Why buy an apartment or house when you can buy an entire town?
The town of Scenic, South Dakota – once a booming ‘wild west’ town – is on the market for sale, with an asking price of $799,000.
Built at the turn of the 20th century as a railroad stopping point and currently the property of an elderly lady, Scenic has suffered during the economic downturn which has affected the US.
The town, which has only nine residents, is posted for sale on buyscenicsd.com
The town comes complete with homes, outbuildings, a saloon, a post office, a petrol station and convenience store, two shops, two jails, a museum, a dance hall, a hostel and an historic railway depot.
Scenic is located near Rapid City, not far from the famous Mount Rushmore.
Joe Bennington, 33, an estate agent in Rapid City, said the asking price had been reduced from $3 million.
He admits that Scenic has seen better days – and most of those were before the Great Depression.
“But it has a lot of potential for a savvy investor,” he said.
“You get the whole town less eight residential lots, which are owned by private residents.”
Scenic, built in the early 1900s, once boasted two bars, a bank and a hotel. Current owner Twila Merril, 74, a bareback bronc and bull rider from an Indian reservation, moved there when her father bought one of the bars.
“She gradually acquired the whole town,” said her daughter, LeeAnne Keester, 45, who added that her mother knew how to handle herself in a fight.
“She never carried guns or nothing but she was a woman growing up in a man’s world.”
Now she has lung cancer and the family are moving to Texas, along with their 350 cattle and pet bull, Freckles.
Scenic’s Longhorn Saloon was established in 1906 and renovations since then appear to have been minimal.
Mr Bennington said that in August, when the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally passes through town, it serves 300 people a day.
He added that the store and petrol station had been closed for the past month, “for health issues”, the other shops had been shut for some time and that the new owners would not have the authority to lock people in the one “working” jail.
The museum has a pine interior and an extensive collection of ammonite fossils. The post office is still running, however, and one of the other residents has a pest control business.
“Scenic never had a mayor or a town council or nothing,” said Mike Lehrkamp, 52, the fire chief. “It’s just a spot on the road.”
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