I never expected to find an interesting car museum in a town with a population of less than 500 people. But Murdo — on the plains of South Dakota — is such a place.
The Pioneer Auto Show is a large, family-owned antique vehicle museum and roadside attraction situated just off the freeway in Murdo. It has been around since 1954 and is an interesting stop on a road trip through the state. While the museum focuses on cars, there are also motorcycles, tractors, and a nice slice of American antiques to explore as well.
The Auto Show was founded by the Geisler family. Mr. Geisler collected antique cars and ran a gasoline station in Murdo in the 1950s. His sons significantly expanded the complex in the 1980s, and it is now a collection of buildings filled with lots of stuff to see.
The Pioneer Auto Show features more than 275 classic cars, including an original “General Lee” from The Dukes of Hazzard television show (note: that television show destroyed dozens of these cars – this is one of the last to survive). As someone who likes seeing classic cars, I enjoyed the displays and this blogs features some of my favorites.
We spent several hours exploring what likely was just a small part of the complex. Time restraints required that we move on. We visited in the late fall, with snow on the ground, so we didn’t see go to the complex’s Prairie Town – a recreated early 1900s Midwestern village with a train depot, fire station, general store, etc.
You explore the exhibits at your own pace. Pioneer Auto Show has an associated restaurant, motel, gas station and gift shop.
Besides an interesting collection of cars, there are a lot of assorted historic items on display — too many to study in any detail. Here’s some of them:
A very old snow machine….
I enjoyed this kid-friendly car (one of many)….
Probably my favorite item in the museum was this poster from Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens’ final concert. They died in a plane crash the following morning at 1:00 am in a snowstorm. As a fan of both artists and music of this era, it was a unique piece of Rock and Roll history.
If you visit:
The Pioneer Auto Show is situated right off Freeway I-90 (at Exit 191/192). Admission rates: Adults $14, Children 5-12 $7.50, Under 5 free. Typically open 8am–8pm (Central Time), but can be weather dependent.
Give yourself a lot of time to look around. It’s not glamorous, but there’s a lot of interesting and unusual items to see.
