267 Sandcreek Road , Crawford, NE 69339(Sioux County)

The High Plains Homestead is one of the jewels of Nebraska tourism. Set in the badlands of Northwest Nebraska, this old-west cow town is perhaps the best Bed-n-Breakfast and restaurant in all of Nebraska. Charming, unique cabins, each with different old west themes provide guests an authentic and a fun experience that cannot be found anywhere else. The Cookshack serves breakfast, a busy lunch crowd and supper. This is truly a destination restaurant, hotel, and tourist attraction, and so well known for their extra-thick, fresh cut steaks and ribs that they serve.  A supper crowd of 25-60 is served every night.  The Owners enjoy nearly full occupancy all summer long in the guest rooms. New guest quarters have been booked up as quickly as the Owners have been able to add them. This business has grown steadily, 10% or more every year since opening. It is a recipient of the following awards and accolades, to name a few;

Best of the Midwest Travel Award - 2016 by MidWest Living magazine

Nebraska Travel and Tourism Henry Fonda Award - 2009

10 best places to get a burger in Nebraska - OnlyInYourState.com

Top 10 best places to eat in Nebraska - Lincoln Journal Star

The location is full of rugged beauty, perfectly situated next to both the Hudson-Meng Bison Kill Site and Toadstool Geological Park, and only minutes from Fort Robinson State Park. Visitors come from across the nation and around the world to stay in this charming “town” while they enjoy local attractions and activities. Aside from family vacationers or family reunions, many of the guests come for the fossil hunting, birding, horseback riding (bring your own horse), mountain biking, and hunting of all kinds, including turkey, deer, antelope, and prairie dog. Many guests just come to enjoy the area.  The Owner has established relationships and lease arrangements to accommodate these varied interests of their many guests. The High Plains Homestead is also a wonderful launching point for a variety of Black Hills attractions and activities, including Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and The Reptile Gardens. The star-gazing at this marvelous retreat is another draw for many guests, and the Homestead is already fully booked for the 2017 solar eclipse of the Sun, said to be best viewed from northwest Nebraska.

The Owners have spent decades building the traditional log and wood frame buildings by hand. The prolific antique furnishings that decorate the premises are worth a great deal by themselves, and many pass with the property. While this could be purchased as a private retreat, the property’s best and highest use would be to continue the fantastic dream of the Owners. The High Plains Homestead is now one of the most well-known and beloved tourism draws to the State of Nebraska. The Owners would like to find the right people to pass on this wonderful, bustling business, as they are growing older with some health concerns. The current Owners are very willing to stay involved on a consultancy basis with the Buyers, which could be much to the benefit of the new Ownership. The business, like all successful businesses, is built on relationships with neighbors for access to fossil hunting and bird/animal hunting, relationships with various tourism boards and officials, and relationships with local vendors to get the unbelievable, meats and other fresh ingredients that have earned the Cookshack it’s reputation as one of the VERY best places to eat in all of Nebraska. The Owner will facilitate the building of these required relationships for the new Owners.

The well at High Plains Homestead is a good producing well that is tested annually per Nebraska restaurant standards.  In addition, Sand Creek is a viable water way that runs the full length of the property.  

The Owners live on-site in a lovely, cozy home with a gorgeous view overlooking a canyon and Sand Creek, and this home goes along with the town. All animals on the property including the bison, and the donkeys, pass with the property as well. 

The right Buyers, if they intend to continue to operate this wonderful gem of Nebraska tourism, will be buying themselves a home and a thriving, growing business, a lifestyle, and hopefully a new life’s passion as well! The area is thick with history, and much of the fame of the operation has grown from the Owner’s flair for storytelling and sharing this history with guests at breakfast, and while grilling up thick steaks over an open-fire grill. Those with a passion for the beauty of the badlands and the Old West, who have outgoing personalities, a little charisma, good work ethic, a willingness to learn, and heaps of integrity will easily succeed at carrying on this business.

The business comes with an already developed website, two historic ranch brands, the land, the animals, the buildings, and all their contents and furnishings, with the exception of very few items special to the current Owners.

A Note Regarding Fossils...

High Plains Homestead is located in a very unique area. Being situated right next to Toadstool Geological Park, the Hudson-Meng Bison Kill Site, and the Sugar Loaf rock and prairie agate fields, offers guests some, “...one of a kind day trips”

The High Plains Homestead property is also surrounded by some of the best fossil collecting in the state. On the Homestead property, thirty-million-year-old (early Oligocene) fossil land animals can be collected from the terrestrial sedimentary rocks assigned to the upper Brule Formation (Whitneyan Land Mammal Age). Here, land snails, hog-like oreodonts (genus Leptauchenia) and deer-like (genus Protoceras) mammals, along with several genera of tortoises (e.g., Stylemys) are commonly discovered. Additionally, in much younger sediments on the property, fossils of extinct Bison and the occasional artifact may be discovered.

Extending out, Oligocene deposits between 23 and 33 million years old are abundant and easily accessible within a short drive of the High Plains Homestead. Fossils common to these deposits are giant titanotheres, and in abundance, the remains of many types of oreodonts. Also found in the badland’s deposits are the fossilized bones of early mammals such as the three-toed horse, camel, and giant land tortoises. Carnivores like the saber toothed cats and giant pigs can also be found.

 Expansion Potential?

- Demand has been expressed for a meeting/reception hall to accommodate weddings, conferences, etc. (Perhaps in the form of an “old” church?) All infrastructure for such a building is already there; electricity, water lines, and septic system are all in place and ready for this new building.

- There is a demand for catering in the off-season.  There is a chuck wagon that comes with the property that can be used for such events.

-Camp Native, a website dedicated as a booking site for campgrounds, has discovered the High Plains Homestead and has just begun developing the available camp sites and RV sites on their website. This could easily be developed further, as demand for more RV hook-up sites is great, and the infrastructure in place could easily accommodate more sites and expand the camping and RV parking opportunities.

-While the fossil hunting available in the area is becoming more and more well known among paleontologists, academics, and enthusiasts, the potential for rock collecting aficionados is great. The fossils bring travelers from overseas and from across the nation. Geologists and rock hounds are a subset of clientele that has not been developed, and has just as much potential to bring tourists from other countries and the coasts as the fossils do, if only it were promoted. Current ownerships excels in this niche networking, and will gladly show new ownership how to pursue this kind of clientele.

Legal Description

27-33-53 A TRACT IN SE1/4SW1/4OF27-33-53ACRES 15

27-33-53PTSW1/427-33-53 ACRES 1.46

27-33-53PTS1/2SW1/427-33-53 ACRES 23.11

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