Pipestone National Monument
Pipestone County, Minnesota, United States
A prairie quarry in southwestern Minnesota where enrolled tribal members have dug red pipestone for ceremonial pipes for three thousand years, and where quarrying is still a living right, not a memory.
Catlinite, the soft red stone Pipestone is named for, has been quarried here for ceremonial pipes for more than three thousand years. The pipe is sacred in Plains prayer and ceremony, and the National Park Service reserves the right to quarry to members of federally recognized tribes, who take out free permits and work 56 active quarry pits by hand across the monument's 301 acres. The Circle Trail leads past the working pits and Winnewissa Falls, and the visitor center sets out the stone's place in prayer and ceremony.
Quarrying is a living practice, and the monument sits inside living politics: in September 2026 Minnesota regulators rescinded a pipeline permit and ordered coordination with tribal nations after Magellan and ONEOK moved to reopen a fuel line near the quarry, and a 2026 federal rewrite of Advisory Council on Historic Preservation rules would keep consultation while dropping the requirement to weigh tribal expertise. Dakota elder Faith Spotted Eagle has described pipestone as the blood of her people, in the tradition of the White Buffalo Calf Woman story. The quarries are worked, not displayed.
Visiting
Pipestone National Monument is free, open year-round, with parking, ranger programs and the Circle Trail; current hours and trail status are on the NPS page.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panorama_at_Pipestone_National_Monument.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0, John Ray Hammerly.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories