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.

What a great experience . Many planes from WWII to modern …read more Price - FREE ADMISSION My family of five enjoyed it a great deal. Just missed the simulator ( ends at 2:00 most days ) Outdoor and indoor displays with a small gift shop .

Incredible collection of USA historical military aviation including Cold War, space and nuclear…read moremissiles.

Stumbled upon this interesting little fossil museum in Hill City. Apparently it's the largest…read moreprivately owned fossil collection. Nice knowledge staff, but something about it is creepy. Maybe it's all the fossils stacked so close to each other in an old event center/basketball court, seems a bit jarring. Also smells a little but still a unique find-5stars.

**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!

We were staying at the little hotel right next door (which is amazing, by the way), but it was an…read moreeasy walk from that parking lot to this one, and so we decided to go here, even though it was not on my itinerary originally. If you don't know me, which I'm almost positive you don't, swaying from my itinerary is not something that I usually do or something that I take lightly...so it kind of has to be awesome for me to do that. I came because a few of the reviews said that this place was even better than they had expected, and I am very happy to report that this is true. This entire place looks and feels like a labor of love. We didn't get to watch the entire movie in the theater, but whatever we did see, shows how much of an effort it was to go through and make this building and exhibition. This is the kind of place that makes you feel like you are a homeschooler, which I love. I loved how educational it was, and how much we learned during the trip here. The QR codes are awesome to go at your own pace and learn at each different station. There were people there that were willing to answer any questions and others that were digging up at the site and it felt like a very interactive experience. Because I had not already planned for this in advance, we were only able to give the site around an hour and a half, but I think to fully enjoy it, you would need to have around 3 hours worth of time available to come here. I'm grateful that we were even able to go for as long as we did. It was well worth the trip. The gift shop was also great. And we got binoculars and cute little magnets to take with us.

Well done! Very informative displays and easy to navigate. QR codes at each site play a narrative…read moreof what you are looking at during the self guided tour. Takes about 1-2 hours to see everything. Gift shop is okay and there is a snack shack out front selling hotdogs/hamburgers/ chicken strips and nachos. I would highly recommend stopping by The Mammoth Site if you are in the area.

What a hidden gem! This museum is so worth a stop! The variety and quantity of items in their…read morewell done exhibits was amazing! Cynthia (volunteer) greeted us and did a wonderful job giving us an overview of this museum. This was Hot Springs K-12 school and each "classroom" has been transformed into collections of different areas of life here. There's something for everyone and even a place for children to dress up in period clothing. They love to answer any questions you may have. You will not regret taking time to explore this fabulous museum.

This is a fabulous museum filled with history and artifacts. The old school is gorgeous. It is four…read morefloors and huge! We spent a couple of hours walking around, reading, and reminiscing. Everyone there was having a good time from young to old.

The title is not quite accurate, the Museum of Geology and Paleontology is more like it although…read moreone is a subset of the other. There is quite the collection of fossils and bones, mainly from the upper Midwest but also from other places in the US and world. The museum is quite interesting (assuming an interest in such things). It is located on the South Dakota (School of) Mines campus and there was free parking in front and a nominal entrance fee. Seems that students work at the museum so questions are easily answered.

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!

We were way impressed by this museum, chock full of real dinosaur skeletons. Land, water, small,…read moreand ENORMOUS. I saw dinosaurs I had never seen before. This Museum @ Black Hills Institute is a must-see.

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!

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.

I didn't anticipate this being the highlight of our trip, but it was. My kid loved learning about…read morethe history of the mines and the work that went through growing the business. The tour was outstanding and very informative. The younger gentleman that gave the tour was perfect, he kept it fun while giving the information. The scavenger hunt after the tour was a lot of fun too, my kid learned a lot more and I got to see a family member on one of the pieces on the wall, so that was cool. Getting to mine for actual gold was a lot of fun for my kid too, she treasures her vial of gold. It is a limited gift shop, but it is priced very well. Tons of fun!

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!