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The Journey Museum and Learning Center is a museum in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States with 7 acres (28,000 m2) of gardens. It is set up as a journey through the history of the Black Hills, starting with the Native American creation stories, moving into the 2.5 billion years of history in the rock record with the geology exhibit, paleontology, archaeology, Native American inhabitants, and concluding with the pioneers that traveled west.[1][2]
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The Journey Museum | |
  Location in South Dakota  The Journey Museum and Learning Center (the United States) | |
| Established | May 18, 1997 |
|---|---|
| Location | Rapid City, South Dakota |
| Coordinates | 44.086552°N 103.218591°W |
| Type | Historical |
| Visitors | Estimated 75,000-80,000 in 2008 |
| Director | Conor McMahon |
| Public transit access | City View Trolley stops at door of museum, Rapid Ride's Lincoln Bus Route stops at corner of block. |
| Website | www.journeymuseum.org |
The Geology Gallery contains a wall that shows a 2.5 billion year rock record of the Black Hills area. The Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology provides artifacts and information for patrons to better understand the timeline. Along with the geology section is the paleontology section with fossils, much of which is on loan from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota. A model of an on-site dig with a tent provides patrons with a sense of field work. A model of a T-Rex and a Triceratops accompanied by a roaring sound track are also included in the exhibit.
After the Geology and Paleontology exhibits is the Archaeology Gallery. This gallery is split into five sections, according to time period. It is divided into five sections listed in the chart below. The Archaeology Gallery contains artifacts and information from The South Dakota Archaeological Research Center.
| Dates | Section |
|---|---|
| 7500 BC | Paleo-Indians |
| 7500-1500 | Plains Archaic |
| 1500-900 | Plains Woodland |
| 900-250 | Plains Village |
| 250-50 BC | "Historic" |
The Sioux Indian Museum, the next gallery after Archaeology, contains 5,500 pieces regulated by the United States Department of the Interior's Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Most of the collection is from the collection of a Native American arts collector who owned a trading post on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. This part of the collection was collected from the 1890s to the 1930s. The Sioux Indian Museum contains beaded items, ceremonial items, traditional Native American clothing, an exhibit of items made from animals, kids items (such as dolls and games), instruments, Native American saddles, and tipis. There is also a holographic Native American elder who tells three stories.
The Minnilusa Pioneer Gallery is the final gallery in the timeline layout of the museum. This collection has a trapper's cabin, a board walk, saddles that you can try out, a hardware store modeled after the first major hardware store in South Dakota, and several story boards with information and artifacts about the pioneer days. It features famous local legends such as Jim Bridger, General Custer, Wild Bill Hickok, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud. It also covers the interaction between Native Americans and early settlers during the period from the first encounters to the modern day reconciliation with story walls that patrons of the museum can wind their way through.
The Journey Museum has several side exhibits either inside or between the main galleries.
There are regular activity tables in every gallery that children and adults can enjoy. These have coloring pages, books, and activities relating to the gallery it is in.
The museum is surrounded by several acres of western native gardens maintained by a variety volunteer gardeners from the area. The gardens are created with the intent to feature indigenous plant life from the local Black Hills area and other plants found natively in the Western Hemisphere. The large garden area is split up into several small gardens wrapping around the museum. Various gardens contain vegetables, flowers, and trees.
The Journey Museum holds several regularly scheduled events. Additionally, they also have many special events that they book through the year, like a sculpting class for children or a presentation on how to make gingerbread houses.[3]
As part of the mission, several education programs operate through the museum. Weekly educational programs include Toddler Tuesdays, Discovery Expedition, and Journey Into Space. The Journey Museum and Learning Center also offers customized learning experiences for school groups and tours. Educational outreach is also available with the museum's inflatable planetarium program.
Located in the Archaeology area of the museum, the Children's Learning Lab opened on July 1, 2008. It is a center for classes and various drop-by activities throughout the week. The drop-by activities available include books, puzzles, games, puppets, microscopes, and discovery boxes. Discovery boxes are small boxes with activities, information, and objects relating to a certain activity. You can check these boxes out and take them with you into the rest of the museum.
See also
In 2021, the museum was awarded the CORES (Communication and OutReach Experiences in Science) award by the Sanford Underground Research Facility[4] for outreach activities to promote science.
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