You can pull off I-90 in South Dakota and walk into a real 1880s town

It’s right off the interstate

You’re driving across South Dakota on I-90, and somewhere around mile marker 170, a whole town from the 1880s appears on the open prairie.

1880 Town sits 22 miles west of Murdo, and every one of its 30-plus buildings is the real thing, pulled from abandoned sites across the state. The floors creak.

The wood is weathered down to gray. Thousands of original relics fill every room.

This is not a polished museum, and that’s exactly the point.

A film crew left and the Hullingers kept building

Richard Hullinger bought 14 acres at Exit 170 back in 1969 with no big plans.

Then a film crew showed up in the early 1970s to shoot a Western, built a main street set using old buildings and antiques from Richard’s father, Clarence, and left town when the production fell apart. The Hullingers moved the whole set to their land.

They originally called it Two Strike, after a Lakota leader.

Over the decades that followed, they tracked down abandoned buildings across the prairie and hauled them in one by one.

The tour starts inside a fourteen-sided barn

The first thing you walk into is a barn with fourteen sides, built in 1919 and moved 45 miles from south of Draper over three days.

Inside, you’ll find antique buggies, old toys, horse stalls, and a coin-operated saloon piano that came out of Deadwood. The barn even had an automated hay and manure system, which was serious engineering for its day.

Step through the entrance and the whole town fans out across the prairie in front of you.

Custer-era boots sit inside the Vanishing Prairie Museum

The Vanishing Prairie Museum holds the heavy hitters.

A pair of boots and an army saddlebag pulled from the Custer battlefield at the Little Bighorn sit behind glass, found at a Native American campsite.

You’ll see parade helmets worn by U.S. Cavalry Indian Scouts, marked with the crossed arrow insignia.

The rest of the room fills out with arrowheads, Native American dolls, a complete cowboy outfit, and Buffalo Bill memorabilia.

Casey Tibbs, Fort Pierre’s nine-time world champion rodeo cowboy, gets his own tribute here too.

Cowboys left spur marks on the hotel staircase

Walk into the Dakota Hotel, built in 1910 and moved from Draper, and look at the staircase. You can still see the scars where the cowboys’ spurs scraped the wood.

Down the street, the Gardel and Walker Livery Barn holds early engines and two wagons from the Indian war era. A railroad depot relocated from Gettysburg, South Dakota, sits packed with telegraph and rail equipment.

Every building along Main Street is furnished floor to ceiling, showing you what a regular day looked like out here.

Ring the bell at the one-room schoolhouse

The schoolhouse still has its ink-well desks, old textbooks, a reciting bench, and roll-up maps on the wall. A big stove sits near the blackboard, the kind that kept the front row warm and left the back row cold.

You can grab the rope and ring the school bell yourself.

Down the path, St. Stephan’s Church dates to 1915 and came from Dixon, South Dakota, with its stained glass windows and bell still intact. Both buildings give you a quiet, close-up look at early prairie life.

Kevin Costner’s horse lived here until 2008

1880 Town keeps a big collection of props from the 1990 film Dances with Wolves, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

You can see the sod house, tents, and Timmons freight wagons used during filming across the South Dakota prairie. The horse that played Cisco, the one Kevin Costner rode in the movie, was a horse named Buck.

He lived right here at 1880 Town until he died in 2008 at age 33. A memorial marks his burial spot on the property.

Grab a sarsaparilla and dress like a cowboy

Head to the Longhorn Saloon and you can rent Old West costumes in all sizes. Cowboy outfits, pioneer dresses, the works.

Put one on and walk the whole town taking photos for as long as you want, because there’s no time limit on the rental.

While you’re inside, order a sarsaparilla, a non-alcoholic soft drink made from the sarsaparilla root. A coin-operated player piano fills the room with old-time music while you sip.

Catch a live shootout on Main Street

During the season, cowboys square off in live shootout reenactments right in the middle of town. The showdowns play out frontier justice scenes, and the performers draw crowds all day long.

Your admission covers the whole thing, so you don’t pay extra. After the dust settles, the actors stick around for free photos.

Between the shootouts, a pianist plays old-time tunes in the saloon, and you can wander in and out of buildings at your own pace.

A wagon ride takes you to a prairie homestead

The Longhorn Ranch spreads across the prairie around town, and a herd of registered Texas Longhorns grazes the land. You’ll also spot horses, goats, and chickens roaming the property.

Hop on the wagon ride and it takes you about a quarter mile east to a recreated homestead with a windmill, corrals, a barn, a house, and an outhouse.

The open grassland stretches out flat in every direction, and you get a real feel for what early settlers saw when they first staked a claim.

Pan for gemstones and let the kids play sheriff

Kids can sift through panning material to find colorful gemstones, and a Sheriff’s Badge station gives them a reason to run around the grounds pretending to keep the peace.

You can bring your dog too, as long as you keep them on a leash. The gift shop stocks Old West souvenirs and South Dakota keepsakes.

Everything is self-paced and spread across open ground, so families with little ones or older visitors can take as much time as they need.

A 1950s Santa Fe train car is now a diner

Right in the middle of an 1880s town sits a 1950s Santa Fe train car that once ran the route from Chicago to California.

It rolled onto the property in 1982 and now serves as a diner where you can sit down and eat surrounded by mid-century memorabilia. The Milwaukee Depot next door has travel brochures and restrooms.

The train car sticks out against the weathered wood and dust of the frontier buildings, and that’s part of the fun.

Visit 1880 Town in South Dakota

You’ll find 1880 Town at 24280 SD Highway 63 in Midland, South Dakota, right off I-90 at Exit 170. The town opens May 1 and closes Oct. 31, depending on weather and staffing.

Keep in mind it runs on Mountain Standard Time. If you’re pulling an RV or driving something oversized, there’s plenty of parking.

The on-site Conoco gas station and general store have fuel and snacks, so you can fill up before getting back on the highway.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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