(gentle music) - [Narrator] Nestled in the vast openness of Wyoming where the sky stretches endlessly above, lies a landscape below, so stark and so otherworldly, it could easily appear to belong on an alien planet.

(gentle music) Carved by the relentless hands of time, this geologic feature holds the secrets of Earth's past and today captures the imagination of those lucky enough to have seen it.

Hell's Half Acre is like nowhere else in Wyoming.

(tranquil music) - Hell's Half Acre is primarily an erosional feature, meaning that it's caused by rainfall, thunderstorms, snow, bad weather.

That erosion set up probably in the last 2 million years and started to erode an escarpment from the south to the north by millimeters per year, but it adds up to miles of erosion, and that combined with the formation itself with all the colors is what makes it so spectacular.

- [Narrator] The Wind River formation is made up of silt and mudstone deposits from rivers and lake beds, dating back 53 million years during what scientists call the Eocene Epoch.

These layered deposits, which denote changes in the Earth's environment, extend throughout the Wind River basin and are clearly visible in the red and white layers of color seen in its exposed cliffs.

When some of these layers, formed at different times and from various materials are revealed, they expose unique features previously hidden within the formation.

- [Dr. Kent] Those pillars are a geological feature we call a hoodoo.

A hoodoo is created when you have a harder rock on top of the soft mudstone, and so the soft mudstone's eroding away and then eventually it falls off and then you have a pinnacle.

A lot of times they'll become very rounded on top, we call those haystack.

They're these round hills and you got all these beautiful white layers in 'em.

The soft rocks in these beds are called mudstones.

These big thunderstorms, they're the ones that are doing the erosion.

And these mudstones, I've seen them erode an inch in a single storm.

Since the '20s, you're probably looking at four or five feet of erosional removal on the things that have no vegetation at all.

And that's why over time, caves, pinnacles, things like that, they just go away in badlands areas due to erosion.

- [Narrator] Earth's natural forces will continue to break down and reveal evermore striking features from within the formation.

Yet these badlands hold treasures beyond ancient rock formations.

They're also a repository of the Earth's biological history, captured in their layers of sediment.

- [Dr. Kent] We found things like Coryphodon, which is a big herbivore.

We also found lots of primates and so many of 'em have the same names of Wyoming towns.

So we have like Tetonius and Shoshonius, but we also had the early horse, Hyracotherium, who was only 18 inches tall and his biggest predator was a bird.

Everybody said, "Oh, I drive from Casper to Shoshone, it's so boring."

I said, "That's 'cause you're not a geologist."

In between here and there, we have terrific geological things that have gone on in our past.

- [Narrator] Animal presence in the area is now minimal.

Megafauna like deer and antelope occasionally roam through, but the lack of adequate forage and water makes it impossible to support a herd for long.

Small animals such as rabbits and rodents, however, can find just enough to survive on.

The landscape, with its natural burrows and quick hiding places, suits them well, a necessity given that the hoodoos can provide an equally excellent habitat for their avian predators.

Plant life in this stark landscape is sparse.

Buffalo grasses that have adapted to the tough conditions cling to life, supported by moisture from a weld drilled in the 1990s.

Even the hardy Sagebrush finds existence challenging here.

They endure the silt and mudstone beds for a time, but are ultimately warped and broken by the ever shifting earth.

Their remains will be cataloged by paleontologists thousands of years in the future.

Archeological research has uncovered signs of human use at Hell's Half Acre, dating back to the start of the Holocene, nearly 11,500 years ago.

This site is one of a limited number of so-called buffalo jumps, where there is clear evidence that Native Americans herded not just bison, but also elk, deer and antelope over the cliffs.

In recent years, the site has mainly been viewed as a curiosity.

It has attracted visits from immigrants traveling the Oregon Trail, and later on from stagecoaches journeying on the overland route between Casper and Thermopolis.

- There are a couple of legends as to how Hell's Acre got its name.

The first is that a cow hand came and was observing the alkali, the bogs, and the badland terrain.

And per his observations, he just called it Hell's Half Acre.

The second theory that I've heard is based on advertising campaigns, so they use several names in hope of getting tourists to come visit the roadside attraction.

And those names were Devil's Kitchen, the Pits of Hades, and the Baby Grand Canyon.

- [Narrator] In 1996, Paul Verhoeven, in collaboration with Tri-Star Pictures, chose Hell's Half Acre as the filming location for his adaptation of Robert Heinlein's science fiction classic, "Starship Troopers."

The site's remote and unearthly appearance made it a fitting stand-in for Klendathu, the novel's exotic and decidedly non-human setting.

- I was the location liaison is what my official title was, but I was out there ensuring that the park was maintained and that any needs that they had were met.

They hired about 300 local extras for the film as well and for as many people as were there, I think it was incredible at how well they maintained the facility and took care of it.

Their direct spend while they were here was 4.3 million in 1996.

That industry is one of the best economic development pieces we could do.

- [Narrator] In 2005, the lease holders operating a small hotel and restaurant on the property, moved to Laramie.

The county was unable to find anyone to take over the location, so the park was closed and has remained so ever since.

But in 2024, there is renewed hope that some of the facilities will be restored.

A coalition of entities including the Natrona County Parks Department, the Natrona County Outdoor Recreation Collaborative, and Visit Casper, are spearheading a movement to reopen the park.

- The vision Visit Casper has for Hell's Half Acre in the future would be just to reopen it in a safe manner, keep it preserved, keep the history there, but have it as a tourist draw and have it open to the public.

It's a beautiful natural amenity that we have in our community and we should be able to enjoy it.

- [Narrator] Efforts are underway by a group to gather financial support for a series of upgrades, including repaving the parking area, replacing the existing fence with a four foot alternative, refurbishing the picnic space, capping the unused well, and adding restroom amenities.

- I would hope that the economic impact would look like additional field sales, additional visitors into our city, additional restaurants, of course, lodging tax, hopefully people staying in Casper.

And I think that if we could bring people down into the acreage in a safe manner and give them a tour, that would help us be able to give people an experience that they wouldn't forget and then they could share with their loved ones in hope of bringing more people into our community to experience the same thing.

- [Narrator] To viewers a century or two in the future, the landscape you've just seen in this video might be unfamiliar.

Instead, they'll likely encounter further eroded or collapsed hoodoos, new caves and new spires, or perhaps entirely new geologic structures, which will remain for about a moment in geologic time.