South Dakota Air and Space Museum

Located just off I-90 (exit 67), sits a small museum often overlooked as travelers approach the larger monuments of the Black Hills. As you pull into the museum's parking lot, passing through a simple chain link fence, you can't help but notice the larger, fiercer looking gate just a few more yards down the road. The large sign declaring South Dakota Air and Space Museum is dwarfed by the B-1B lancer that sits behind and over it. As you park in the paved lot, you can see there were once yellow lines to define the spots, and people seem to have aligned their cars with the ghosts of them, your eyes can leave the Lancer's slick, dangerous looking lines and notice the other, smaller, aircraft, placed about the grounds. There are gravel paths and small benches here and there, connecting the larger gravel areas where the planes and helicopters sit. Each has a small sign displaying the type of aircraft and other vital statistics, such and dates of service, crew members and payload.

If you can leave the aircraft outside for a moment, you can enter the museum itself. The main doors lead you into a gift shop, with a large box for donations. There is no fee for the museum, but donations are accepted. They do also offer a tour of Ellsworth Air Force Base itself in a bus, which does have a small fee, and is only available during summer months. There are 2 wings off the gift shop, one focuses on the base's history up to and including World War II, and the other the cold war error when Ellsworth was a major base of the Strategic Air Command.

The wing with the Base's earlier history also includes an exhibit of Explorer II, the first Stratospheric Air Balloon launch in the United States (in 1935). On display, among the parts of the balloon itself, are the football helmets borrowed from the South Dakota High School for use by the pilots. Several small dioramas show important battles or bombing missions accomplished by the base's bomber wings during WWII, and there are several displays of equipment from the era.

The other wing of the museum covers more contemporary topics, including a life sized control bunker for Minute Man missiles, a B-83(MK-83) bomb (The training version, not an actual nuclear bomb), and cockpits of the B-1 and F-106 you can actually sit in and play with the switches.

It is outside, however, that attracts most of the visitor's attention. In addition to the B-1 Lancer sitting with the main sign, there is also a B-29 Superfortress and B-52 Stratofortress. Sitting between the large bombers are smaller craft, including many of the first jet aircraft in service with the US Air Force. Many of the planes interiors have been taken over by pigeons, and you can hear them as you walk among the planes, none of which are open, and some in the process of being restored, but the collection is still impressive and the externals of the craft are intact.

The museum is open 8:30am to 4:30pm, and the staff are clear that the gate closes at 4:30pm, and everyone must be off the grounds by then. From the grounds you can see planes coming and going on the base itself. The gift shop contains mainly of the small trinkets you find in aircraft museums across the country, as well as a few things specific to Ellsworth itself.

The Museum offers interesting exhibits on military history and the cold war, but not much on the history of aviation itself. It is free, though, without even a parking charge, and is good way to pass a few hours between Wall and the Badlands, and the Black hills themselves.