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.
Visitor Center on the Prairie
From the Fossil Hills Trail the Visitor Center is a ship in a sea of prairie grasses.
The Agate Fossil Hills and Tipis
One of the first impressions that visitors have are the tipis and the Fossil Hills.
A July Storm Passes
Summer storms include thunderheads and lightning and can be exciting and dangerous.
Dinohyus in the Visitor Center Fossil Diorama
Visitors stare in wonder at the huge head of the "apex" predator of the plains some 20 million years ago.
The James H. Cook collection
Visitors agree that this shirt decorated with quillwork and worn by Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota is a priceless piece of history.
