Bear Ridge Retreat

Bear Ridge Retreat is an 80 acre Black Hills recreational and operational estate with a 1,750 foot private grass airstrip, the 2,264 square foot Cow Palace lodge, two fully finished guest cabins, a three-building shop complex, two operating water wells with five installed cisterns, a 55 kilowatt generator, and a one-acre spring-fed pond. The property offers an exceptional combination of privacy and natural beauty.

Land Bear Ridge Retreat, situated on the doorstep of the Black Hills National Forest, this 80± acre ranch has served as a private retreat and commercial event venue under current ownership. With a sleeping capacity of 28 guests in a rustic yet elegant compound including The Cow Palace Lodge and two log cabins, a new owner may wish to continue operations or reserve the use exclusively for family and friends. The ranch has an attractive mix of meadows and  forests in a diverse topography. Clean water and crisp, invigorating air are abundant here in a region considered one of the most diverse, intact ecosystems on our region.  The property is convenient to a full array of services, including the town of Spearfish only 11 miles away and an international airport in Rapid City within 60 minutes of the property’s front gate. The western portion is level improved bench, which is what makes the runway and the shop pads possible. The ground then transitions east through open pasture and established tree belts into three steep, timbered canyons that cut into the parcel from the east and south. Elevation falls to the lower meadows along Beaver Creek on the east boundary. The spring canyon above the pond is the most secluded and least disturbed ground on the entire 80 acres.

Land composition is a working mix: hayed meadow and improved pasture on the benches, ponderosa pine and mixed hardwood on the canyon walls, rocky outcroppings on the breaks, and alluvial ground along the spring drainage and the lower eastern boundary.

Access is from Bear Ridge Road by way of an interior road that has been cut in to serve the parcel, with gravel scheduled. A permanent access easement will be recorded in favor of this 80 acres across the adjoining parcel, giving this parcel deeded, year-round legal access. The adjoining 40 acres and custom home is also available. Interior rock and gravel road and pad infrastructure measuring approximately 2,474 linear feet across the assembled property provides all-weather access to the improvements. Seasonal dirt trails extend beyond the cabin sites into the back-country canyons.

Improvements Cabin #1 – Amish Built in 2010

Three king bedrooms · 960± sq. ft. main floor · 480± sq. ft. upper · 680± sq. ft. of deck

White pine construction with a three-inch Colorado fir deck — ten feet wide, 680± square feet — running the full south and east sides. New windows on the main floor in 2026. The signature feature is a pair of native stone fireplaces — one inside, one outside rising roughly twenty-two feet up the gable — both built from limestone harvested on the ranch.

Main floor

Living area with ash hardwood floors and an in-laid ceramic tile entry

Kitchen and dining with ash hardwood, in-laid tile beneath a center cutting block, hickory cupboards, appliances about two years old, and a pine table for six

Double sliding door onto the fir deck

Half bath with ash hardwood floors

Second floor- Tongue & Groove Throughout

Two identically finished and furnished king bedrooms, both in heavy Colorado aspen log beds with matching aspen dressers and nightstands

Clothes pegs in place of closets, in keeping with the cabin’s character

Bath with sink, toilet, shower, and a crank vent window over the sink for moisture control

Walkout Daylight Basement

Imported slate floors throughout, reached by split carpeted stairs running up to the second floor and down to the lower level

Third king bedroom with walk-in closet

Full bath with sink, toilet, shower, and cabinets

Wet bar with sink and storage, plus additional storage under the stairs

Furnace, electrical, washer and dryer, and heated floor controls behind four pine doors

Walk-out to a concrete entertainment area through double doors and three 4′ × 4′ windows; also reached from the main-level deck by mixed fir and native stone steps

Adjacent walk-in storage off the entertainment room could be reworked with a single door change to give the lower bedroom two walk-in closets

Cabin #2 – Amish Built in 2012

744± sq. ft. main floor · 900± sq. ft. upper level · 600± sq. ft. garage

The more open of the two cabins: a grand room combining sitting area, dining, and kitchen under a vaulted ceiling with multiple skylights, pine floors throughout, and a wall of glass. The fourteen-foot-wide fir deck on the east side runs 164± square feet and seats up to sixteen, and the dining area looks out at Crow Peak.

Main floor

Grand room with pine floors, skylights, and a closet tucked under the stairs

Kitchen with hickory cupboards in a darker stain and newer appliances with limited use since construction

Large pine wet bar with a colored concrete top and a wine barrel converted into a bar sink and faucet, made on the ranch

Full bath with sink, toilet, shower, washer and dryer, and a trap door to the crawl space

Framed for a small free-standing wood stove in several locations

Upper Level – 900 Sq. Ft.

King suite furnished to match Cabin #1 in heavy Colorado aspen log furniture

Large closet with double doors on barn hardware, plus a skylight

Multiple built-in drawers and storage along the side wall, finished between the trusses

Private bath with sink, toilet, and shower

Attached Two-Car Garage

Finished in the same interior log materials as the cabin itself, so it needs nothing but floor covering to become living space. It has done that job before: previously carpeted and used to teach real estate appraisal classes, seating twenty-one to twenty-four.

Cannon Shed

A small display building housing a horse-drawn replica Revolutionary War cannon — a “Grasshopper” pack three-pounder — alongside a doctor’s buggy. An exterior concrete pad lets the cannon be rolled out, loaded, and fired. Possibly available with the sale.

The Lodge – 2264 Sq. Ft. Built in 2018

Sleeps 20 · Full kitchen · Handmade wet bar · Designed from the outset to convert

A metal building on the outside and something else entirely on the inside: barnwood and corrugated steel wainscot, skylights, a working jukebox, and a hand-built octagonal bar. Concrete runs the full length of the front elevation with a sixteen-foot picnic table and room for up to four BBQ stations.

Kitchen, Dining and Entertainment

Full kitchen and breakfast bar with pantry, freezer, storage, and electrical panel

Appliances roughly six to eight years old — dishwasher, stove, microwave, refrigerator, and sink

Handmade dining table seating twelve

Handmade wet bar with its own small refrigerator and dishwasher, and a handmade octagonal seating area with custom stools

Couch, working jukebox, and other decorative pieces convey with the sale

Framed for a small free-standing wood stove in several locations

Sleeping and Bathrooms

Two large sleeping rooms, each designed for ten bunk beds — twenty guests total

One room’s bunks are stored on site, easily set up, and included in the sale

Each sleeping room has its own door onto the front BBQ patio

Group bath with three showers, three sinks, two toilets, two urinals, and washer and dryer

Built To Convert

The lodge was framed with a second life in mind. The two sleeping rooms are laid out to become two bedrooms with walk-in closets added, and the group bath is designed to split into two — remove three fixtures and you are left with two comparable baths, each with shower, toilet, sink, and storage. The result would be a barndominium or a straightforward single-family residence without touching the shell.

Shops, Storage and Infrastructure

Built out in stages between 2010 and 2026, all on Tract 2 and clustered inside the game fence.

Shops

Original shop: clear steel span with a concrete floor

New shop, built 2025, dirt floor — south half of the roof in 1-inch polycarbonate for daylight, north half in double steel

The new shop’s structure is worth a look: converted light poles, 9″ × 12″ railroad timbers and trusses, set on 18-inch laminated beams

Equipment and storage buildings

120± sq. ft. frame building at the pond, added 2026

360± sq. ft. steel-frame storage building, added 2022

288± sq. ft. heated steel-frame storage building, added 2020

256± sq. ft. three-sided pole building for mowers, added 2023

384± sq. ft. three-sided pole structure shading the propane tank, added 2020

96± sq. ft. steel-frame generator shed housing a 55 kW propane generator, added 2019

Two older storage buildings, nominal in value but functional, one with electrical service

Raised concrete block fuel pad for multiple fuel tanks

Recreation Three elements define the recreational program on the Bear Ridge Retreat, and they rarely converge on a single Black Hills property at this size: a private grass airstrip, a managed game-fenced habitat, and a live spring-fed pond. Each stands alone as a meaningful amenity. Together they make a recreational estate without a direct comparable in the current marketplace.

The airstrip changes what the property is. A buyer from Colorado, Minnesota, or Texas lands on the property and is at the lodge within minutes. No commercial connection, no rental car, no three hour drive from a regional airport. For a buyer for whom aviation is part of daily life, this is the difference between a retreat used four times a year and one used monthly.

The game-fenced interior has been managed under the current ownership and has produced mature resident wildlife documented on trail cameras across the property. Open benches, timbered canyons, water, and established cover support both resident and transient species. The three interior canyons serve as natural travel corridors and hold secluded stand locations. The spring canyon feeding the pond is the most undisturbed ground on the assembled 80 acres and delivers wildlife observation at a level that open or unmanaged ground of this size rarely achieves.

The one-acre pond is fed by a live spring and holds water year-round. The pond house and both cabins are positioned to take full advantage of the east country. Cabin 1 at 2,400 square feet and Cabin 2 at 1,700 square feet are both move-in ready, which means immediate capacity for family groups, hunting parties, or extended guest stays alongside the twenty bunk capacity of the lodge. Seasonal trails run beyond the cabin sites into the back-country canyons, reaching the most secluded ground on the parcel.

Beyond the fence, the northern Black Hills open onto the Black Hills National Forest, the Spearfish Canyon corridor, and the Belle Fourche and Redwater River drainages.

The Black Hills National Forest covers more than 1.2 million acres in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, with activities for just about anyone who likes to spend time outdoors. Known as an “Island in the Plains,” the hills rise out of the prairie creating a variety of terrain for activities ranging from mountain biking to rock climbing to hiking. Off-road enthusiasts will love exploring more than 600 miles of ATV trails throughout the forest that weave through canyons and gulches, across plains, and past amazing rock formations.

Amid the splendid scenery of the Black Hills National Forest are 11 reservoirs, 30 campgrounds, 26 picnic areas, 2 scenic byways, 1,300 miles of streams, 13,000 acres of wilderness, 353 miles of trails, 2 ski resorts and much more.

Agriculture Open bench and meadow ground on the Bear Ridge Retreat supports hay production and seasonal grazing in the rotation established under the current ownership. Established tree belts provide windbreaks that extend the effective grazing and working season.

Agricultural use here is complementary to the recreational program rather than in competition with it. A buyer can run a modest cattle or horse operation alongside active hunting and aviation use without interference. The perimeter and interior fencing, the road and pad network, and the three-building shop complex supply the working infrastructure needed to manage livestock at a scale appropriate to eighty acres in the Black Hills transition zone, and none of it has to be built.

Water/Mineral Rights & Natural Resources In this country, water is the asset that can’t be added later. Bear Ridge has two good wells, both piped to serve both tracts, with a manifold that lets either one carry the property.

Deep Madison Well

Approximately 800 feet deep, drilled around 2010

Has produced over 100 gallons per minute since it was drilled

Pumped into a 5,000-gallon cistern — which it fills in about 50 minutes — and pressurized for surface use

Madison-formation water — excellent quality and highly sought after; most Black Hills towns draw from this same formation

Minnelusa Well

Approximately 450 feet deep, developed circa 2012 by the prior owner

Deep pump installed; bottom ~60 feet of casing replaced

Pumped into three 2,500-gallon cisterns and pressurized for ranch use

Formerly the domestic supply and convertible back through the well manifold in an emergency

Surface water is exceptional for eighty acres. A one-acre pond on the east end is fed by a live spring and holds water year-round. The spring canyon above the pond retains seasonal flow and supports the wildlife habitat across the eastern reaches of the parcel. Beaver Creek forms the east boundary.

Mineral and subsurface rights will be conveyed as currently held by the seller. Buyers are encouraged to complete independent mineral due diligence during the inspection and due diligence period.

Ponderosa pine and mixed hardwood stands populate the canyon slopes. Open benches carry native and introduced grasses consistent with the Black Hills transition zone, with established windbreak rows framing the lodge and the cabin sites.

General Operations The assembled property has been operated as a private family compound and educational training facility with an integrated recreational and aviation program.

A compound like this doesn’t fit one buyer profile, so it’s worth being plain about the realistic uses — all of which the current configuration already supports.

A Family Seat

Three king suites in the main house, three more in Cabin #1, one in Cabin #2, and bunk rooms for twenty. Everyone gets a bed and, more to the point, everyone gets a door that closes. Three full kitchens mean nobody is cooking for thirty alone.

An Events Center with a Track Record

Weddings, reunions, and celebrations of life have all been held here, with a permitted burn pad, a sixteen-foot picnic table, four BBQ stations, a pond, and enough parking to match. Guests have returned with professional photographers on their own initiative — the strongest endorsement a venue gets.

Short-Term Rental or Corporate Retreat

Four separable buildings can be rented individually or together. Cabin #2’s garage seated more than twenty for professional appraisal classes; the lodge seats twelve at table with a bar and jukebox alongside.

A two-Parcel Play

Because the improvements are split across two deeded tracts — the main house on 40± acres, everything else on 80± — a buyer has genuine flexibility on scale, whether that means occupying one tract and leasing

Operating infrastructure is turnkey. Roads, pads, fencing, water, power backup, and shop capacity are all in place. A buyer steps into a working operation on day one without startup capital for infrastructure that would otherwise take years and substantial expenditure to replicate. The airstrip in particular is the kind of improvement that cannot be permitted, sited, and constructed on demand on most ranch properties, which makes this one of the scarcer operational and recreational parcels at this size in the Black Hills market.

Region & Climate The Black Hills of western South Dakota are a forested uplift rising out of the northern plains, producing a temperate semi-arid climate with four distinct seasons. Summers are warm, with daytime highs typically in the seventies and eighties. Winters are cold with periodic snow, moderated somewhat in the foothill transition zone where this property sits. Annual precipitation in the region averages in the high teens to low twenties of inches, with the heaviest moisture arriving as spring rain and seasonal thunderstorms. Elevation, aspect, and timber cover combine to produce microclimates across the parcel that support the diversity of habitat present on the ground.

The surrounding region is one of the premier recreational corridors in the northern plains. Spearfish Canyon, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, the Black Elk Wilderness, and the Belle Fourche and Redwater River drainages all lie within a comfortable drive. Hunting, fishing, trail riding, and backcountry recreation are woven into the local culture and calendar, and the northern Hills draw buyers from across the country who value proximity to this corridor as both a lifestyle amenity and a long-term land asset.

Location The property lies off Bear Ridge Road in Lawrence County, South Dakota, and is reached by the interior access road serving the parcel from Bear Ridge Road under recorded easement.

The parcel sits in the northern Black Hills, within the recreational corridor that runs from Spearfish and Belle Fourche through Sturgis and Deadwood and south toward Custer and Hot Springs. Regional commercial amenities, medical care, and professional services are available in Spearfish only 11 miles away and Rapid City 60 minutes away.

Buyers arriving by private aircraft land directly on the property’s 1,750 foot grass runway. Buyers arriving by commercial air use Rapid City Regional Airport for connections to major hubs.