For sale: Small South Dakota town, bar included
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A businessman is selling his small, southeastern South Dakota town for $400,000.
Lance Benson is the sole owner of Swett, an unincorporated hamlet in Bennett County about two hours southeast of Rapid City. Benson, who owns a traveling-concessions business, put the town on the market last week.
Benson told the Rapid City Journal the town used to have a population of 40 people in the 1940's, as well as a post office, a few houses and a grocery store.
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Now, the town is just a bar, workshop, three trailers and a house. The population currently stands at two -- Benson and his wife.
"And Daisy, that makes three," joked Wayne Witt, a friend of Benson's, referring to the couple's dog.
Benson said ownership of the town concentrated to a single person over the years. Benson bought it in 1998. He signed it over to his ex-wife in a divorce, but reclaimed the town around 2012, according to the newspaper.
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Benson told the paper that while he would love to keep the town, he needs to sell it to focus on his business.
"Like I say, I hate to get rid of it," Benson told the paper. "If I don't sell it, if I don't sell it this first year, I would probably keep it."
Area residents say the town's tavern -- the only watering hole within a 10-mile radius -- remains a popular hangout.
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Filled with local cowboys and wheatgrowers, the Swett Tavern is a place where, "the highway ends and the Wild West begins," Gerry Runnels told the paper.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.