Welcome! 

Meet your hosts Tally, Rita and Autumn Chapman.  

We have owned and operated Happy Trails Cabins since 1995.  We own 5 cabins.  The Signature Cabin, Tree Cabin and Cottage are on the same property as our house, yes, the Signature and Tree Cabin are literally side by side.  We also own the Log Cabin and Boxcar Cabin, these 2 properties do not adjoin our commercial property therefore, according to the county we cannot use them commercially.  We discovered this after 10 years of being in service. In order to continue building our client base we decided to continue making these cabins available for free.  We also manage the Bullion Cabin which was once part of the historic Silver Mountain Lodge .   We recently took on management of a vacation home 4 miles south of Silver City.  The Kooper Place is a nice 5 bedroom vacation home and is an alternative to traditional lodging.  We love what we do and our goal is for you to have a clean, welcoming cabin for you to relax in.  Your vacation is important to us.

 

History

Happy Trails Cabins first started in 1956 as Silver City Motel.   In 1976 the Silver City Motel was purchased by Tally’s folks and renamed Wagon Wheel lodge,.  When we bought the place we again renamed it, Happy Trails Cabins, in tribute to our love of hiking and mountain biking and the wonderful trails that surround Silver City.

Happy Trails Cabins and Silver City have a long history of accommodating summer guests in the Black Hills.  The Tree Cabin and Signature Cabin were built in 1928 as dormitory cabins for a Baptist Church Camp.  Young adults called these cabins home during their summer retreats.  This camp was named Bear Gulch, as the name was somewhat scary it was renamed Camp Judson.  Camp Judson was located in what is now Pactola Reservoir, the cabins were moved out of the flooding lake to their present location in the 50’s.  The Cottage has a similar history  and came from a different church camp.  We haven’t tracked that down yet.

Our Log Cabin was built in 1946.  We are the 3rd owners in it’s history.  We bought it in 1999 and did a major renovation in 2001.  

We were given first refusal on our Boxcar Cabin and we are sure glad we did not refuse.  This cabin started in 1933 as a boxcar moved onto the site.  It has had numerous additions.  The roof was always flat and always leaked.  To stop the leaks once and for all, we took on the task of putting a gabled roof on.   It was a hard job but we are sure glad it is done.

 

Things to DO

Both of us have lived in South Dakota since we were 12 and our daughter has lived here all her life.  There are unlimited activities available in the Black Hills from kayaking, inner tubing down the creek, rock climbing, cross country or downhill skiing, hunting, running, geocaching, fishing, it is up to your imagination.  We love being outdoors.  Mountain biking, running and hiking are our favorite activities in Silver City.  Tally is the mountain biking trail expert and Rita has the running trails dialed in. If you are not too fast we may even join you.  We have chickens, bees and a garden, weeding is always available for those interested.  Ask for information anytime.  By the end of July the raspberries are getting ripe and the season continues through 3rd week of August.  It is not hard to find a wild patch.

We would love to share our little slice of heaven with anyone in need of a place to “get away from it all”.  

 

Extras

We do try to be eco friendly.  We offer recycling at every cabin.  There is a bin for all recyclable material.  We bag it and drive to the bins in Rapid City.  The only material they do not take is chipboard (ex: cereal boxes).  For laundry I use scent free soaps and, weather permitting, I line dry the sheets and towels.  They can be a bit stiff but have a great smell.   Leftover food is always welcome by the chickens, they will eat anything but onions and fruit peelings.  We have a compost heap by our garden and one at our Boxcar Cabin.  I am happy to make a bucket available and take it to the chickens or compost for you.  We are content for you to do what you are comfortable with, we just try to be helpful.