In 1930, pioneer businessman W.E. Adams founded the Adams Museum in Deadwood, South Dakota, with the purpose of preserving and displaying the history of the Black Hills. He donated the building to the City of Deadwood. Some of the Black Hills’ greatest treasures are on exhibit at the museum, including Potato Creek, Johnny’s 7.346 troy ounce gold nugget; beloved American illustrator N.C. Wyeth’s pencil sketch drawing of Western legend Wild Bill Hickok; the mysterious Thoen Stone record of the Ezra Kind party’s discovery of gold in the Hills in the 1830s; and a rare one-of-a-kind marine reptile, called a Plesiosaur.

The Adams Museum is open Tuesday–Saturday.