Pipestone National Monument is the reason to make the detour to Pipestone. The red stone quarried here has been used for ceremonial pipes by many Indigenous nations for centuries, and the site remains active and sacred rather than frozen as a museum piece.
The visitor center gives useful context before the short Circle Trail, which passes quarry pits, tallgrass prairie, quartzite formations, historical markers, and Winnewissa Falls. The trail is only about three-quarters of a mile, but take it slowly. This is one of those places where the landscape is small enough to walk in an hour and large enough to carry a continent's worth of history.