About Us

The Museum is currently under construction and therefore not open to the public. Sorry for the inconvenience.

In September of 2009, Shirley Martin and Donna Anderson called a general public meeting to discuss the future, and possible demise, of the museum housed in the old Rapid City School in Rapid City, MB.

There was no longer an active board of directors and as such, brave and steadfast volunteers were asked to form a board which could then go on to decide whether the museum needed to be dismantled and the artifacts given new homes, or if it could be saved. The new board choose the later.

It quickly became apparent that the museum was in peril due to the condition of the building housing it. The building had not been heated for years and the constant freeze / thaw cycles endemic to our climate along with a poorly maintained roof had allowed for moisture to damage the museum collections.

We have removed the vast majority of the museum collection and have it stored safely while we focus on working on the main building. The process of packing away the artifacts showed what a vast collection of our community's history we really have and the responsibility we have to tell that story.

After many consultations with a variety of experts we began the long journey of fixing our building to bring it up to code. Ironically we began the renovation process by demolition. We started in the basement and took the walls down to the stones and removed all the flooring bringing it down to the basics. We then moved up to the top floor and took out all the straw board. The big project (and some would say the most messy) was the removal of lath and plaster from the main floor as well as the top floor. The history we have uncovered has been quite amazing and the sense of getting somewhere is exhilarating! Now that we are down to the bare bones we can see what we need to do and begin the process of building things up again.

We also petitioned the Town of Rapid City Council to have the museum designated a Municipal Heritage Site.

The road ahead is no doubt going to be rife with bumps and detours but in the end, when we reach our goal, we will have a building, and preserved piece of history, to be proud of.