Buffalo Ridge Ghost Town — Local services in Benton Township

I went there with my family for my mom's birthday since it was hyped up in a Sioux Falls tourist magazine. Awful. Just awful. You walk in to a rundown gas station. The restrooms are filthy. Bar soap instead of liquid which doesn't sound like much to complain about but is super unsanitary. Everything is dusty and unkempt. We payed 8 dollars a person to get in to the "ghost town". A lady took us through the side room and had no idea what she was talking about. Then set us off to go through the area by ourselves. The entire place is rundown. History is completely inaccurate and whitewashed. There was a "Ghost of the horse Camance" which is you just looking through a hole in the wall of a barn and there's a floating toy horse painted green. I wasn't expecting much with that but still, super tacky. The animated cowboys are terrifying, recordings are warped. The skywalk to overlook the buffalo was a hazard in itself. Boards are rotting through, nails are sticking out. Every time I took a step, the boards would bow. It was terrifying. The buffalo are malnourished and had no adequate room to roam, no adequate water and a moldy bale of hay. No shade as well. Completely disgusted, I asked for a refund and got basically a huge middle finger. The owner proceeded to threaten to call the cops and made an ass of himself. Needless to say, after a one sided argument about the conditions of the place, I did not get my...

Went in there with low expectations due to poor reviews but we were pleasantly surprised. The clerk was welcoming, friendly & informative. His interest & passion showed as he gave us a description of the tour to come. Actual photos of a scalping...creepy but cool. Yes everything is very old as the clerk told us right up front. That is the charm of it all! Makes it seem more realistic in our opinion. I like that we were free to roam as we pleased for as long as we desired. Some of the audios were unintelligable but the signs posted in the exhibits explained the same information. The humongous six-shooter is a fun touch at the top of the hill. The animated person at the bottom of the mine shaft...awesome! Several exhibits have great humor in the descriptions if you're paying attention to them. (i.e.: the trunk with sign posted "Do not open trunk"...open it! & the horse named Comanche..."see his ghost" through the peephole....made us laugh. Curious why there's a mannikin head beside the old oven since I didn't see the body anywhere. & if the ancient settlement isn't enough to look at, the buffalo are easy to spot with several lookout perches for viewing them. We had a...

This place was put together many many years ago by an educator who cared about preserving history. He was also a pioneer in his own right learning animatronics and getting all the pieces just right to tell a story of the old wild west when an infection meant removing teeth or limbs without novocain, antibiotics, or most of the modern conveniences we have today. The man who creates every scene in this museum did it with love for history and man alike so that we would remember what it was like back then. We got to meet this man several years ago. He has passed away since then and the museum might be dusty, some parts might not work and it has always had a bit of an erie feel, but that’s what makes it one of the best damn museums we have ever been to! I highly recommend it but I will say - if you have zero imagination to take you back in time then maybe this isn’t the place for you....