Local museum Legacy of The Plains entrance in Gering, Nebraska

Dave and I are lifelong learners. It is one of the reasons we wanted to explore this great country! In our travels of the lower 48 contiguous states, one of the things we love to do is visit local museums. Obviously, we have not visited EVERY museum in EVERY state!

The local museums listed in this blog are museums that tell a story about a geographic area or about the lives of people who lived in a specific geographic area. These are some of our favorite local museums, alphabetically by state.

Our favorite local museums, alphabetically by state.

Arizona

Winslow, AR
The Old Trails Museum is located in downtown Winslow, within eyesight of the famous Winslow Corner. It is quaint, cute, and has exhibits about all things Winslow from the local trains, to the La Posada Hotel, to the Henley letter, to a dental exhibit from the 1880s.

Idaho

Coeur D’Alene
The Museum of North Idaho focuses on the people who lived and worked in the northern area of Idaho. The museum’s motto is: Preserving and illuminating our past to inspire our future. Exhibits rotate every few months. When we were there, the exhibit was “North Idaho During World War II”.

Mississippi

Waveland, MS
The Waveland Ground Zero Hurricane Museum building is the old Waveland School, the only building on Coleman Street that was not decimated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Walking tours of the museum are given by volunteers who experienced Katrina. There are short videos and multiple exhibits.

Missouri

Branson, MO
The Branson Centennial Museum is a small, quaint local history museum. Rotating exhibits include the 1839 arrival of the first permanent residents in the area, Harold Bell Wright’s novel “Shepherd of the Hills” and the early Ozark performances out of caves and churches to the Branson stages.

Montana

Butte, MT
The World Museum of Mining, chartered in 1964, chronicles the lives of miners who worked in the Orphan Girl silver and zinc mines. The museum includes over 50 buildings on 22 acres of land. The Orphan Girl mine is now inactive, but the museum offers tours down in the mine for a “real life experience”.

Miles City, MT
The Range Riders Museum is probably our favorite local museum anywhere in the country! There are 13 buildings of exhibits preserving the history of the cowboy and ranching culture in the American West. The museum features history of the cowboy, rodeo, and ranching traditions.

Nebraska

Gering, NE
We were in Gering for the Legacy of the Plains Museum’s 26th annual Harvest Festival. The museum was huge and had hundreds (thousands?) of exhibits of farming in the Nebraska panhandle. During the Harvest Festival there was an outdoor exhibit of farmers harvesting potatoes on the museum grounds.

New Mexico

Gallup, NM
The Gallup Cultural Center is located on the 2nd floor of the old railroad depot and Amtrak station. The second floor has exhibits of Native American culture, Native American artists, and a small section about the Navaho Code Talkers from WWI and WWII.

Roswell, NM
The UFO Museum has a very comprehensive group of memorabilia from the 1947 “the incident” in a field near Roswell. “The incident” was a reported crash landing of an alien spaceship. There are actual documents and memorials from individuals about how “the incident” was handled by the local, state, and federal government.

North Dakota

Medora, ND
The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame had so many things to see and read that it was almost mind-numbing! The first floor had a small theater and exhibits of ranching and rodeoing. The second floor had dozens of sculptures and framed pictures of people who contributed to the expansion of the West.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City, OK
The First Americans Museum, or FAM, opened in September 2021. FAM is devoted to providing information, histories, culture, contributions and resilience of each of the 39 tribes that call Oklahoma home. There are many films and videos with Native American speakers describing different aspects of the Native American life.

Oregon

Baker City, OR
The Baker Heritage Museum is one of the nicest local museums we have visited. It is filled with old farming and mining equipment, movie memorabilia, Airstream travel trailer history, a history of the contribution of the Chinese immigrants to the area and much, much more!

South Dakota

Chamberlain, SD
The Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center opened in 1991 on the St. Joseph’s Indian School campus. The museum reflects their mission of honoring and preserving the rich culture of the Lakota people, and the students at St. Joseph’s Indian School. There are numerous informative exhibits, pictures and short videos.

Texas

San Antonio
The Alamo is in downtown San Antonio. The Alamo is a historic Spanish mission and fortress founded in 1718 by Roman Catholic missionaries. It survived under five flags of independent nations and served as a garrison for five different armies. It is best known as the site of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo.

Utah

Hurricane, UT
The Hurricane Valley Pioneer Museum is a very small, local museum about the early settlers of Hurricane. The museum chronicles the difficulties of the early settlers in farming and ranching. There are many artifacts and pictures from the early days. This museum has everything, even a 150-year-old top tier of a wedding cake!

St. George, UT
The St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site Museum has connections to the dinosaurs thousands of years ago! Originally the site was going to be another building in downtown St. George, when dinosaur fossils were discovered! It became an active dig site with many fossils discovered! Fascinating!

Wisconsin

Warrens, Wisconsin
The Cranberry Discovery Center was a hidden gem. There were films to watch and multiple exhibits of how cranberries are grown and harvested. Through exhibits and videos, the museum demonstrated how the cranberry industry was revolutionized in Warrens. The innovation of the Warrens’ cranberry growers made the area a world leader in cranberry production.

Wyoming

Casper, WY
In 1859 Luis Guinard built a bridge across the North Platte River and a trading post in Casper. Shortly after the bridge was built, Fort Caspar was also built to protect the mass migration of land seekers traveling through Casper. Yes, Fort Caspar is spelled differently than Casper, WY! The post was renamed in honor of Lieutenant Caspar Collins after his death in the Battle of Platte Bridge in 1865. The fort closed in 1867. The Fort was reconstructed in 1936 as a museum.

Take-away Points

These are some of our favorite local museums that helped us to understand the people who lived and worked in their particular geographic regions. Our favorite? Probably the Range Riders Museum in Miles City, Montana. When we left the museum, we left with an understanding of what life was like in the area in the early years and in many ways the current years. In the main building there is a large room lined with framed pictures of the people who were born, raised and died in Miles City. The original curator started the tradition, and the current curator continues honoring those people who made Miles City what it is.

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn, Dave and Lucky
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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