Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
Wasta, SD
A privately assembled collection of military vehicles, uniforms, weapons and memorabilia occupies an unlikely roadside location in tiny Wasta. Travelers should check current hours before making a special trip because access can be seasonal or irregular.
Custer, SD
A collection of historic and reconstructed buildings forms a deliberately rough-edged frontier town outside Custer. Visitors walk through cabins, a saloon, jail and other structures filled with artifacts rather than encountering a polished modern museum interior.
Spearfish, SD
This regional museum brings together ranching, rodeo, mining, transportation and Indigenous history from the High Plains. Large artifacts and recreated environments make it a useful context stop for the stranger frontier and industrial locations scattered across western South Dakota.
De Smet, SD
The homestead associated with the Ingalls family preserves the prairie setting made famous through Laura Ingalls Wilder's writing. Reconstructed buildings and hands-on activities allow visitors to experience the exposed landscape that shaped several of her books.
Roslyn, SD
The museum describes itself as the world's first and only museum dedicated entirely to vinegar. Displays cover vinegar making, unusual uses, international varieties, vinegar-based art and tastings.
Hill City, SD
The Black Hills Institute displays dinosaurs, marine reptiles and other fossils connected with one of the world's best-known commercial paleontology organizations. Its collections make Hill City an important stop in the complicated South Dakota story of fossil hunting, preparation and ownership.
Rapid City, SD
South Dakota Mines displays dinosaurs, marine reptiles, ancient mammals, minerals and fossils recovered from the region's exceptionally rich geology. It is a useful stop for understanding what is actually buried beneath many of OddWay's Badlands and fossil destinations.
Vermillion, SD
Thousands of rare instruments represent centuries of musical technology, including highly specialized, ornate and experimental objects. The depth of the collection makes this university museum one of South Dakota's strongest genuinely unusual indoor stops.
Keystone, SD
Dozens of life-size wax figures recreate scenes involving U.S. presidents, turning political history into a collection of carefully staged human replicas. The museum's uncanny figures and proximity to Mount Rushmore make it a particularly fitting OddWay companion stop.
Murdo, SD
This sprawling roadside collection contains classic automobiles, motorcycles, tractors, antique machinery and rooms of unexpected historical objects. What began as a car collection grew into a multi-building time capsule of transportation and prairie life.
Madison, SD
Historic buildings, agricultural machinery, steam equipment and railroad artifacts fill a large recreated prairie community. Annual demonstrations bring massive antique engines back to life, making the site particularly strong for travelers interested in obsolete machinery.
Watertown, SD
A monumental brick museum houses a large collection of Terry Redlin's nostalgic wildlife and rural paintings. The purpose-built center gives one commercial artist an unexpectedly grand, almost shrine-like presence along Interstate 29.
Midland, SD
Dozens of historic frontier buildings have been assembled into a walkable Old West town beside Interstate 90. The site mixes relocated structures, period artifacts, movie memorabilia and recreated streets into an unusually elaborate roadside settlement.
Belle Fourche, SD
The museum collects ranching, rodeo, Indigenous, military and settlement artifacts from the corners of South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. Its location beside the Geographic Center monument makes it a natural extension of one of Belle Fourche's strangest claims to fame.
