Haunted hotel guide · Hill City, South Dakota
Haunted Alpine Inn, Hill City: The Tin Miner, the Lady in the Gown and the Protective Spirit
A Black Hills landmark built for tin mining executives in the 1880s, now a much-loved restaurant with a few rooms upstairs and an owner who has seen its ghosts herself.
The Alpine Inn stands on Main Street in Hill City, a small Black Hills town between Rapid City and Custer, within easy reach of Mount Rushmore. Most visitors know it as a restaurant: a European-style lunch menu, a filet mignon dinner, homemade desserts, cash or check only and a line out the door in summer. Fewer know that above the dining room are four historic guest rooms in what was built as the Harney Peak Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977.
It also has some of the best first-hand ghost stories in western South Dakota, because they come from the owner. Monika Matoush told KOTA in 2024 that she once woke to a very tall figure at the foot of her bed that looked like a tin miner. Two people have seen a woman in an old-fashioned gown, and Travel South Dakota repeats the local belief that a protective spirit once saved the building from a hailstorm. For more of the region, see our guide to haunted hotels in South Dakota.
Alpine Inn at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 133 Main Street, Hill City, SD 57745
- Opened Built in the 1880s as the Harney Peak Hotel: the inn gives 1886, KOTA 1884 and the 1976 National Register nomination 1888; on the National Register since April 11, 1977
- Most haunted spots The second-floor rooms, the hallways and the dining room
- Best-known ghosts A tall tin miner in bib overalls, and a woman in an old-fashioned gown
- Booking the haunted room There are only four rooms, all on the second floor where the stories are. Contact the inn directly to book.
- Good to know The restaurant is cash or check only (there is an ATM inside) and closed on Sundays.
The ghosts of Alpine Inn
The tin miner at the foot of the bed
Owner Monika Matoush told KOTA’s Mimi Herrick in October 2024 that she woke one night to find a figure standing at the end of her bed. “It looked kind of like a tin miner,” she said: super tall, with wide curly hair, kind of pyramid-shaped, in bib overalls.
Given the building’s history, the description fits. It was built for the executives of a tin mining company, and Hill City was full of tin miners in the 1880s and 1890s.
The woman in the gown
Two people have seen a woman in an old-fashioned gown, according to KOTA, either sitting in the dining room or roaming the halls. A diner wrote on HauntedPlaces in 2019 that her dinner photos showed a blue figure in the middle of the room that she took for a woman in old-fashioned clothes, and another diner posted photos of a blue orb in 2022.
Nobody has suggested who she might be. The building was a hotel for most of a century, and its National Register nomination lists a long run of owners and operators, from a Mr. McClure in the early years to Eugene Little, who ran it for 22 years, and Mrs. Evelyn Rowdin in the 1940s. Many people passed through it.
The second floor
Guests who stay upstairs report lights going out on their own, footsteps and voices in the hall, according to HauntedPlaces and the comments posted there. One guest, the only person on the second floor apart from a live-in caretaker, wrote that they heard doors opening, woke to find a window open that they had closed and felt watched. Another said every pillow in their room vanished after check-out, according to the housekeeper.
Not everyone has a story. One guest who stayed in Room 12 wrote that nothing unusual happened at all, which is worth knowing too.
The spirit that stopped the hail
Travel South Dakota, the state’s official tourism site, says a ghost at the Alpine Inn is considered a protective spirit that once kept the building from being damaged by a terrible hailstorm. Matoush told KOTA she has also caught orbs on camera in similar spots in the same room, using two different cameras, while taking pictures for the inn’s website. Most people treat orbs with caution; the hail story is simply a nice piece of Hill City lore.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- The four historic rooms: All upstairs above the restaurant, on the floor where lights, footsteps and voices are reported. Contact the inn to book.
- Room 12: Named in a guest’s report as a room where nothing happened. A useful control, if you want one.
- The dining room: Where the woman in the gown has been seen. Book dinner even if you are not staying; it fills up fast in summer.
History of Alpine Inn
Hill City was settled by miners in 1876, who called the area Hillyo, and was the second American settlement in the Black Hills. It nearly emptied when gold drew miners north, then boomed again when tin was found nearby in 1883.
The Harney Peak Tin Mining, Milling and Manufacturing Company, backed by English investors, made Hill City its headquarters and bought about 1,100 prospecting claims. Wikipedia and the town’s own history say it built the Harney Peak Hotel on Main Street to house its executives. Dates vary: KOTA gives 1884, the inn’s website 1886, and the 1976 National Register nomination 1888. Hill City at the time was rowdy enough to be called a town with a church on each end and a mile of hell in between, with 15 saloons on Main Street at its height.
The nomination calls the two-story clapboard hotel, built around a courtyard with a two-story front veranda, a showplace of the Black Hills in the early 1890s tin strike, when the English company employed more than 400 people. The tin market never lived up to the hopes and the company stopped operating in 1902, the same year a fire threatened the hotel. Eugene Little bought it in 1912 for $5,000 and ran it for 22 years; it housed Civilian Conservation Corps workers in the 1930s and changed hands in 1934, 1940 and later. Wikipedia says it operated as a hotel until 1934, but the nomination shows it still taking lodgers into the 1970s, when it was gradually becoming a rooming house.
The Harney Peak Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 1977, and the restored building now houses the Alpine Inn. KOTA notes that the miners sold the building within a few years to chase gold, and that later owners opened it to the public. The restaurant has been family owned and operated for more than 30 years and is known today as the showplace of Main Street.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Bring cash or a checkbook: the restaurant takes no cards, though there is an ATM inside.
- Book a room early. With only four, summer and Sturgis week sell out fast.
- Plan dinner on a Monday to Saturday; the restaurant is closed on Sundays.
- Ride the 1880 Train from Hill City to Keystone during the day, then come back to Main Street for dinner.
- Deadwood’s Bullock and Franklin hotels are about an hour north if you want to add a second haunted night.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Hotel Alex Johnson, Rapid City: the Lady in White, about 35 minutes north
- Historic Bullock Hotel, Deadwood: Sheriff Seth Bullock’s own hotel
- Historic Franklin Hotel, Deadwood: the 1903 grand hotel on Main Street
- Haunted hotels in South Dakota
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Alpine Inn in Hill City haunted?
Its owner says so. Monika Matoush told KOTA in 2024 that she woke to a tall figure like a tin miner at the foot of her bed, and two people have seen a woman in an old-fashioned gown. Guests upstairs report lights, footsteps and voices. These are personal accounts, not proven events.
Can you stay overnight at the Alpine Inn?
Yes. There are four historic guest rooms upstairs above the restaurant. Contact the inn directly to book.
What was the Alpine Inn originally?
The Harney Peak Hotel, built in the 1880s on Main Street and linked to the Harney Peak Tin Mining Company, which housed its executives there. It took guests for decades and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977.
Does the Alpine Inn take credit cards?
No. The restaurant is cash or check only, and there is an ATM inside.
Is the Alpine Inn open on Sundays?
The restaurant is closed on Sundays.
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.
- KOTA: A haunted history of the Alpine Inn (2024)
- Alpine Inn: official site
- National Park Service: National Register nomination, Harney Peak Hotel (1976)
- Wikipedia: Hill City, South Dakota
- Hill City: History
- Travel South Dakota: Haunted hotels and places in western South Dakota
- HauntedPlaces.org: Alpine Inn
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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