Pipestone National Monument is sacred to many American Indian tribes, who quarry and carve its red pipestone for prayer ceremonies. Pipestone National Monument offers an opportunity to explore American Indian culture and the natural resources of the tallgrass prairie.

For over 3,000 years, Indigenous people have quarried the red stone at this site to make pipes used in prayer and ceremony - a tradition that continues to this day and makes this site sacred to many people.

The National Monument was established by an act of Congress on August 25, 1937, with the establishing legislation reaffirming the quarrying rights of the Native Americans. Any enrolled member of a federally recognized American Indian tribe may apply for a free quarry permit to dig for the pipestone.

In this area, you can learn more about the geological history of the stone as well as the glaciers that played an important role in the Monument's story. In preserving access to this important stone for Indigenous cultures, Pipestone National Monument also protects a threatened tallgrass prairie ecosystem.

Although very low grade metamorphism occured, both the Sioux Quartzite and pipestone at Pipestone National Monument are officially classified as sedimentary rock because evidence of minerals that result from the metamorphic processes have not been found here.

3,000 years Pipestone National Monument is a storied landscape. Numerous tribes around the country have oral traditions connecting them to this site, Euro-Americans have been visiting and writing about it since the 1600s, and archeologists have found evidence for over 3,000 years of human activity here.

Minnesota Pipestone National Monument is located on the north side of Pipestone, Minnesota. The easiest access is from U.S. Hwy 75, which runs north & south through town. Directional signs can be found north of the MN Hwy 23 & U.S. Hwy 75 junction.

American Indians have come to this site for over 3,000 years in order to quarry a soft stone that they use to make pipes (hence the name 'pipestone'). The pipe is sacred to many American Indians who use it for prayer, important rites, and to conduct both civil and religious ceremonies.

Joseph Nicollet. A Frenchman who led three mapping expeditions in the area of the upper Mississippi River. His 1838 expedition was the first to map the area containing the pipestone quarries, which he and his crew camped at for approximately a week.

The National Monument (Indonesian: Monumen Nasional, abbreviated Monas) is a 132 m (433ft) tower in the centre of Merdeka Square, Central Jakarta, symbolizing the fight for Indonesia. It is the national monument of the Republic of Indonesia, built to commemorate the struggle for Indonesian independence.

A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life, achievements or death of a historical figure.

roughly 1.6 billion years ago An ancient river deposited thousands of feet of sand throughout the region. Either a flood or settlement deposited clay that was quickly buried under thousands of feet of more sand. Pressue and heat from this deep burial turned the clay and sand into stone roughly 1.6 billion years ago.