Free & Cheap Things to Do in Pierre

History & Government

Completed in 1910, with an annex added in 1932, the Capitol has been in daily use ever since as state offices and the home of the South Dakota Supreme Court and Legislature. Scagliola columns, stained glass windows, statues and artwork fill the Neoclassical interior, and it is free to walk into.

Address: 500 E Capitol Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: Self-guided tour brochures sit in a stand inside the north doors. Travel South Dakota lists the building as open 8am–6pm weekdays and 8am–5pm weekends and holidays; South Dakota Public Broadcasting adds that from Thanksgiving week through the legislative session it stays open until 10pm. Groups of 15 or more can book a guided tour on 48 hours' notice at 605-773-3688. Ask about the signatures on the tiles.

Memorials & History

The Capitol grounds hold South Dakota's cluster of war memorials, all free and all outdoors. Six bronze figures on a peninsula in Capitol Lake represent the branches South Dakotans served in during the Second World War, a facing wall carries the names of the state's Korean War dead, and the Fighting Stallions Memorial honours the eight South Dakotans killed in a 1993 plane crash, Governor George Mickelson among them.

Address: Capitol Lake, 500 E Capitol Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: The Flaming Fountain runs on an artesian well whose water is warm enough to keep part of Capitol Lake open year-round, which is why migratory waterfowl rest there through the winter. Memorials to the state's fallen firefighters and law enforcement officers stand nearby, and a walking path circles the lake.

Free Walking Tours

The only trail of its kind in the country: life-size bronze statues of every former South Dakota governor, set along a walking route that runs from the Capitol grounds down to the Missouri River in downtown Pierre. The foundation behind it was established in 2010 and has been adding statues ever since, and it publishes biographies of the sculptors and of the governors themselves.

Address: Capitol grounds to downtown Pierre, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: Entirely outdoors and free at any hour — the trail route and artist biographies are on the foundation's site. The Run With the Govs, a 3.5-mile run and walk along the trail, is held each June. Pair it with the Capitol Lake memorials at the north end of the route.

History & Museums

The state history museum inside the Cultural Heritage Center reopened on July 1, 2026 after a full renovation, with galleries running from the horse cultures of the Northern Plains through homesteading to the present. The 1743 Verendrye lead plate, buried across the river in Fort Pierre and dug up by high school students in 1913, is here.

Address: 900 Governors Drive, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: Open Tuesday–Saturday 10am–4:30pm and Sunday 1–4:30pm; closed Mondays for maintenance. Only the first three of six gallery rooms have opened — the final three are due in spring 2027. Children under 17 get in free, and the museum has not republished its adult rate since reopening, so call 605-773-3458 if it matters to your budget. Free History Explorers backpacks for preschool and school-age children are at the front desk.

Science & Discovery

More than 60 hands-on exhibits covering electricity, magnetism, physics, telecommunications and life sciences, in a compact science centre on West Sioux Avenue. It is the kind of place where nobody says don't touch, and eight dollars covers the whole day.

Address: 805 W. Sioux Ave, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: Summer hours (June 1–August 31) are Monday–Saturday 10am–5pm and Sunday 1–5pm; winter hours are Sunday and Tuesday–Friday 1–5pm with Saturday 10am–5pm, closed Mondays. Museums for All households on SNAP, WIC or TANF pay $3 per person with no proof required, and ASTC passport holders from other science centres get in free.

History & Military Sites

One of only twenty authorised National Guard museums in the country, tracing the Dakota Militia from its founding in 1862 — twenty-seven years before statehood — through the Gulf War, Bosnia and recent deployments. An A-7D jet, a Sherman tank, a 75mm cannon, a 105mm howitzer, anti-aircraft guns and an armoured personnel carrier sit outside on the lawn.

Address: 301 E Dakota Ave, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: Open Monday–Friday 9am–4pm, closed weekends and holidays — the tightest schedule of Pierre's free attractions, so plan a weekday. The building itself is a 1930s armoury built by the National Guard and the Works Project Administration. The outdoor vehicles can be walked around any time.

Iconic Landmarks

Lake Oahe stretches 231 miles from Pierre to Bismarck behind the world's fourth-largest rolled-earth dam, and the free visitor centre on Highway 1804 explains how it was built. Exhibits and a six-minute film cover the project, and a wall of historic photographs records President Kennedy's visit to Pierre. The parking lot overlook takes in the dam and powerhouse.

Address: 20207 SD Highway 1804, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: Open Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm in summer and 10am–4pm in winter, and staffed by South Dakota Missouri River Tourism, who also hand out free travel guides for the whole region. The Army Corps of Engineers has suspended public powerhouse tours indefinitely — older listings still advertise a daily 1pm tour, and it is not running. Two more overlooks sit close by on 1804.

Historic Sites

A little white mission chapel built in 1877, moved to its present bluff above Lake Oahe in 1964 when the reservoir flooded its original site. The wood interior has been restored as closely as possible to how it looked in 1907, and a one-room schoolhouse stands beside it.

Address: 20207 SD Highway 1804, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: The grounds and the setting are free and open any time; to see inside, ask for the key at the Oahe Dam Visitor Center in the same complex during its opening hours. The Oahe Chapel Preservation Society maintains it.

Parks & Nature

A Missouri River island on the southwest edge of Pierre, and the one riverside walk here that charges nothing. Lewis and Clark camped here in September 1804, found it full of elk and buffalo and called it Good Humored Island — the next day, upriver, came their tense standoff with the Teton Sioux. Cottonwood, cedar and ash now cover the old sandbar.

Address: Southwest side of Pierre, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: No entrance fee is required, which makes it the cheapest river walk in the capital — the state recreation areas across the water both charge. Day use only, no camping, open year-round with vault toilets that stay open all winter. Trails suit hiking, biking, skiing and snowshoeing.

Parks & Nature

Four miles east of Pierre, an island in the Missouri with eight miles of trail through cottonwood bottomland, a nature observation blind and enough deer and birdlife to make the walk worth it on its own. The Lewis and Clark Family Center on site puts elk and buffalo hides, native animal tracks and a dugout canoe within reach of small hands.

Address: 1301 Farm Island Road, Pierre, SD 57501

Tip: The fee is a per-vehicle daily park entrance licence; residents pay $10 and everyone else $15, with an annual licence at $60 for nonresidents. The Family Center is open Memorial Day to Labor Day only. The park lends fishing poles, snowshoes, life jackets and lawn games free, and rents canoes, kayaks and paddleboards. Water systems may be shut October through April.

Wildlife & Nature

Five miles north of Fort Pierre, directly below the Oahe Dam, this is one of the state parks where bald eagles are reliably visible — in winter they roost in the cottonwoods below the dam, often perching within fifty feet of the riverbank. A prairie butterfly garden near the main entrance plants 17 native species and labels the butterflies they draw.

Address: 20439 Marina Loop Road, Fort Pierre, SD 57532

Tip: Day use is covered by the same per-vehicle entrance licence as every South Dakota state park — $15 nonresident, $10 resident. Campgrounds 1 and 2 close from November 15 until the last Friday in March to protect the eagle roost, but the day-use area and campground 3 stay open all year, which is exactly when the eagles are here.

Historic Sites

On a windy hilltop over the Missouri in Fort Pierre, this National Historic Landmark marks where the brothers Chevalier and Louis la Verendrye buried a lead plate in 1743. They told the people living there it commemorated harmony; in fact it claimed the country for France. Schoolchildren turned the plate up in 1913, and it is now on display across the river.

Address: Hilltop above Fort Pierre, SD 57532

Tip: Free, outdoors and open any time, with one of the best views of the Missouri and both towns. See the actual lead plate afterwards at the state history museum in Pierre — it is considered one of the most significant historical finds in the northwestern United States.

Historic Sites

The American Fur Company built Fort Pierre Chouteau in 1832 and it became the largest fur trading post on the upper Missouri, the commercial centre of the whole region. An average of 17,000 buffalo robes a year were traded here for guns, powder and tobacco before being shipped east. The fort itself is long gone — what survives is the ground it stood on, free to visit.

Address: Fort Pierre, SD 57532

Tip: The fort was dismantled long ago, so this is a historic site to stand on rather than a building to tour — the artifacts and the fuller story are across the river at the state history museum in Pierre. Combine it with the Verendrye Monument and Fischers Lilly Park for a free morning on the Fort Pierre side.

Parks & Waterfront

The mouth of the Bad River, where Lewis and Clark met the Teton Lakota in 1804 in the confrontation that came closest to ending the expedition. The National Park Service certified the park as a Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail site in 2004. Today it holds a playground, a picnic shelter, a boat ramp and a footbridge over the Bad River.

Address: Fischers Lilly Park, Fort Pierre, SD 57532

Tip: Day use is free — the $22 is only for one of the twelve first-come RV pads with water and electric. A walking bridge over the Bad River links the park to the boat ramp off Deadwood Street, and downtown Fort Pierre and the Verendrye Museum are a few blocks away.

Parks & Nature

Roughly 116,000 acres of federal mixed-grass prairie starting about 24 miles south of Pierre, split down the middle by US Highway 83. It is nationally known among bird hunters for prairie chickens, sharp-tailed grouse and pheasant, and the ponds hold bluegill, crappie, bass and perch — ice fishing in winter.

Address: South of Fort Pierre along US Highway 83, Fort Pierre, SD 57532

Tip: No fees or permits are needed to access the grassland, and it is open year-round. Each spring the Forest Service sets up viewing blinds so you can watch sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens dance on their leks — free, but you must reserve one. Check the Forest Service page for current fire restrictions before you go.

Museums & Culture

A two-level museum in Fort Pierre devoted to South Dakota rodeo, built around the memorabilia of Casey Tibbs — nine-time world champion and one of the sport's greatest legends — and Mattie Goff Newcombe, the trick rider who made her name in the 1920s. Displays run from Little Britches and 4-H through high school, college and professional rodeo.

Address: 210 Verendrye Drive, Fort Pierre, SD 57532

Tip: Monday closed, Tuesday–Friday 10am–4pm, Saturday 10am–5pm and Sunday noon–5pm; the museum posts a separate summer schedule of Monday–Friday 9am–5pm, so check before a weekday visit. Seniors 55+ pay $5 and veterans $4. Admission is free during vendor event hours, free for any Stanley County Fairground event contestant wearing a back number, and free for conference-center event guests during contracted event times.