Moving eastward from Rapid City and the Black Hills, the rest of South Dakota’s western half is quintessential high plains. I call it Dances With Wolves Country after the early 1990s movie with Kevin Costner set and filmed there. This area around Badlands National Park was where I first set sight on the American West I’ve come to know so well and love so much.

Located in the small town of Wall next to one of the two main exits from I-90 for Badlands National Park, Wall Drug has to be about the mother of all tourist traps. It’s hard not to stop there if you go to the Badlands and not much harder if you’re just driving across the state on I-90. I’m pretty sure I’ve stopped in on each of my trips to the area over the years. Maybe “tourist trap” isn’t the best word for it since there’s a decent restaurant at Wall Drug, plenty of stores selling a variety of things from tee-shirts to gifts to books to gems to western wear.  It’s part museum too and such attractions are all free, in contrast to the typical overpriced tourist trap that charges an admission fee incommensurate with what there is to see.  It was actually quite fun for a few hours of browsing and a bison burger.  Interestingly, there is an entire gallery of family photographs of the owners, the Husted family. Apparently they are good Republicans, as indicated by the multiple Republican politicians they were photographed with over the years, including presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Located beside the other main I-90 exit for Badlands National Park is an entirely different attraction and one that is new for me. Minuteman Missile National Historic Site was passed by Congress in 2001 and commemorates the Cold War era of nuclear deterrence. After the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, the START Treaty between the U.S. and Russia (no longer the Soviet Union) reduced the nuclear stockpiles of both countries and the class of missiles located in South Dakota was decommissioned. Two missile silos scattered around the plains and a visitor center with a museum explain the era. After going to the visitor center we drove to one of those decommissioned missile silos, situated oddly enough within sight of the interstate. It’s interesting to me as history during my lifetime.