Custer County 1881 Courthouse Museum

Built in 1881 of locally kilned brick, the Custer County Courthouse served as the hub of county government, church, and community gatherings for 92 years before being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and converted into a museum in 1976. It's one of the most rewarding and underrated stops in the Black Hills. Three floors of themed rooms, from the original third-floor courtroom to the basement jail. Highlights include the Custer Expedition Room with photographs from William H. Illingworth's 1874 expedition, artifacts from General Custer himself including his rifle and shoulder epaulets, a one-room schoolhouse featuring a tableau of Annie Tallent — the first white woman in the Black Hills — a Military Room spanning the Revolutionary War to present day, and a Ranch Room with saddles, branding irons, and barbed wire. Outside, outbuildings include a hand-hewn log building housing printing equipment from Custer's first newspaper, a blacksmith forge, a carriage house with vehicles from the 1870s–1900s, and the site of Custer County's only legal hanging.