Before the missile silos and prairie dogs, the Badlands were home to mammoths, mosasaurs, and mighty storms of U.S. government ambition. In this first part of our journey through Badlands National Park, we go back—way back—to ancient seas, fossil fields, and the earliest human inhabitants. We dig through layers of sediment and sovereignty, touching on the Lakota, the fur traders, and even a short cameo by Thomas Jefferson (because of course). It’s a land of bone beds and broken treaties, where every rock tells a story—and some of those rocks used to be sharks.

Strap on your hiking boots (and maybe your moral compass), because this is the Wild West before it was even west.