Parks / Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
National Monument · NE
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.
Official NPS page →Current Alerts (2)
No Fuel Services
Fuel up before visiting! Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is 30-50 miles from the nearest service stations.
Limited Cell Phone Coverage
Cell phone voice and data coverage is very limited in the park and surrounding area. Free visitor WiFi is available in the visitor center.
Entrance Fees
This park is fee-free.
Things to Do
Daemonelix Trail
Hike a one-mile trail back in time to the day of the paleocaster, a dry land beaver, and paleosoils, fossilized dirt from the time this landscape was formed. Look out over the vast, open table lands that define the high plaines east of the Rocky Mountains.
Fossil Hills Trail
Hike to University (left) and Carnegie Hills. The 2.7-mile Fossil Hills Trail allows visitors to walk up to and see the famed early 1900s quarries. From these quarries, paleontologists recovered some of the world's best preserved and most complete fossilized Menoceras, Moropus, and Dinohyus skeletons.
Visitor Centers
- Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Visitor Center
Source: National Park Service.