K.'s Saloon

You gotta love a dive with lots of local color.  

This is mainly a rancher/local/biker hangout, which gets kinda crazy during the Sturgis Bike Rally.  But it's also fun when it's not rally.

This "old west" style saloon has been around for a long, long time.  This is the sort of place you go to, to just sit quietly and listen to the locals, who are rowdy, red-necky (in a good way), and funny.

Don't expect to hear any deep talks about Thoreau (and it's probably a brilliant idea to keep politics/religion to yourself).  Instead, if you like history and just hearing about people's lives, this is the place to go.

The beer is dirt cheap.  It used to have SUPER cheap baskets of fry/shrimp combos.  But this is just off and on nowadays depending upon the owner's mood and if she felt like turning the fryers on.

It's interesting to walk around the very tiny bar and look at the walls.  Since probably the 1920's, local ranchers have been coming here and donating wooden plaques.  Each plaque has a cow engraved and painted on it (ex. Hereford, Angus, Gurney), and the cow represents the kind of ranch they run.  Then, in the center of each cow a branding iron has a branding of what each rancher's "brand" is.  Then below that, the family name.

The last time I was here, (March 2011), I heard quite a bit about some old ranchers who've long since passed away.

One time, several years ago, I went there and a sign was taped to the front door reading, "I won't be here til noon today.  Here's the key.  If you have to use the bathroom, let yourself in."  I mean, who would do that and be that trusting these days?