Back in the day, this town was named in honor of the many veterans of the Gettysburg, PA Civil War battle who had relocated to the area. We decided specifically to stay in Gettysburg, SD for a couple reasons.

Gettysburg, SD has an award-winning museum, called the Dakota Sunset Museum, dedicated to the history of Potter County. We had such a wonderful experience this spring touring the Albert County Museum in New Brunswick, Canada that we decided to give another county museum a try. Joe also wanted to expand our camping experiences beyond private, state and federal campgrounds, and the municipality of Gettysburg offered free (donation requested) RV camping at a parking lot near its high school football field. So, we headed to Gettysburg.

We had a quiet night with a few other RVers in the Gettysburg Park. We enjoyed watching the junior and senior high school football teams practice at the football field across the parking lot. Unlike most municipal parks that do not offer any services, Gettysburg offered electrical hook-ups at 4 sites, fresh water and a dump station—all for free!

The Dakota Sunset Museum offered an eclectic mix of exhibits, including a Civil War exhibit honoring the war veterans who settled in Potter County.

Like many small towns, Gettysburg has experienced decline and a loss of residents and businesses. The Dakota Sunset Museum turned that loss into a positive for the community and us. The museum was able to preserve a bank, blacksmith shop, antique barbershop, one-room school house, a general store that once served the town. Locals donated their own collections ranging from a big game collection to a salt shaker collection.

Our favorite item was a wax cylinder player. This was the first time we heard one in person.

Medicine Rock is featured prominently in the front of the Museum. Medicine Rock is a large boulder that appears to have foot prints, hand prints and bear tracks implanted in the rock. Some believe that a man was being chased by a bear, and as the man ran across the rock he left his footprints and handprints embedded in the rock. Local folklore says the man survived the attack only because The Great Spirit picked him up and rescued him from the bear. See the 2016 essay by Corey Wannamaker for more details on the lore.

Medicine Rock was relocated to the Dakota Museum to protect it from flooding from a newly built dam, and sadly, to protect it from vandalism.

County museums provide communities with opportunities to preserve records of their history, and residents an opportunity to preserve the interesting and sometimes historic collections of relatives. Few individuals have the ability to preserve a relative’s salt shaker, or large game taxidermy collection, or the contents of a pioneer barbershop. It’s wonderful that museums such as the Dakota Sunset Museum exist to fill this niche. Otherwise, interesting, beautiful and historic objects might end up lost to the landfill. We are thinking of our own family heirlooms as we write this.

We are off to Devils Tower National Monument (already posted) but will stop at the “geographic center” of the United States located in Belle Fourche, SD.

Wishing you all safe travels.