• Artist George Catlin recorded the quarrying activity at the pipestone quarries in 1836

    Pipestone

    National Monument Minnesota

Collections

Bison Effigy Pipe
Bison Effigy Pipe
NPS Photo
 

Pipestone National Monument's collections include over 54,000 items. The collection includes archival documents and photographs, artifacts including tools, potshards, leather, pipes, and pipestone objects, and a broad collection of natural history specimens including insects and plants.

Selected pipes, pipestems, and other crafts are on display in the visitor center. These items reflect the breadth of styles of pipes made by different cultures and in different periods. Also on display in the visitor center are petroglyphs carved into blocks of quartzite.

Portions of the Pipestone National Monument collections are at the Midwest Archaeological Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Did You Know?

Tallgrass prairie landscape with Big Bluestem Grass

Pipestone National Monument is one of the few remaining areas of native tallgrass prairie.  Over 400,000 square miles of tall grass prairie once covered the Midwest.  Less than 1% of the original tall grass prairie remains today. More...