My family moved to the Black Hills when we bought Rim Rock Lodge, which we owned for 7 years. We had to work all summer and rarely saw our school friends, but we also got to play by the creek and hike in the woods.
In 1934 Margaret Bridge opened Rim Rock Lodge. She built a beautiful lodge, and cabins including two that hang over the edge of the canyon. After she sold it in the 40’s it had a variety of owners including the parents of singer Glen Yarborough.
My mother discovered RRL on a trip to the Hills before she married my father, and convinced him to take a trip when I was a little girl. He loved it so much the family returned in 1969 at which point we discovered the current owners were trying to sell it.
By the next summer we were the new owners and spent 7 summers there. We made friends with many of the visitors, some of whom my mother may still be in contact with. Two summers we had cousins stay and work with us for a month.
One couple stopped at RRL for the night in June 1976 while on their honeymoon because it was raining and they couldn’t see the canyon. They ended up staying for a week. That night the creek flooded and the old wooden bridge floated downstream and it took a week for us to be able to get the cars back across.
My sister and I were able to spend the night in the lodge with two of our friends a few years after my parents sold it. Unfortunately the next winter the lodge burned down. We still enjoy visiting it, and last summer rented out one of the overhangs with one of the friends who stayed with us in the lodge so many years ago. Everything was very rustic when we owned it but the family that bought it from us still owns it and has done a great job of fixing up the cabins. You can see the overhangs from the road.