship in a sea of prairie grasses.
In the early 1900s, paleontologists unearthed the Age of Mammals when they found full skeletons of extinct Miocene mammals in the hills of Nebraska -- species previously only known through fragments. At the same time, an age of friendship began between rancher James Cook and Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota. These two unprecedented events are preserved and protected here... at Agate Fossil Beds.
A new National Park Service report shows that 189,829 visitors to Scotts Bluff and Agate Fossil Beds National Monuments in 2023 spent $12,990,000 in communities near the parks. That spending supported 171 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $15,318,000.
The National Park Service (NPS) has selected Jay Sturdevant as the superintendent of Scotts Bluff National Monument and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument located in western Nebraska.
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument has the Nebraska Panhandle covered for a summer of amazing star gazing! The park will have six times this summer where the park will be open in the evening during night sky events. Each event will consist of a program on a specific topic, then open time to relax under the stars using your own eyes or one of Agate’s telescopes.
Come celebrate Junior Ranger Careers Day at Scotts Bluff National Monument on Saturday, April 27, 2024! This FREE, family-friendly event will take place at the Scotts Bluff National Monument Visitor Center, located at 190276 Old Oregon Trail in Gering, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.