South Dakota State Railroad Museum

The South Dakota State Railroad Museum stands adjacent to the Hill City depot, on land belonging to the Black Hills Central Railroad — the heritage operation famous as the 1880 Train. The railroad history surrounding it runs deep: the branch through Hill City was a Chicago, Burlington and Quincy line laid to reach the mining and timber country of the Black Hills; it arrived in Keystone on January 20, 1900, and later carried the gear hauled in for carving Mount Rushmore. Tourist steam trains have run from the adjacent depot since 1957, when two steam enthusiasts launched the operation that became the 1880 Train, and today the museum shares its setting with a railroad listed on the National Register of Historic Places.