South Dakota Air and Space Museum — Attraction in Box Elder

Terrible experience!! Not sure why it’s called Air and SPACE as there is nothing “space” about it. Maybe a few pictures and very minimal artifacts for space. Should just be air museum. But even worse, the staff. If you even attempt to walk in the doors without a mask a large man will come running at you yelling, “masks, masks, masks!!!” And if you don’t have one, they make you pay for one PLUS TAX! We didn’t even get done paying for them and we’re told we had to put them on right away no exceptions! And if it is even slightly down your nose (still covering nostrils) the same large man will come YELL at you telling you it has to be up all the way over your nose and then walk away loudly saying “wow!!” in a very rude condescending way. Come on guy, learn to be a nice human especially if you’re going to operate a business! Their staff needs major training on customer service. If you’re going to require these things then at least be kind and not rude to your customers! To act like that when we have a kid with us is completely unacceptable. The only good part is that it shows our kid how to NEVER act towards someone else. What a shame the staff was and disappointment of a facility. In my opinion, if you’re going to check this place out, I would just...

Sadly the inside of museum is closed "for renovations" when we visited on 5/8/23. However looking online it appears this has been a status for several years now. The outside aircraft and missle displays are great. The interpretive signage is in very good condition and had helpful info. The parking lot is nice and large but if traveling in an RV swing wide to enter thru the gate as it's a bit tight. Bc the museum is closed we essentially had the parking lot to ourselves. 4 other vehicles came in while we were touring the outside exhibits and once they saw the buildings were not open they left. I only wish that the operators of the museum would be sure to monitor online listing across the internet and have up to date info on their website as to fact the museum itself is closed until further notice so no one makes a huge trip here for just the outside stuff. We happened to already be staying on the base at their campground so we were ok. When and if it ever opens, currently their site says free to go inside. Perhaps they should start charging to raise some needed funds for...

The South Dakota Air & Space Museum is located in Box Elder just outside the Ellsworth AFB main gate. It is FREE TO THE PUBLIC. It boasts an extensive collection of artifacts and documents that capture the distinguished history of Ellsworth Air Force Base, the 44th Strategic Missile Wing, and the 28th Bomb Wing throughout the Cold War. Ellsworth AFB played a crucial role in national defense during this time period with an arsenal that included bombers such as the B-29 Superfortress, B-36 Peacemaker, B-52 Stratofortress, and B-1 Lancer along with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles including the Titan I and the Minuteman. The museum also has four large inside galleries of artifacts covering the history and heritage of military and civilian aerospace achievements covering the past century. The museum itself is housed in four aircraft alert hangers in which Air Defense Command fighters sat on alert waiting to engage penetrating Soviet bombers during the height of...