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Historic place

Savoy (canyon hamlet)

Jct US-14A & Roughlock Falls Rd, Savoy, SD

This unincorporated speck of a resort hamlet began as a sawmill town supplying the Black Hills timber trade, and survives today as the tourist heart of Spearfish Canyon — home to its only lodge and restaurant.

📅 1892–present🏛️ Historic HamletStill hereBuilt 1892
Open on the mapSlide back to 1892

The story

Savoy sits near where Little Spearfish Canyon meets the main canyon, about 14-15 miles from Spearfish. It began around a sawmill run by the McLaughlin Tie and Timber company, which closed in 1906; a post office existed here as early as 1892, coinciding with the 1893 railroad. After the mill closed, the old mill-office cabin became the canyon's first lodge (the Glendoris Inn, 1909). Today Savoy is the access point for Roughlock Falls, Spearfish Falls, and Savoy Pond, and home to the Spearfish Canyon Lodge and Latchstring Restaurant.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

Savoy began as a sawmill town, not a resort — the mill closed in 1906, the same year its inn era began.
No verified source explains the origin of the name "Savoy."
A post office operated here as early as 1892, before the railroad even reached the canyon.

Connected places

The Latchstring Inn

Savoy, SD
Spearfish Canyon

Dances With Wolves Winter Camp Site

Savoy, SD
Spearfish Canyon

Homestake Hydroelectric Plant No. 2

Savoy, SD
Spearfish Canyon

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Homestake Hydroelectric Plant No. 2

Spearfish Canyon (near Spearfish Falls) · 35 m away
This second Homestake power plant literally dried up one of Spearfish Canyon's named waterfalls for decades by diverting

The Latchstring Inn

10619 Roughlock Falls Rd · 115 m away
Named for the frontier custom of leaving a latchstring hanging out as a welcome sign, this canyon inn has operated since

Roughlock Falls

Roughlock Falls Rd, Little Spearfish Canyon · 1.1 km away
Wagon drivers once had to chain-lock their wheels to inch safely down the grade here — giving this roughly 50-foot casca

Dances With Wolves Winter Camp Site

Forest Service Road 222, Little Spearfish Canyon · 1.1 km away
In November 1989 a Lakota winter camp of real teepees was built in the snow north of Roughlock Falls for the closing sce

Cheyenne Crossing Stage Stop

21415 US Highway 14A · 7.9 km away
The last horse-change stop before the Cheyenne-to-Deadwood stagecoach made its final run into the gold camps is now a wo

Bridal Veil Falls

US Highway 14A (Bridal Veil Falls) · 8.1 km away
A 60-foot sheet of water cascading over limestone right beside the highway — Spearfish Canyon's most easily seen waterfa

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Sourceshttps://www.ghosttowns.com/states/sd/savoy.html