Life Time Deal - An Entire US City Is For Sale

For less than a million dollars , you can become the proud owner of an entire town on the edge of the Badlands, 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.
The town of Scenic, near Rapid City, and not far from Mount Rushmore, is listed for $US799,000 ($A729,500).

The price is a reflection of the broader economic downturn, in which rural towns have struggled and one, Empire, in Nevada, was recently closed down.

Joe Bennington, 33, an estate agent in Rapid City, said that the asking price had been reduced from dollars US$3million.

He admits that Scenic, currently the property of an elderly lady, 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 told 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. 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. Longhorn Saloon, which is adorned with cattle skulls, 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."

THE TIMES

Related Posts by Categories


0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Total Pageviews