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A personal narrative is presented which explore author's experience searching for fossil cycads at Black Hills in South Dakota.

The article focuses on the U.S. Congress' dissolution of the Fossil Cycad National Monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota on September 1, 1957. Topics discussed include Yale University paleobotanist George R. Wieland's role in the site's initial designation as a national monument in October 1922, as well as its eventual demise, a brief overview of cycads, and the federal government's ownership of fissionable material or any other fossil remains that will be recovered from the site.

The article offers information on Fossil Cycad National Monument which was a national monument in the U.S. state of South Dakota beginning in 1922. It mentions that the site contained hundreds of fossil cycads, one of the world's greatest concentrations. It also mentions that because vandals stole or destroyed all of the visible fossils, it was withdrawn as a national monument in 1957.