Nestled in the Badlands

By Chad Coppess

The lights of Interior twinkle against the Badlands wall.

There once was a town called Black on the White River. Black was the name of an area pioneer family when the post office was established in the 1880s. After several floods and a fire that burned much of the town, it was reestablished a mile or two north where the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad tracks were built in 1907. Postmasters Louis and George Johnson had recently received a letter from the Department of the Interior, which went hand-in-hand with the community’s new location in the “interior” of the Badlands and the town of Interior was born.

The little town’s remoteness has presented challenges. Jerry Johnston, owner of the Wagon Wheel Bar on Main Street, remembers when a dorm next to the school housed some of his classmates from area towns too small to have a high school and from area ranches too remote for daily travel. He also recalls a business called the Peace Pipe, which was a hangout for kids. A jukebox, pinball machines, comic books, burgers and ice cream were offered. “As soon as school was over that was our social grounds,” Johnston says. The owners had the only television in town and let the kids watch it in their home as long as they sat quietly on the floor.

Ansel Wooden Knife operated a cafe famous for authentic Indian tacos in Interior before the fry bread he made overtook the business. So many people asked for it that he began packaging and selling Wooden Knife Fry Bread Mix throughout the region and closed the cafe. He now offers frozen fry bread as well.

Until recently the highway signs at opposite ends of town disagreed about Interior’s population. “They said something like 97 on one end of town and 64 on the other, so it depended on whether you were coming or going,” laughs Johnston. Both signs now read 94.

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Badlands B&B

Phil and Amy Kruse at the Circle View Guest Ranch.

Before even hearing the term, Phil Kruse had an agritourism bed and breakfast in mind. The third-generation rancher began building his dream lodge on the family place a few miles west of Interior in 1996 with help from his father and family. Circle View Guest Ranch opened in 2000 with eight rooms and a spectacular view of the White River and the Badlands wall.

Four years later his wife Amy came to Badlands National Park with plans of a career in the National Park Service. Instead, she met Phil and, “the B&B became my baby,” she says. Actual babies followed. Their kids are now 14, 12, and 11 and help around the ranch.

A steady stream of visitors enjoys the ranch each summer. “People love seeing the chickens, cattle and burros,” Amy says. “They just eat it up.”

“We do get people who are plum scared after they drive out here, though,” Phil adds. “They ask, ‘How do you live here?’ Covid actually boosted our business. It’s easy to isolate here because that’s what we do.”

Cheaper than Disney

Sue Leach

Located within sight of Badlands National Park, Interior’s economy naturally depends on the visitor industry. Sue Leach, owner of the Cowboy Corner convenience store and cafe for 14 years, says people are traveling differently in the last two years than previously. “As long as you have internet service, they are happy to be outdoors,” Leach says. Her Friday and Saturday night steak specials are well-known around the area, and she expects another good summer season in the Badlands. “We are a lot cheaper than Disney World,” she laughs.

An Eye on Interior

Elsie Fortune

Elsie Fortune grew up on her family’s ranch south of Interior and went to college on a rodeo scholarship. Photography caught her eye and she worked for a wedding photographer, leading to one of Interior’s newer businesses. Now around 90 percent of Fortune’s wedding and portrait customers are friends from the area. That’s just one of many hats she wears. She still helps on the family ranch and is a brand inspector and veterinarian’s assistant at the Philip Sale Barn. Fortune was the 2012 South Dakota High School Rodeo Queen and won the state breakaway roping title that year.

Badlands Guides

Jordan and Casie Donald

Casie Donald’s Hurley Butte Horseback riding adventure business weathered the pandemic fairly well. “In 2020 we didn’t know how it was going to go, but we are at least six feet apart anyway,” she says. “Overall, our business wasn’t hurt at all.”

Donald’s father started the horseback riding business when he offered his teenage children as guides for interested guests at the nearby Circle View Guest Ranch. “We weren’t excited at first, but when our first customer handed us tips, we decided there might be something to it,” laughs Casie. She and husband Jordan now have a full-time gig leading four or five riders at a time across the prairie in addition to ranching.

World champion cowboys frequent Interior's Wagon Wheel.

See a World Champ

Rodeo has always been important in Interior. In the 1920s Interior hosted the third largest rodeo in the world, Johnston says. Old newspaper accounts and photos hang on the wall in the community center next to the fire hall. The Interior Roundup was so popular that trainloads of tourists would come from Chicago and camp in town. One story describes 100 Native Americans charging through the campsite on horseback, firing guns in the air and leaving stunned visitors in their wake. Pow wow dancing, buffalo and beef feeds, a parade and rodeo events filled out the three-day extravaganzas.

Cowboys still frequent Interior. “Some nights there will be two or three world champion cowboys in here,” Johnston says of the Wagon Wheel.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the May/June 2022 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117