Situated just off Interstate 29, Exit 215, in Pembina, ND.
Summer Hours (May 1-September 30)
Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
Winter Hours (October 1-April 30)
Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Closed New Year’s Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
Features permanent & temporary exhibits
Travel information
Museum store
Observation tower
Meeting room/facility rental
Modern facilities
On-site parking
ADA-accessible
The Pembina State Museum features a modern meeting room with an adjacent kitchen that is available to rent. After hours use of the lobby area and back lawn are also available for groups. Contact the museum at least two weeks in advance of the gathering for reservations.
Free admission for the exhibits and museum store.
Observation tower:
$2.00 for ages 16+
$.50 for ages 6-15
Free for ages 5 and under
Prehistory of the Red River Valley
Archeological investigations conducted in the Red River Valley reveal that people have been utilizing resources in this area for more than 9,000 years.
Prehistoric people harvested berries, acorns, and hazelnuts from the Red River’s gallery forests. Pike, catfish, drum, and turtles were harvested from the river, along with freshwater clams which were made into ornaments and tools.
Bison, deer, elk, beaver, muskrat, squirrel, and raccoon were hunted and/or trapped. The archeological record also reveals that ducks were consumed by early people.
Late Prehistory – Just Before the Arrival of Europeans
Before Euro-American contact, Chippewa (also called Ojibway and Ojibwe), Dakota, Assiniboine, Cree, and Cheyenne Indian tribes traveled in and out of the Red River Valley. They led a nomadic lifestyle, hunting, fishing, and gathering plants. They lived in tipis covered with birch bark or tanned hides, depending upon what was readily available.
Before European contact, Indians made their tools from natural materials such as stone, shell, wood, and bone. In the 1700s, European goods such as metal, cloth, glass, and steel began arriving in Pembina through trade with other Native groups.
Fur Trade in the Pembina Region
In the Red River Valley and throughout North America, the fur trade era was a time of transition and change – the meeting and mingling of Native American and European cultures. Each group had something wanted by the other, and each group profited from the exchange. Native cultures traded furs and pelts, and Europeans traded manufactured goods, alcohol, and tobacco.
Early fur traders relied on canoes for transportation of goods. 
Most of the fur trade posts were extensions of British (Hudson’s Bay Company) and Canadian (North West Company) operations. These companies retreated north after the 49th parallel was established as the border between the United States and Canada.
By the 1840s, Red River ox carts were the principal means of shipping transportation. Eventually Red River carts were used in conjunction with steamboats and railroads.
By the turn of the century, the fur trade era had ended. Fur bearing animals had been hunted nearly to extinction, and settlers were moving into the region.
Address:
805 State Highway 59,
Pembina, ND 58271
Get Directions
Summer Hours (May 1-September 30)
Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
Winter Hours (October 1-April 30)
Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Closed New Year’s Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
Contact Pembina State Museum:
phone: 701.825.6840
email: shspembina@nd.gov
Contact SHSND:
phone: 701.328.2666
email: history@nd.gov
