John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in east-central Oregon preserves 13,944 acres of badlands, river corridors, and semi-desert landscapes within the John Day River basin. Its three units—Sheep Rock, Painted Hills, and Clarno—contain fossil-bearing rock layers that record ancient plants and mammals from about 45 million to 5 million years ago, making the area one of North America’s important paleontological landscapes. The basin was long used by Sahaptin-speaking peoples and Northern Paiutes, whose presence remains in archeological sites and Picture Gorge pictographs. Later known through Thomas Condon’s work in 1864 and 1865, the area gained federal protection in 1974 and was officially established in 1975.