Tri-State Museum — Attraction in Belle Fourche

This is such a cool and well-done museum!!! We honestly weren't sure what to expect - we really stopped for the geographic center of the nation monument on our road trip and thought we'd just peak into the gift shop for some postcards. We ended up loving the museum and stayed for at least and hour if not more! It is really thoughtfully constructed - nice signage with easy to understand language, so much cool interactive stuff, a variety of exhibits that cover general and local history - clearly a lot of care and thought has been put into this place. We really liked the science-y exhibit on the history of light, the section on newspaper printing, the home-style artifacts, and the archeology section on dinosaur bones found in South Dakota! Honestly wish we'd had time to stay for another hour and get every little detail. This is well worth a stop and it was free admission when we went! Plus the gift shop is...

This place has such a huge amount of local regional history inside, they are always changing up the exhibits and there is new things to see each time. So much of their donations of old cool stuff is from descendants of early local ranchers and farmers. Everything is just so cool, they have so much that their place is just full to bursting. Funds raised from donations and events is supporting a new addition to the building which will make room for more displays and performances. The museum is supported by yearly memberships and donations from the surrounding communities. They hold a Saturday brunch for members and give little history presentations, this is where the networking happens among the donors. Because belle fourche is a small town, some of the entertainment performances held at the museum are the only thing to do on a weekend if your bored and don’t want to drive...

An amazing time capsule about the history of Belle Fourche and the cattle industry in the area. The displays are divided in areas and contain sections about many subjects, such as pioneer era medicine, pioneer law, homestead living areas, the beet sugar mill industry, bentonite, Belle Fourche military history, the history of western film, area geology, and rodeos through the ages plus much more. Several artifacts and historical objects have been donated or on loan from generations of families that have ranched the area since Seth Bullock and Sol Star convinced the railroad to come to town. It's well worth taking the time to visit and see what life was like for those who first arrived in the area on covered wagons...