This morning we awoke to a rainy day that was unpleasantly warm and muggy:

We drove a few miles to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge:

The main attraction here is the housing of the artifacts from the steamboat Bertrand, which sunk here in 1865 and was found in 1968, her cargo still intact:

This vast roam displays a fraction of the 10,000 cubic feet of cargo recovered, supplies for the gold fields in Montana:

The Bertrand’s paddlewheel flange:

This keg of nails rusted together, then the barrel rotted away, leaving the mass of metal behind:

Miners need lots of shovels:

General goofyness at the visitor center:

This poster shows various birds’ wingspans to scale:

This facility manages both DeSoto and Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges, so the kids completed the joint workbook and received both badges:

Continuing north, we arrived in South Dakota:

We stopped in Vermillion, South Dakota to check out the National Music Museum:

The museum has room to display only 7% of it’s collection, which includes this massive drum:

The string collection was especially impressive:

This Amati was made in 1595 for King Henry IV of France and was later owned by Jean-Baptiste Cartier:

A Lira da Braccio:

Many of the instruments had impressive internal scrollwork:

A carved neck:

The cello on the left has seam lines near the top of the belly, showing the original profile of the instrument, a viola de gamba made by the Stradivari family in the 1730s:

A Stradivarius violin:

This Stradivarius guitar has its maker’s name carved in the neck:

18th century clavichord:

An armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin:

Bohemian bag pipe:

A Balalaika:

A Serpent:

The Hurdy-Gurdy was my favorite instrument at the museum:

An elaborately carved shofar:

Portable violins for dance instructors:

The bent instrument is an A clarinet:

Harmonicas:

There was a gallery dedicated to Asian and African instruments:

This phonograph played two-minute was cylinders, which were made obsolete by records:

Elaborately engraved bell:

A theremin:

We stayed at the museum until closing, then drove north to overnight at Royal River Casino outside of Flandreau, South Dakota.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.