6 Jaw-Dropping Great Plains Landmarks, From Mount Rushmore’s Granite Faces to Devils Tower
The Great Plains earned its nickname as the “breadbasket of the world” by feeding much of the planet through wheat fields, corn rows and cattle ranches stretching to the horizon. But the same flat geography that makes it agricultural gold also makes it a tornado magnet — without natural wind barriers, storms tear across the landscape with little to slow them down. Tucked between the wheat and the weather are some of the most surreal landmarks in North America, including a 60-foot presidential portrait carved into a mountain and a rock column that doubled as an alien landing pad in a Spielberg film.
Here are six landmarks worth the road trip.
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
The most iconic landmark in the Great Plains — and arguably the country — features 60-foot granite faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The four were chosen to represent the nation’s founding, expansion, development and preservation across its first 150 years. Sculptors carved Mount Rushmore between 1927 and 1941. While you’re in the Black Hills, swing by the Crazy Horse Memorial, an in-progress carving that, when finished, will be the largest mountain sculpture on Earth.
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Imagine a moonscape stretching across 244,000 acres — eroded buttes, jagged spires and pinnacles in shades of rust and bone. Badlands National Park is also one of the world’s richest fossil beds, where paleontologists have pulled prehistoric creatures from the rock. Above ground, the wildlife is just as wild: roaming bison, bighorn sheep and the elusive black-footed ferret, one of North America’s most endangered mammals.
Chimney Rock, Nebraska
A spire rising more than 300 feet above the North Platte River valley, Chimney Rock was mentioned in more emigrant diaries than any other feature along the Oregon Trail. For thousands of pioneers grinding westward in covered wagons, this needle of stone was a checkpoint, a landmark and proof they were still on course. It remains one of the most powerful symbols of American migration.
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas
A grassland ecosystem once covered 170 million acres of North America. Today, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve protects nearly 11,000 of its last surviving acres — rolling golden grasses under skies so big they almost feel artificial. Visitors can hike the trails, tour a working ranch, fish the streams and watch bison herds move across land that looks almost identical to what early settlers saw.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Before he was president, Theodore Roosevelt was a rancher in the rugged Dakota badlands — and the experience reshaped him into the conservationist who would later protect millions of acres of American wilderness. The park named in his honor preserves the same colorful, broken terrain, complete with wild horses and abundant bison. If you go, follow the leave no trace principles to keep it that way.
Devils Tower, Wyoming
An 867-foot igneous rock column erupting from the surrounding plain, Devils Tower was designated as the nation’s first national monument in 1906 by President Roosevelt. The formation is spiritually significant to at least five Native American tribes, appearing in their legends and oral histories. Pop culture fans will recognize it as the centerpiece of Close Encounters of the Third Kind — the dramatic spot where the aliens land. Whether you come for the geology, the legends or the Spielberg connection, it is one of the most otherworldly sights in the country.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
