Attractions & Lakota Culture
Visitor’s Guide
View the Timber Lake Topic’s West River Summer Visitors guide.
Timber Lake & Area Museum
The Timber Lake & Area Museum is operated by the Timber Lake & Area Historical Society. Located on Main Street, the free museum houses a variety of permanent and changing exhibits and a gift shop.
Visitors will enjoy an impressive display of fossils (including a T-Rex skull), traditional Lakota clothing, Native American history (including a special White Horse Winter Count display), murals, artwork depicting local history (Sea of Grass display), and other historical displays important to our area.
The gift shop offers unique items and a large selection of books for all ages.
Throughout the year, the museum offers a variety of events, including historical speakers and discussions, meet-and-greets with authors, poetry readings, silent auctions, and workshops.
The Blacksmith Shop
Be sure to check out the Blacksmith Shop located north of the Community Center on Main Street. This little log building showcases authentic and functioning blacksmith equipment, including an anvil, a coal-fired forge, billows, grinders, and other vintage tools. The Blacksmith Shop acts as a living history exhibit and gives a glimpse of a once booming business in history.
Dewey County Library
The Dewey County Library is located on Main Street, and has an extensive collection of books, audiobooks, magazines, and newspapers. The library offers WiFi, computer use, scanning, copying and fax services, DVD/video rentals, and reference materials.
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Next to the library you can visit the historic Bookmobile, an original South Dakota State Library Bookmobile that delivered books to schools in Dewey, Corson, and Ziebach counties more than 50 years ago, bringing a traveling library to even the most rural areas.
Two Different Stained-Glass Stories
The Holy Cross Church located at 511 E. Street has seven stained-glass windows that have the tree of life woven throughout them. The window themes are baptism, eucharist, confirmation, tree of life, creation, twelve tribes and twelve apostles, and the new Jerusalem.
The United Parish Church located at the south end of Main Street features a round, stained-glass window in the sanctuary that over 100 years ago was in the sanctuary of the Methodist Church in Timber Lake. The window was in storage for more than 50 years before Roger Lawien fixed it and turned it into a lit shadow box in 2024.
Old Stone Church – Rural Timber Lake, SD
The Holy Spirit Chapel, commonly known as the Old Stone Church, is an Episcopal Indian Mission Church tucked along the banks of the Firesteel Creek on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The church was built in 1922 by local volunteers under the direction of Frank Waggoner, who had built Sitting Bull’s coffin years earlier. The church was built from massive sandstone rocks taken from a butte along a ridgeline just north of the church. Waggonner used his knowledge in stonemasonry to perfectly shape and lay each rock and mortar in place.
In the early 2000s, after 80 years of withstanding the harsh South Dakota elements, local volunteers and contractors embarked on a huge, grant-funded restoration project. The Old Stone Church got a new roof, new tuckpointing and stonemasonry work on the inside and out, and new windows.
The church attracts people from all faiths and cultures. There are still church services held there each year, the occasional wedding, funerals, and burials at the small cemetery across from the church. It is a peaceful hidden treasure on the prairie.
The Cheyenne River Lakota Cultural Center Eagle Butte, SD
You will find artifacts from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, including beautiful murals depicting Lakota traditions and culture painted by local artists, photos, beadwork, paintings, and historical items. The gift shop features only items that have been made by local artists.
Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – Noon and 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Phone: 605-964-2542
Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) Eagle Butte, SD
This nonprofit service organization works with youth to support physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellness. The five-acre campus has the Main Youth Center for 4- to 12-year-olds, the Cokata Wiconi (Center of Life) Teen Center for 13- to 18-year-olds, an Outdoor Art Park, the Keya (Turtle Café), the Keya Gift Shop that has unique art by local artists, traditional foods and more.
The CRYP also hosts the Annual RedCan Graffiti Jam where local and guest artists have one week to transform the sides of buildings and other outdoor places into beautiful murals that are displayed throughout the Eagle Butte community. They are not to be missed.
Cheyenne River Lakota Nation (Oyate)
The Cheyenne River Lakota Nation (Oyate) is comprised of more than 1.4 million acres and located in north central South Dakota. Three major rivers – the Missouri, the Moreau, and the Cheyenne – flow through or border the beautiful prairie.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal (CRST) Headquarters is in Eagle Butte, SD. The CRST Government is led by a Tribal Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and a 15-member Tribal Council. The four bands of the Lakota on CRST represent the Minneconjou, Sans Arc, Blackfeet, and Two Kettle.
A powwow or “wacipi” (Lakota word for “dance” pronounced wa-CHEE-pee) is a traditional Native American celebration. Many are held on Cheyenne River throughout the summer months. The largest wacipi happens over Labor Day weekend in Eagle Butte.
For more information about wacipis and visitor etiquette visit the link below: