powder river historical museum

This is the real thing!!!Brands, old country store, implements, saddles, pictures, memoirs! Probably best arrowhead collection anywhere. Surprising shell collection from around the world.Everything is authentic.

This museum is not at all what I was expecting, and that is a really good thing! This is not some fly by night roadside attraction. It is a legitimate museum with something for everybody. Everything in the museum is meticulously labeled and cataloged. It is waaay bigger than it looks from the outside as there are multiple buildings in the back which include a HUGE collection of seashells (the largest west of the Mississippi) with tens of thousands of shells. There are hundreds of arrowheads, a saddle collection, cars, wagons, carriages, guns, war memorabilia, an entire transplanted one room school house, an entire one room homestead, etc, etc, etc. I figured we would stop for 20 mintues or so, ended up spending 2 hours there and could have spent more. The man who gave us a tour was so energetic, passionate, and proud of his county's museum, and by golly he should be! What an awesome, awesome find! Do yourself a favor and just stop. It's free, but you will almost certainly want to donate!

History abounds.. Friendly volunteer staff.. Large shell collection, 5 generations of wedding dresses from the same local family, vintage clothes, a one room school house, antique cars... looks like a little museum from the outside.. packed full with surprises, memories and caring, warm people. We took 5 children through and our guide was so patient.. answered their questions, pointed out things to them.. genuinely kind.

On our way from Rapid City to Cody we stopped at Broadus, Montana. A friendly lady advised us to visit the local museum. The place is run by volunteers and is stacked with relics of old days. We got a free guided tour through the museum and its annexes (an old school room, a log cabin and a garage). Want to see a Ford model T and a convertible straight out of "Happy Days"? This is the place to be.Many people must have devoted much of their spare time to build this unique place. Some days nobody visits the museum, most days only a few people. However, the stories that are told there and the things that are shown offer an interesting view of life in rural America as it used to be. We stayed way much longer than we had originally intended and loved every minute of it.