We visited the museum as part of Operation Black Hills Cabin. I highly recommend it. Great small…read moretown feel with a lot of local history. There are three floors and an outside display area. Also has a small gift shop and book store with local books.

Museum is in the old courthouse with displays outside, too. It has many taxidermy displays, Indian…read moreartifacts plus tells when when General George Custer first arrived in SD/Black Hills. Items miners used for panning for gold, household items that were with the pioneers, etc. upstairs is the court room and a video on the museum . The basement has all the sheriffs from the territory and county. The gun and knife display is interesting. Besides the courtroom upstairs, there are the tools used for logging. The museum has a small gift shop. Highly recommend a visit to the museum.

Wonderful display of antique airplanes and aerospace weapons. Unfortunately, we arrived on a Sunday…read moreand the inside hangers were closed. However, walking the grounds and reading the details/specs on display was interesting. Provided pics of the first nuclear missile (circa. 1960) - the Titan I which required 15 minutes to lift it then load its required fuel BEFORE liftoff could occur......Boy, not a very good defense during the cold war! Also, was impressed with General then President Eisenhower's private WW II plane was customized for his military surveillance throughout. Would have liked a walking audio tour and the aircraft maintained and painted to original era but considering the FREE price of admission (FREE-but subsidized by our tax dollars!), one cannot complain.

Another great museum for the price of free. You can give a donation if you'd like. Spend a couple…read moreof bucks ($5 suggested) to do the virtual F-16 fighter plane experience though! It was fun, and John S, the volunteer who helped us out, was very lovely and a great plane flying teacher. He had a great sense of humor and was so friendly as well! There are lots of exhibits with lots of history. Lots of cool and rare plans to look at as well. The information on inside hangers was interesting and dealt with lots of different eras of history. Staff all around was very nice, and you can feel their passion for aviation.

**June 2025: Monday Afternoon Visit**…read more When I was researching things to do in and around Hill City, this shop/musuem came up highly recommended. Hours: 9am-6pm Adults $7.50 Admission There's parking right alongside the museum and on my visit the area was not very busy. The museum is very small and I think the gift shop is actually the same size or slightly bigger than the exhibit; however, they had a pretty impressive selection of T-Rex skulls, other dinosaur bones, and misc fossils. Some were real and some were accurate size replicas, but the size of these dinosaurs were pretty intimidating and honestly I'd probably be terrified if these ever came to life. I think I spent maybe an hour or so inside reading all the cards and seeing all the bones. I think if you're looking for things to do you could add this, but it would be a if I had extra time in my South Dakota agenda. Enjoy!

My son is a big dinosaur fan (well, let's be honest, I am too) so of course we had to stop by here…read moreduring our MEA Fall Break vacation in 2021 to South Dakota. They were closed on the first day we tried to come (make sure to check time availability) but we wanted to check this place out so we made another trip from Rapid City on another day. This place isn't very big but they pack a lot of specimens into it. I was impressed by how many T. Rex specimens they had on display and the variety of dinosaurs shown. I had watched the Dinosaur 13 documentary a few months before coming to this place (it is actually how I found out about it) so it was interesting viewing this place and the town from that narrative. My kids were fascinated by the scale of the fossils and had a blast getting up close to the fossils. You have to pay admission (moderate price per person) to see the fossil displays but you can walk around the gift store for free. The gift shop is stocked with so many dinosaur lover gifts and fossils and was a big hit with the family. It made for a fun afternoon. Tip - Make sure to visit the giant open pit mine in the next town over, we made a day of visiting both.

The Mammoth site is a must see if you're in hot springs. It's a nice history lesson and a great…read morevisual on mammoth fossils. If you have kids it is a must see for them and a great learning opportunity for their knowledge. Stop by the mammoth site and get a historical lesson on the mammoth site and how they got there.

Do you like mammoth bones and/or paleontology? If so, this is one of the best locations in North…read moreAmerica. A Land developer, who was planning to build new homes, stumbled onto this mammal trap and donated it to the government. So far, they have discovered #67 mammoth bones among other mammals. Be prepared for at least 2 hours of history and excitement (or maybe more) via a scanned qr code audio lecture and 15 mt feature movie. However, you and your traveling companions will enjoy every minute of their experience.

What a precious pit stop to travel back in time. There are three full floors to explore and the…read morebest part is that you are encouraged to touch almost everything - which was perfect for our rambunctious kiddos. The rooms are so well thought out and it was a lovely adventure for our family. We spent 1 1/2 hours here and enjoyed the visit very much.

It's been 4 years since we visited to this museum. We live in Los Angeles and I still often think…read moreabout this place! It was probably one of the coolest museums I've been to. I've seen some pretty cool ones, but this place was something special. My son and I spent a couple hours exploring the old school house and there are so many artifacts of times gone by. My son at the time was 6 so his attention span at that age was minimal...yet he had a wonderful time at this place and was fully engaged and asking questions. I am now writing this review because I was just talking about it this morning after 4 years! A must go to if you're in the area visiting. The staff were lovely people.

Very cool FREE museum in Rapid City! There's also free parking! If you love rocks and geological…read morestuff this is the place for you! You can spend a couple hours wandering around reading and checking out the cool artifacts in the museum! A must if you're in Rapid City!

You could spend hour and hours here. I came here on my birthday and it was really awesome. Sooo…read moremuch to see and it's absolutely free! (Donations accepted).

Great little museum, and the gift shop is wonderful. Beautiful jewelry at great prices, and the…read morestaff was so helpful and patient with us as we looked thru everything! Highly recommend!

They are not accommodating to people with medical exemptions for masks. I brought my 4 kids for a…read morefun field trip because they love dinosaurs so much, but we were turned away at the door because I'm not able to wear a mask. They offered a face shield as the only option. That is discrimination against people with disabilities and I will not be supporting this museum in the future.

Most interesting fact was the brothels were closed in 1980! Crazy. Got some history about deadwood…read moretoo.

This tour was worth the price paid; about $15. You have to climb about 20 steps to start this tour…read moreso be prepared. Our guide was great and gave very descriptive events of the times and the working ways of the ladies of the night! I liked learning how the industry started in Deadwood and the many other contributions the ladies provided to the community as a whole. I highly recommend visiting.

This was such a surprise! We stopped in after our drive back from Spearfish and so glad we did!…read more Paid the extra $5 to do the underground tour and it was such a great tour! The gentleman that sis the tour used to work in the mines. He was so knowledgeable and we learned so much. Really enjoyed his stories! Totally worth the stop!

Best museum I've been to in a long time we learned so much about the South Dakota mines I would…read morerecommend this museum over any else both gentlemen were very helpful answered all our questions and were helpful teaching us to pan for gold.