Unusual Real Estate Listing #2764
The tourist ghost town of Rockerville, South
Dakota.
- CLUI photo
The Black HIlls town of Rockerville is listed
for sale. It is a ghost town ghost town tourist attraction, abandoned
after its last owners finally gave up on the business several
years ago. It has fallen into disrepair, and is awaiting its third
incarnation.
Like nearby Deadwood, Rockerville was a boomtown in the 1870’s.
Gold was discovered in 1876, and by 1880 it had 100 buildings
and around 1,000 people. Scandals, bad infrastructure schemes,
and a general lack of gold led to the town's demise. By 1930,
the town was in ruins.
In the 1950s, Rockerville was born again with the new Black Hills
economy of tourism. Highway 16, which goes from Rapid City, on
the Interstate, to Mount Rushmore, passes right through town.
The historic mining town was resurrected as a version of itself
for tourists, with shootouts, gift shops, and old time relics.
Two rows of western town façade were built next to the
ruins of the original mining town, which by then were just a few
buildings, a shack, the jail, and the old school house. A wooden
sidewalk out front connected the dozens of buildings, labeled
and decorated as things like Saloon, Bank, Casino, and Company
Store.
The Black Hills filled up to the brim with attractions, and Rockerville
failed to keep up with the times. To deal with the increased flow
of visitors going up the hill, Highway 16 was enlarged and rerouted,
and the new alignment passed around Rockerville, leaving it off
the main drag. The tourists stopped coming and kept on going.
Today, Rockerville is abandoned again. The property includes
26 acres of the old town, all the buildings, the remaining relics,
and camping grounds in the woods. It includes a few hundred yards
of frontage with false fronts on either side of the road, but
it is still the road less traveled.Each store is platted and can
be separately leased, though the roofs may or may not make it
through the next winter. And the new owners will have to deal
with the ghosts of Rockerville, who are are now tourists, as well
as miners.
Asking price: $1,100,000.
Call Pat Hall, Coldwell Banker (605) 719-9787.
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