Qualla: John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: Introduction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris M Morris, CC BY 2.0. The colors are wrong for Oregon. Red and gold and cream stripe the hillsides like a fever dream, layers of volcanic ash that trapped entire ecosystems as they fell. The Painted Hills of John Day preserve 40 million years of life in bands of claystone, each color a different age, a different climate, a different world. Here paleontologists have uncovered evidence of subtropical forests where Oregon's high desert now stands, of three-toed horses and saber-toothed cats, of a land transformed beyond recognition by volcanoes and time. The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center houses one of the most complete fossil records of the Cenozoic Era anywhere on Earth.

Image: Chris M Morris | CC BY 2.0

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: Written in Stone

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Finetooth, CC BY-SA 3.0. The monument sprawls across three separate units, each preserving a different chapter of deep time. At the Clarno Unit, 44-million-year-old lakebeds contain remnants of a near-tropical climate, petrified wood from trees related to those now found in Southeast Asia. The Painted Hi...

Image: Finetooth | CC BY-SA 3.0

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: Life Between Eruptions

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cacophony, CC BY-SA 3.0. Volcanoes built this archive. When ancient calderas exploded, they buried entire forests in ash that would harden to tuff and claystone. A 2003 study identified petrified woods from at least 173 species at the Clarno Unit alone, including relatives of walnut, laurel, and even ban...

Image: Cacophony | CC BY-SA 3.0

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: The Living Desert

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Collection of MB298, CC BY-SA 4.0. More than 80 soil types now support a surprising diversity in these painted badlands. A black cryptobiotic crust, composed of algae, lichens, mosses, fungi, and bacteria, holds the soil together, stores water, and fixes nitrogen for the plants that follow. Bighorn sheep, reintrod...

Image: Collection of MB298 | CC BY-SA 4.0

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: Thieves and Time

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS Photo, Public domain. Fossil theft is an ongoing problem. The paleontology center exists partly to protect what remains, its laboratory visible through windows where visitors can watch scientists extract specimens from stone. The monument holds over 40,000 catalogued fossils, with thousands more await...

Image: NPS Photo | Public domain