During the summer, the Geology Department at Augustana College offers a 3-credit course entitled "Fossil Mammals of the Badlands " (GL172/372). This 2-week course travels to the White River Badlands of South Dakota and Nebraska for fossil collecting. The group camps on Shalimar Ranch, outside of Harrison , Nebraska , and collects fossils on privately owned land. This trip has become a tradition, with the first trip in 1982. 2007 will mark the 25th anniversary that students from Augustana College have made the trip to Shalimar Ranch to learn about the paleontology and geology of the area.

These are my pictures from that trip. The first leg of the journey we stopped at Badlands National Park, Wall Drug, and the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The students then spend the next week in the field learning how to collect and identify fossils from (predominately) the Oligocene Brule Formation found on the ranch. Click here for more information on the geology of the White River Badlands. Sides trips are also taken to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Mount Rushmore, and the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research.