South Dakota
Find South Dakota travel tips, stories, maps, videos and news for unusual tourist attractions and sights.
New Reports
45-Foot-Tall Statue of Liberty
Rapid City, South Dakota
Faithful replica built in 2014 by the owners of a pizzeria and sports bar. Neighbors tried to block it as an eyesore. The pizzeria and sports bar closed in early 2018.
Sights for Oddball Excursions
1880 Cowboy Town
Buffalo Ridge, South Dakota
Animated characters creak to life to tell their stories of the Wild West.
Chief Crazy Horse Memorial
Crazy Horse, South Dakota
Bigger than Mount Rushmore. And more than a head.
Petrified Wood Park
Lemmon, South Dakota
Forest of frozen fossils -- hundreds of spires, buildings and piles made from petrified wood in the 1930s.
Porter Sculpture Park
Montrose, South Dakota
Features a 60-foot-tall, 25-ton sculpture of a bull's head -- and its creator may be lurking inside.
Pioneer Auto Show
Murdo, South Dakota
Sprawling vehicle collection includes an Elvis motorcycle, "General Lee" from the Dukes of Hazzard, and a car made of wood.
Reptile Gardens
Rapid City, South Dakota
A popular Black Hills reptile ranch and classic tourist attraction, with performing chickens in boxes and the largest collection of reptiles on Earth, including a giant crocodile named Maniac.
Dinosaur Park
Rapid City, South Dakota
Free park of concrete dinosaurs standing on a hill above Rapid City.
Cosmos Mystery Area
Rapid City, South Dakota
Two identical shacks distorted by the forces of gravity and crowd flow.
America's Founding Fathers Exhibit
Rapid City, South Dakota
Famous Declaration of Independence painting rendered as 47 3D sculptures. After learning all about the Founding Fathers, head to the musket range to shoot at Redcoat targets.
Concrete Outline of USS South Dakota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
The most decorated battleship of World War II is an outline on a lawn dotted with salvaged parts.
Wall Drug Store
Wall, South Dakota
This mega-tourist trap has been a vacation stop for generations of thirsty travelers -- it's much more than a drug store.
Center of the Nation Monument
Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Belle Fourche is the Geographic Center of the U.S. A big "stand on the Center" monument proves it.
Six-Ton Prairie Dog
Cactus Flat, South Dakota
Twelve feet of paint-chipped, weather-worn, prairie-dog-resembling cement glory, next to a prairie dog town and the Ranch Store gift shop.
Death Chair of Wild Bill Hickok
Deadwood, South Dakota
Deadwood has become fashionable again, but Wild Bill Hickok's Death Chair has been drawing visitors since 1876.
Devil's Gulch: Jesse James Jumped Here
Garretson, South Dakota
Legendary leap for a legendary law breaker.
Badlands Petrified Gardens
Kadoka, South Dakota
The timeless romance of piles of petrified wood, with an assist from screaming billboards, lures travelers off I-90 to this attraction.
National Presidential Wax Museum
Keystone, South Dakota
Every American President, displayed in one museum. From Washington to Obama, they're all waxen here.
Hugh Glass Bear Battle and Dinosaur Cowboy
Lemmon, South Dakota
Dramatic scrap iron sculptures by local artist John Lopez of a cowboy riding a dinosaur and frontiersman Hugh Glass fighting a bear.
Corn Palace
Mitchell, South Dakota
With its mad mix of onion domes and minarets, this corn-plastered edifice looks like it was drop-kicked out of czarist Russia. Undergoing reconstruction: travelers in Summer 2015 be forewarned.
Prospector Statue Of Johnny One Feather
Rapid City, South Dakota
Johnny, immortalized as an immense advertising symbol, runs the pan-for-gold attraction behind his statue.
Trunkations
Roadside America's blog, offering news, rants and ruminations on the state of South Dakota
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Offbeat Landmarks and Oddities
Choice field reports and tips. Or check out: Complete list of South Dakota attractions.
- Aberdeen: Storybook Land [tips]
- Belle Fourche: Center of the Nation Monument
- Belle Fourche: Center of the Nation - 50 States [tips]
- Brookings: Weary Wil and Dirty Lil [tips]
- Buffalo Ridge: 1880 Cowboy Town
- Cactus Flat: Six-Ton Prairie Dog
- Chamberlain: 50-Foot-Tall Indian Woman [tips]
- Crazy Horse: Chief Crazy Horse Memorial
- Deadwood: Death Chair of Wild Bill Hickok
- Deadwood: Adams Memorial Museum: Two-Headed Calf
- Deadwood: World's Largest Log Chair [tips]
- Ellsworth AFB: Minuteman Missile National Historic Site [tips]
- Faith: Scrap Metal T Rex Sue [tips]
- Farmer: St. Peter's Rock Grotto [tips]
- Fort Pierre: Rodeo Champion Weather Vane [tips]
- Garretson: Devil's Gulch: Jesse James Jumped Here
- Hermosa: Big President Heads [tips]
- Hot Springs: Mammoth Site: Indoor Boneyard [tips]
- Kadoka: Badlands Petrified Gardens
- Keystone: National Presidential Wax Museum
- Keystone: Big Thunder Gold Mine [tips]
- Keystone: Mount Rushmore
- Lead: Open Pit Mine Hole [tips]
- Lead: Mining Museum, Simulated Gold Mine [tips]
- Lemmon: Petrified Wood Park
- Lemmon: Hugh Glass Bear Battle and Dinosaur Cowboy
- Mitchell: Corn Palace
- Mobridge: Disputed Grave of Sitting Bull
- Montrose: Porter Sculpture Park
- Murdo: Original 1880 Town [tips]
- Murdo: Pioneer Auto Show
- Rapid City: Reptile Gardens
- Rapid City: Dinosaur Park
- Rapid City: Cosmos Mystery Area
- Rapid City: Dinosaur of Old Ike Murphy [tips]
- Rapid City: Prospector Statue Of Johnny One Feather
- Rapid City: America's Street Corner Presidents [tips]
- Rapid City: America's Founding Fathers Exhibit
- Rapid City: Bear Country USA [tips]
- Rapid City: Street Corner President: George W. Bush
- Shadehill: Hugh Glass Mauled by Bear Here
- Sioux Falls: Concrete Outline of USS South Dakota
- Sioux Falls: Muffler Man - Mr. Bendo [tips]
- Sioux Falls: Tornado Beam, Teddy Roosevelt Car
- Vale: Muffler Man With Beer Mug
- Vermillion: Skull and Bones of Hero the Elephant
- Wall: Wall Drug Store
- Wall: Wall Drug Dinosaur
- Webster: Shoe House, World's Largest Hairball [tips]