Tornado Beam, Teddy Roosevelt Car
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
This free museum offers many artifacts of regional and historical note. We originally contacted them about Nipper the Hero Collie, then heard about a few roadside-y treasures.
The museum displays a Fawick Flyer, one of five early automobiles built in a local garage. Young Sioux Falls inventor Thomas Fawick designed it, one of the first cars with four doors. Teddy Roosevelt rode in the novel internal combustion car during a 1910 parade through the city.
On July 9, 1932, the force of a tornado tore away a steel bridge girder that was 12-ft. long and drove it into a thick tree trunk a thousand feet away. A portion of the tree trunk, curved steel beam, and photos of the aftermath are in a permanent exhibit about "Violent Winds."
Unfortunately, the museum no longer publicly displays the pelt of Nipper, a collie who in 1938 saved an 18-month old child who had fallen into a water tank. Nipper was run over by a truck soon after, but his furry hide was preserved. Nipper's pelt made an appearance in a temporary exhibit about dogs before going back into storage; we hope he turns up again.