Archaeology | Paleontology | Museums
Take a step back in time at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Learn the history behind the people who made South Dakota the diverse state it is today.
Hear recordings of American Indians speaking Dakota, Lakota and Nakota. Touch the different types of fur traded by trappers in the state’s early days. A train car serves as a theater for a video about the railroad, and guests learn about the Missouri River while standing at the helm of a steamboat. Hand-milk a model cow and larn about life in the 1900s in "Changing Times."
The Cultural Heritage Center also houses the state archives, which are open to the public.
Admission charged. Call (605) 773-3458 or visit www.sdhistory.org/mus/museum.htm.
Unearth your own dinosaur bone at the Kirby Science Center in the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls. The center is home to more than 80 hands-on science exhibits and a full-size replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex found in western South Dakota.
Visitors may also touch a real dinosaur bone and a fossilized dinosaur egg. Children and adults may do their own excavating to discover dinosaur bone replicas. For youngsters, the center offers a giant bone puzzle of the state fossil, the Triceratops.
Admission charged. Call 1-877-WASHPAV (877-927-4728) or visit WashingtonPavilion.org.
With a collection of 250,000 vertebrae fossils and 6,000 minerals, the Museum of Geology always has interesting prehistoric stories to tell. Visitors may view fossils of ancient residents of South Dakota, such as saber-tooth cats, small camels, giant pigs and a mother oreodont. The museum is located on the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology campus in Rapid City.
Free admission. Call (605) 394-2467 or 1-800-544-8162 ext 2467 or visit www.sdsmt.edu/.
Take an incredible trek through time at The Journey Museum in Rapid City. Visitors can begin their "Journey" 2.5 billion years ago in the abyss - a period of unrecorded time - and then continue on to trace South Dakota's history though exhibits on rock formations, dinosaurs, American Indian cultures, pioneers and modern history. Interactive exhibits allow for a unique first-hand learning experience.
A new exhibit, "From Dinosaurs to Deadwood: Discovering Dakota Territory" is open in the Stanford Adelstein Gallery through Aug. 6. The exhibit highlights the paleontological and geological discoveries in the Dakota Territory as well as the scientists who made them. A coalition of South Dakota natural history museums collaborated on this exhibit. The Black Hills Institute of Geologic Research in Hill City, the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, the Adams Museum in Deadwood, and the Journey Museum in Rapid City are jointly producing this incredible show. Admission to this exhibit is free.
Admission charged. Call (605) 394-6923 or visit JourneyMuseum.org
The Black Hills Museum of Natural History in Hill City is home to 65-million-year-old Stan, one of the two most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils ever found. Paleontologists from the museum have participated in the excavation and restoration of eight T-Rex skeletons since 1990.
See "Stan," along with an immense collection of invertebrate, mammal and fish fossils. The museum also boasts a massive assortment of minerals and agates, and a vast meteorite collection.
Free admission. Call (605) 574-4505 or visit www.bhmnh.org.
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