By Bernie Hunhoff
Deerfield Store had been shuttered for 10 years we met Tom Sawyer in 2005. He was living in the old building, deep in the Black Hills, with a tabby-colored old tom cat. His wife, Sherrill, had died a few years earlier.
A “Closed For Good” sign hung out front but it didn’t deter old customers and friends from stopping to say hello. Tom’s living room was the main store. Shelves still rose above the old wood floors. A piano, once the center of attention at many impromptu parties, was gathering dust in the corner.
Sherrill, who had studied music in California, was the spark of the tiny community. She would play for anyone, anytime. She could cuss as well as anyone if the situation warranted, but she was clearly the first lady of Deerfield. “She was hell for the first 25 years but she got soft later,” Tom joked.
Tom said the store began its decline in 1972 — 40 years ago. And it wasn’t because of competition from Rapid City or Hill City. It was a stupid, stupid murder.
Tom and Sherrill raised two sons at Deerfield, Mike and Jim. The boys loved the excitement of the store, where good times flourished. “I don’t think the folks ever planned the parties,” said Mike, many years later. “Local people and the visitors, the fishermen and hunters, would just show up and everybody would have a few drinks and have a good time. Mom was good on the piano.”
Mike still raises cattle in the Deerfield community, among other things.
Jim was a Custer policeman who helped the Southern Hills on the night of the tragic flood of 1972. He was so busy that he didn’t sleep in a bed for the next three nights.
On the fourth night after the flood, the young policeman was called to investigate a break-in at a Custer saloon. The suspects were still there, and they took the young officer hostage. On a nearby hillside, he was shot with his own gun. The murderers escaped with $37 and a saddle.
They were later caught and given life without parole. But of course the damage was done. Tom and Sherrill and Mike were grief-stricken. Sherrill closed the piano cover and the store changed.
“That was pretty much the end of her piano playing,” Tom told us in 2005.
A dozen years later, the store closed. The Sawyers had run it for 42 years.
Tom regained his good nature. He held court at the closed store for a few years before moving to Rapid City. He died this week at age 92, ending a chapter in Black Hills history.
Today, visitors get their fuel, bait and beer at the Deerfield Lake Resort, two miles east of the old store. It’s a nice place, run by very friendly folks. But there’s no piano.
Change is inevitable, and it often hurts. But for $37 and a saddle?
