Thousand Springs State Park & Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument Visitor's Center

Known mostly for its fossils from the Pliocene epoch Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument contains one of the world's richest known deposits of the fossil horse Equus simplicidens. In 1988, the Hagerman horse became Idaho's state fossil and Hagerman Fossil Beds became a national monument. The Monument contains the Hagerman Horse Quarry, a national natural landmark.Hagerman Fossil Beds is nationally and internationally significant for its world-class paleontological resources. The Monument's paleontological resources are contained in a continuous, undisturbed stratigraphic record spanning at least 500,000 years. The fossils deposited here appear to represent an entire paleontological ecosystem with a variety of habitats such as wetland, riparian, and grassland savanna. Most of the fossils contained in the park are not obvious. There are no hikes or observation areas to see the fossils in place. A sampling of excavated fossils is displayed in the park visitor center, while the other fossils are studied under laboratory conditions not currently visible to park visitors. It is in the long term plans for the park to make the laboratory work and procedures more accessible to everyone. The Monument is also one of four National Park system units containing a portion of the Oregon Trail National Historic Trail. Ruts from the wagons that used the Trail are visible from one of the marked lookout points inside the park grounds.