Days of '76 Museum
Deadwood, South Dakota
This museum doesn't celebrate the patriotic days of 1776, but the whiskey-fueled days of 1876, when gold was first discovered in Deadwood.
The Days of '76 Museum began as a barn display about Deadwood's Days of '76 annual festival, a combination parade and rodeo, which was largely inspired by Buffalo Bill's Wild West Shows of the late 19th and early 20th century. The first Day's of '76 was held in 1924 -- Deadwood's first official celebration of its Wild West heritage. Other formerly lawless hellholes such as Tombstone and Dodge City would wait another decade before they began to mine for tourist gold.
The museum has a lot of rodeo regalia and horse-drawn vehicles from the parade -- especially horse-drawn vehicles. They range from Deadwood's original stagecoach to the lush carriages used by Deadwood's gold-funded elite. Many are displayed in front of backdrops of appropriate Deadwood buildings, in the same way that car museums display 1950s Chevys in front of simulated gas stations.
In 2013 the Days of '76 Museum moved to a bigger building and broadened its scope. Visitors can now see thousands of Western relics, including Buffalo Bill's gloves, Calamity Jane's rifle, and a Native American breast plate made of bullet cartridges from the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee.