Museum of Geology at South Dakota Mines

The Museum of Geology opened the same year as South Dakota Mines itself, which tells you something about the priorities of the people who built this place: the rocks came first. On the campus in Rapid City, the museum collects and exhibits paleontological, mineralogical, and geological material from South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains. Since 1944, the public exhibits have occupied the second floor of the O'Harra Building. The preparation laboratories and collections are held in the James E. Martin Paleontology Center, built in 2009.