The Great Plains has thirty units of the U.S. National Park
System, three Canadian national parks, and fifteen national
historic sites. The thirty U.S. units total slightly over
500,000 acres, which is only 0.6 percent of the 376-unit,
83,431,000-acre U.S. National Park System. In Canada the Great
Plains is much better represented in the 38-unit, 55
million–acre Canadian National Park System. To most people it is
the unit classified as "national park" that comes to mind when
thinking of the U.S. National Park System. There are fifty-four
national parks across the country that cover 47 million acres.
Badlands National Park (242,756 acres) in South Dakota occupies
almost 50 percent of the total National Park System acreage in
the Great Plains. The three other national parks in the U.S.
Great Plains are relatively small: Theodore Roosevelt National
Park (70,477 acres), North Dakota; Carlsbad Caverns National
Park (46,766 acres), New Mexico; and Wind Cave (28,295 acres),
South Dakota. Badlands National Park, loca