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South Dakota vacations are memorable for many things: beautiful scenery, quaint towns, charming people and driving, hours of driving. Why not go somewhere that takes driving out of the equation? Custer is minutes, not miles from adventure! Come spend a day with us in Custer, SD.

Tom Rancour is many things. He is a father and a husband, an engineer and a business owner. He is a Golden West member, avid military surplus collector and historian. Tom is the founder, curator and operator of Armed Forces Display and Gifts (AFD&G) in Wasta, a small town located about 35 miles east of Rapid City. You have no doubt cruised right by it when going to or from the Black Hills. AFD&G is the big building in Wasta, just behind the Mobile station with an A-4C Skyhawk attack jet perched in the parking lot.

It feels like every day we hear about the latest in technology, a fast gadget or new website aimed at making our lives easier. However, to truly appreciate the benefits of technology we need to look to our past, and how we used to live and work. Lucky for us, two caretakers of the past have amassed an impressive display of relics that you just have to see to believe.

Four years before the United States enacted prohibition, South Dakota passed a new prohibition law of its own, referred to as the “Bone-Dry” law. As the familiar story goes, many citizens disagreed and took to making illegal liquor for their families and friends. This led to numerous busts, destroyed stills and moonshiners going to jail. Prohibition ended in 1933, but South Dakota’s “Bone-Dry” law was not repealed until two years later.

Driving north into the Golden West community of Lower Brule, one of the first buildings you see is Lower Brule High School. When you walk out the front door of the school, the picturesque Big Bend of the Missouri River meets your gaze. However, if you glance to the left, you will see the Lower Brule Day School and Education Administration Office. Tucked in the basement of this building, in a modest space shared with computer storage, sits a non-profit called Lower Brule Research (LBR). The brainchild of a science teacher, this non-profit is in its third year of teaching the youth of Lower Brule to ask questions and use science to help their community.