The Longhorn Saloon – Main Street, Scenic, South Dakota

I kid you not, this *is* Main Street, in Scenic, South Dakota, right outside of the Badlands. Unfortunately, I did not have time to stop in for a beer.

[ maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Rapid+City,+SD&dad… ]

Next time.

I think the sign says, “Indians Allowed”. Check out the large version to read the lettering (though since I enlarged a small crop, it is a little “soft”)

from 2008. Apparently it is for sale. No, not just the Longhorn Saloon, but the whole town:

For less than the price of a one bedroom apartment in much of Manhattan, you can buy a whole town in South Dakota. The catch: it’s right on the edge of the remote Badlands, 50 miles from the nearest town of any size. The population is 9.

One-time rodeo star Twila Merrill, owner of 12-acre Scenic, South Dakota is selling up due to an illness. According to Coldwell Banker agent Dave Olsen, everything in Scenic (“so-called because it’s beautiful,” he said), is included in the sale: an old-fashioned Western saloon, two shops, and a dancehall, among other buildings. They mostly date back to the town’s 1906 founding, and Olsen hopes the new owner will preserve them as relics of the Old West.

Scenic has been on the market for two months, but there wasn’t much interest beyond local business people until the Rapid City Journal filed a story on the listing on Monday. In the last 24 hours, CNN and ABC got in on the act, and a shocked Olsen told Forbes that the international press is descending on tiny Scenic.

(click here to continue reading Entire South Dakota Town For Sale For $799,000 – Clare O’Connor – Filthy Rich – Forbes.)

3 thoughts on “The Longhorn Saloon – Main Street, Scenic, South Dakota

  1. Beth says:

    Seth,

    We should all pool our money together and purchase this town!! Then, rename it to Swanksalot, South Dakota!

    Isn’t there some article somewhere (maybe Texas Monthly) where Ann Richards and her pals were looking into purchasing a small Texas town? (Too lazy to look atm.)

  2. Sure, I’d even pitch in two bits or so, plus a copy of this photo…

  3. Gaea Silke says:

    In 1981 I stopped at the Longhorn Saloon and met Grandpaw Halley Merrill and his grandaughter LeeAnn. It was a memorable visit, visiting with some of the locals. Halley had an olds white retired rodeo buffalo out behind the saloon, which he let me take a ride on around the corral.I have photos of Halley behind the bar and also LeeAnn and the locals which I cherish. Especially knowing now that is has closed. There was an Indian made old necklace hanging on the wall that I wanted to purchase. Halley often took trade for beer from the Indians. Halley said he would sell it to me for a kiss. I was 30 and he was probably 75. I got the necklace. R.I.P. Halley !!

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