Locality · Mixed: private ranches, BLM, Corps of Engineers
Hell Creek badlands, Garfield County
Garfield, Montana, United States
The Hell Creek badlands around Jordan, Montana, are the type area of the Hell Creek Formation and the world's most productive latest-Cretaceous dinosaur country, where the first Tyrannosaurus rex was found in 1902. Commercial Hell Creek material comes from private ranches, several of which run paid dig programmes; the checkerboard of BLM and refuge land means the same butte can be legal on one side of a fence and a felony on the other. Ask for the ranch and county before buying anything.
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State / province | Montana |
| County | Garfield |
| Land manager / status | Private ranches; Bureau of Land Management; US Army Corps of Engineers (Fort Peck); Charles M. Russell NWR (closed) |
| Access | Private land by written permission or paid dig programmes; federal land under permit only for vertebrates |
| Formations | Hell Creek Formation |
| What is found | Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Champsosaurus, Myledaphus, turtle, crocodile |
Rules
On BLM land, casual collecting of common invertebrate and plant fossils is allowed for personal use (reasonable amounts, hand tools, no sale); all vertebrate fossils, including teeth and bone fragments, require a BLM paleontological permit and remain federal property. Charles M. Russell NWR and Corps land around Fort Peck are closed to collecting. On private ranches, the landowner's written permission governs, and material may be sold. Record township, range and ranch on every specimen.
Source: https://www.blm.gov/programs/paleontology/paleontology-management (checked 2026-09-16).
Collecting rules
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Hell Creek badlands, Garfield County" (Locality). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/localities/hell-creek-badlands-garfield-county. Accessed 2026-09-20.
@misc{stratum-hell-creek-badlands-garfield-county,
title = {Hell Creek badlands, Garfield County},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/localities/hell-creek-badlands-garfield-county}},
year = {2026},
note = {Locality article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.