Free to enter and surprisingly substantial for a town this size, the Dacotah Prairie Museum runs three floors of exhibits on the natural and cultural history of the Northern Plains. Lakota and Dakota material occupies one wing, with beadwork, ceremonial objects, and contextual displays on the treaty history of the region. Another wing reconstructs homesteader life, including a one-room schoolhouse, sod-house interior, and railroad-era artefacts from the boom years that built Aberdeen.
The Hatterscheidt Wildlife Gallery on the lower level is the unexpected centrepiece — a full big-game taxidermy collection. The museum sits beside the historic Brown County Courthouse downtown and is open Tuesday through Saturday.