Pipestone (pop. 4,300) was originally the homeland of the Dakota Indians, a sacred meeting place where they quarried the soft red stone for use in ceremonial pipes. The town's historic district contains buildings, built between 1889 and 1910, using the pinkish-purple Sioux quartzite.
The Pipestone County Museum is part of Pipestone County Historical Society. The Society was organized in 1880. The Museum was opened in 1967 in the City's former City Hall building, an impressive structure built in 1896 out of locally quarried Sioux Quartzite.
The Pipestone National Monument owes its name to the soft reddish stone from which the Indians make their ceremonial pipes. Each tribe has access to this sacred site, where peace must prevail; and even today only Indians are allowed to quarry the stone (an aluminum silicate, known as catlinite after the pioneer and painter of Indian life George Catlin). Examples of Indian pipes can be seen in the Upper Midwest Indian Cultural Center.
Address: Pipestone National Monument, 36 Reservation Avenue, Pipestone, MN 56164-1269, United States
Phone: 1 (507) 825-5464, Fax: 1 (507) 825-5466
Hours:
8am-5pm; Sun:8am-6pm; Fri:8am-6pm; Sat:8am-6pm
Always closed on: New Year's Day (January 1), Thanksgiving - USA (4th Thursday, November ), Christmas - Christian (December 25)
Tips: Hours and closures apply to the Vistor's Center.
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