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Historic place

Sturgis Buffalo Chip

20622 Fort Meade Way, Sturgis, SD

Bikers got kicked out of Sturgis City Park in 1981 — so a local rancher built them a 600-acre kingdom four miles down the road instead.

📅 1981–present🏛️ Music VenueStill hereBuilt 1981
Open on the mapSlide back to 1981

The story

In 1981 the City of Sturgis, alarmed by record crowds, banned motorcycle camping in City Park. Rather than see the rally lose its gathering ground, Rod "Woody" Woodruff opened the Buffalo Chip campground on open land east of town — naming it for the prairie slang for dried bison dung. The first full entertainment season came in 1982 with Johnny Paycheck headlining. It grew into the self-proclaimed "Best Party Anywhere," now sprawling across roughly 600 acres with more than 25 bars and multiple stages, effectively absorbing the entertainment role City Park had played for the rally's first four decades.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

It was founded in direct response to Sturgis banning motorcycle camping in City Park in 1981.
The name plays on "buffalo chip," old ranching slang for dried bison dung used as prairie fuel.
The property has grown to roughly 600 acres, larger than many small towns.

Connected places

One-Eyed Jack's Saloon

Sturgis, SD
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Broken Spoke Saloon

Sturgis, SD
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame

Sturgis, SD
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Jackpine Gypsies Racing Grounds

Sturgis, SD
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Full Throttle Saloon (original)

12997 SD Highway 34 · 5.7 km away
Billed as the world's largest biker bar and immortalized on truTV, the 27-acre Full Throttle Saloon burned to the ground

Bear Butte (Matȟó Pahá)

20250 SD Highway 79 · 6.3 km away
A solitary mountain rising from the plains that Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull all made pilgrimages to — and th

Fort Meade

Sheridan Street, Fort Meade · 7.3 km away
Soldiers at this frontier cavalry post started standing for "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1892 — nearly 40 years before

Broken Spoke Saloon

905 Lazelle St · 10.0 km away
Dave Iversen built the Broken Spoke on the site of an old lumberyard in 1988, deliberately just off Main Street with a c

Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame

999 Main St · 10.2 km away
The rally's official museum is housed in Sturgis's former U.S. Post Office, which served the town's mail for more than 6

Hoel's Indian Motorcycle Shop

Junction Avenue · 10.2 km away
Nine riders raced for a $500 purse behind a small-town Indian Motorcycle shop in 1938 — and accidentally founded the lar

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Sourceshttps://buffalochip.com/about/