RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) _ A Rapid City museum is moving its bison-related collection to the Crazy Horse Memorial in western South Dakota.

The Rapid City Journal reported (Museum of the American Bison moving to Crazy Horse) that the Museum of the American Bison did not attract the crowds it had hoped and is moving the collection as a way to attract even more visitors to the memorial being built in the Black Hills honoring the Oglala Lakota warrior.

The Museum of the American Bison in its downtown Rapid City location had about 17,000 people visit over the past two years. The Crazy Horse Memorial draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

“We wouldn’t come close to that,” museum director Susan Ricci said of the downtown location.

The previous site is now being vacated as the museum displays are gradually transported to Crazy Horse.

“Mostly just, we feel that we can get a better venue of people there than in downtown Rapid City,” said board vice president, Trudy Ecoffey. “People are going down there to shop and eat and not necessarily to go to a museum.”

Ricci said the move will ease some of the organization’s financial burden as it gives up its $1,700 per month downtown lease.

The collection, complete with its full-sized stuffed buffalo, bison leggings, and moccasins and tools, will tentatively reopen at Crazy Horse in its own spot that will be selected by officials at the memorial by November.

The curator at Crazy Horse said they were excited to include the collection at their visitor’s center.

“As we try to tell the story of our people, it’s valuable information on how important the bison was to native people on the prairie,” said Crazy Horse curator Mary Bordeaux.

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Information from: Rapid City Journal, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com

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