Ghost Town at Scenic, South Dakota
“Every town in the Badlands had its characters, but in Scenic the characters had a town.” – Reflections of the Badlands by Philip S. Hall
The abandoned ghost town of Scenic, South Dakota is located along Route 44 near the western edge of Badlands National Park, approximately 50 miles from Rapid City, and seven miles north of the Pine Ridge Reservation boundary line. The town, established circa 1906, took its name for its location in a broad basin surrounded by the “scenic” Badlands.
Early Days at Scenic
The town of Scenic was originally founded as a farming and ranching town. In 1907, a year after its founding, a traveler through Scenic noted that the town consisted of nothing more than “a box car for a depot, section house, a tent and a – saloon.” The town would soon change.
Ab Jefferson, the town’s first businessman, built the first building at Scenic, “which was a tar paper shack located on the south side of the railroad track.” This building was “the 1st grocery store and became a place where all could get together at the end of the day.” Jefferson operated the saloon and soon after added a store, a restaurant and a hotel. As would become a common theme for Scenic, Jefferson was arrested in those early days “for the sale of intoxicating liquors” to Native Americans, which was then against the law. Prior to moving to Scenic, Jefferson had established a ranch at the southwest base of Sheep Mountain Table, but was ruined in 1905 when a spring blizzard pushed his cattle off the edge of the table.
By 1907 a grocery store had been built at Scenic by Len Anderson, which was quickly followed by a mercantile store, two restaurants, a pool hall, a barbershop, a bank building, a printing office, a drugstore and the establishment of a post office. Soon thereafter, with the arrival of the Milwaukee Railroad, came a school, two churches, more stores, livery barns, blacksmith shops, a dance hall, a theater and a newspaper by the name of the Scenic Observer. By the 1920s Scenic had a population of 250 people and the town had become a trade center for farmers, ranchers and homesteaders in the surrounding region.
The Congregational Church was organized in 1906/1907 by a group of homesteaders. The congregation originally met in people’s homes to worship, until the first church building was built in 1909. The church was located 7 1/2 miles from Scenic on Kube Table. By 1911 there were 19 members and the first minister was Joabez Spitelli. The church building was moved from Kube Table to the town of Scenic in 1914.
Over time, and as tourism developed, the town then historically served as a stopping point for travelers making their way from Rapid City to the Badlands. However, once the new highway was built, there was little reason for travelers to come this way, and eventually little reason for the people who lived there to stay.
Characters and Other Odd Events
All sorts of characters have found their way to Scenic, including trappers, homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, traders, missionaries, saloon-keepers, bikers and gamblers.
“The colorful Frank Hart lived just west of town. Between gambling and riding unbroken horses down Main Street, he enlivened the town. Poker players in the livery barn occasionally looked up to see a full-grown wolf stalking main street. It was Bruno following at the heels of his owner, Bud Dalrymple.” (Hall, Philip S. Reflections of the Badlands. p. 163.)
Bud Dalrymple (1881-1955) was a well-known wolf hunter in the Badlands and the surrounding region. Ranchers in the area would often hire Dalrymple to hunt and trap the wolf, which was considered an enemy of range stock. Dalrymple wrote often about the wolf in various trade publications and in 1919 published a book on his personal experiences titled “The Gray Wolf of South Dakota.” Dalrymple wrote of the proper dress for a “wolfer,” how to find a wolf den, the bounties paid by the state and stockmen for each wolf skin, how to skin a wolf and he wrote about the demands of the challenging Badlands terrain.
Then there was the hardscrabble Mary Hynes (1858-1926) who homesteaded on the top of Sheep Mountain Table in 1907 with five of her eleven children after her husband had run off. Sheep Mountain Table was located four miles south of Scenic and the land was only available for claim because it was considered inaccessible. After staking her claim to the table, the family, through lots of hard work and ingenuity, carved their own path, and later a road, to the top of the table. There they created a new life on their isolated ranch. Everything that was required for their home was at first hauled to the top via a plank sled with wooden runners pulled by a horse. The Hynes family, through Mary Hynes followed by her son Clarence “Hap” Hynes (1888-1967), remained on Sheep Mountain Table until 1935 when Hap sold the land to the National Park Service and moved to Scenic to operate a hotel and bar.
The sensational murder of 81-year-old Tom Friet, owner of “The Agate Shop”, and a recognized expert in Badlands mineral and fossil specimens, took place on Friday, January 13th, 1956 at his one room cabin on main street in the heart of Scenic. Friet had originally been a homesteader on the Quinn Table. On the night of his murder, Friet had visited a bar across the street to watch television, as was his custom each evening. After leaving for the night, he was never again seen alive. A neighbor found his body the next afternoon, around 3pm, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Friet had been brutally beaten on the head with a blunt instrument and then choked with his own necktie. The coroner ruled that Friet had died of strangulation and a broken neck. The assumed motive was robbery, as it did not seem that Friet had any enemies in town, but others thought it was probably just “a drunken bum.” Despite the widespread news of the murder, authorities never found out who did it.
“Carl Bohling, a homesteader in Quinn Draw, thought that Scenic was a unique town. ‘It’s the only place in the world,’ he quipped, ‘where you can walk across main street knee deep in mud and have dust blow in your face.’” (Hall, Philip S. Reflections of the Badlands. p. 161.)
Other strange events, not always of this planet, seemed to happen at Scenic, such as when a meteor hit the land of J. A. Mulholland, a homesteader who lived four miles east of town on what was known as 71 Table. Mulholland not only saw “the brilliant light given off by the meteor, but he also heard it strike the ground with great force.” The meteor hit the earth in a draw, “ploughing up a deep furrow of earth. Finally it buried itself in the earth to an unknown depth. The meteor is about three feet in diameter.” (“Meteor Strikes Earth Near Scenic – Will Be Unearthed.” Black Hills Daily Register. September 20, 1911.)
Twila Merrill
The town of Scenic was once almost entirely owned by Twila Merrill (1936-2014), a famous rodeo rider during the 1950s and 1960s who was later inducted into the Casey Tibbs Rodeo Hall of Fame. Merrill, the daughter of Charles Merrill (1910-1996) and Eletta Merrill (1913-1978), grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in a ranching and rodeo family. Her father Charles was a rancher and rodeo contractor from 1928 to 1967 and later assisted Twila in managing a bar and store at Scenic.
Twila began riding in rodeos in 1952 after graduating from high school in Rushville, Nebraska. She rode bareback, saddle broncs and bulls. She earned a widespread reputation not only for her skill but also for frequently entering the men’s rodeo competitions. Working in the rodeo took her all over the west, in the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain states, and from the Canadian border all the way down to Texas and Arizona.
During one 6-year stretch on the rodeo circuit, Merrill was never bucked off. Then she went to the Belle Fourche rodeo, where her father was the stock contractor. She was bucked off a red roan mare, and her father gently said “I want to remind you there ain’t no horse that can’t be rode or cowgirl that can’t be throwed.” (Rapid City Journal. December 5, 2014.)
After years on the road, and at her father’s request, Twila moved to Scenic in 1963, where she purchased a bar and a house. In 1965, she married Loren Palmer (1936-1970), a rancher and long-distance trucker. Five years after their marriage, Loren died in 1970 after a tragic truck accident near Mt. Anthony, Idaho. Over time, at Scenic, Twila added additional businesses, including a trucking company, a cattle ranch and horse trading. She purchased land in and around Scenic bit by bit over several decades until she practically owned the entire town.
Longhorn Saloon
The Longhorn Saloon, which Twila operated, earned a notorious reputation over the years. The saloon was the site of regular fights, including the town marshal being roughed up several times, as well as several murders, including killings in 1968, 1975, 1976 and 1985. It was widely believed that anyone going to the Longhorn Saloon should carry a gun in their boots.
In 1968, a fight behind the saloon led to the shooting death of Ardie Janis. Patrick Grooms was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in jail. In 1975 Richard Marshall was charged, and later convicted, in the shooting death of Martin Montileaux. In 1976 Harold Crazy Thunder was shot by Alvin Broken Rope, who later pled guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in jail. In 1985 Herman Tuttle, Jr. was killed during a street fight between two feuding families, the Tuttle family and the Cottier family, a melee that included at least 20 people.
Twila and her father Charles were both shot during a 1984 incident at the saloon. Both were hit with shotgun blasts from about 10 feet away after an argument with two customers. It is believed that the argument followed the publication of a photograph of the saloon on the front page of the weekly Lakota Times, published on the neighboring Pine Ridge Reservation. The photograph included the sign above the outside door of the saloon, which had been there for decades, that read “No Indians Allowed.” The two customers took issue with the sign and attempted to tear it down, after which a brief gunfight ensued. Twila later painted over the “No” part of the sign.
As a note of historical context, in 1832 the U.S. Congress passed legislation banning the sale of alcoholic beverages to Native American people. That legislation remained on the record for 121 years until it was repealed in 1953, and tribes were then given the option of retaining prohibition or allowing the sale and consumption of alcohol on reservations. Pine Ridge remains a “dry” reservation.
In 1987 Michael O’Keefe, a member of the El Forest Arrows motorcycle club, was stabbed in the stomach at the Longhorn Saloon. The stabbing took place during a fight between members of both the El Forest Arrrows motorcycle club and members of the Galloping Goose motorcycle club against a local group of Native Americans. The motorcyclists were supposedly annual visitors to the Longhorn Saloon, having visited the bar for eight years in a row.
The false front of the single-story Longhorn Saloon advertised whiskey, beer, wine and tobacco. Cattle skulls were hung with barbed wire. Two doors down the street, tellingly, and appropriately, seemed to be the town jail, with a jail cell that would have been visibly open to those on main street. Inside the saloon, the ceilings were low and covered with brands from local ranches, the floor was covered with sawdust and the walls were decorated with various artifacts including chaps, spurs, mounted horns, petrified turtles and other cowboy memorabilia. Oil barrels with metal tractor seats served as barstools. The men’s bathroom was painted blood red, with the walls marked by signs of previous struggles such as holes and knife cuts. With tribal law making the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation “dry,” the Longhorn Saloon saw good business from Native Americans.
Scenic: For Sale
By the 2000’s, and with her declining health, Twila Merrill decided to sell the entire town. News of the offering sale reached the national news, with many leading newspapers and television networks covering the story. The town of Scenic was purchased in 2011 for $800,000 by the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ), a Philippines-based church. It seems that not much has been done with the town since its purchase, nor is it evident as to what the church plans to do in the future.
Today, despite its prior thriving history, only decaying homes and businesses remain. The abandoned Old Longhorn Saloon, constructed in 1906, is decorated with longhorn cattle skulls. The Longhorn Store marked its business with a motto of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if we don’t have it, it isn’t a must.” The C. H. Merrill Museum of Natural History is all boarded up. Other former businesses included the Sam 2 Bulls Gallery and the Tatanka Trading Post.
Until the church makes its decision as to the future of the town, Scenic remains an interesting stopping point for those visiting the Badlands. The rough and interesting history of the region and the long-abandoned buildings, which are still charming in their own way, provide a small glimpse into what was once a popular small town in a very “scenic” part of the country.
