Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

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.
Map showing location of park.
A park ranger stands at a desk holding brochures that are fanned out.
Western Nebraska National Monuments hiring Visitor Services Assistants for the Summer of 2025
Scotts Bluff National Monument and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument are hiring Visitor Services Assistant for the Summer of 2025.
The visitor center sits in the middle of mixed grass prairie.
Photo by NPS Photo
Tipis and Fossil Hills represent the two subjects that Agate Fossil Beds interprets.
Photo by NPS Photo
Thunderheads are common in July.
Photo by NPS Photo
The Dinohyus was a scavenger, nicknamed "Terrible Pig"
Photo by NPS Photo
This buckskin shirt decorated with quills was worn by Red Cloud.
Photo by NPS Photo