New Black Hills gated community will replace former ski resort with homes, massive tubing park

The slopes at Deer Mountain Ski Resort have been empty for years – but not for much longer.

Keating Resources, a fifth-generation family business on the Nebraska border just south of South Dakota, purchased the nearly 700-acre Black Hills property near Lead earlier this year and has big plans for it.

“My life has been buying problems and finding answers,” said CEO Gerard Keating, who bought the former Gateway campus in North Sioux City and sold it in May, having grown it to five companies with more than 1,000 combined employees.

The slopes at Deer Mountain Ski Resort have been empty for years – but not for much longer. “This was overlooked for its lifetime, and now it’s been found.”

Deer Mountain Village will be the second of two mountaintop land developments for Keating and his son, Alec.

They also are developing Spearfish Mount Ranch in Whitewood, featuring both 40-acre estate ranches and 2-acre residential lots,

“That’s 30 homes on 700 acres. It’s very special, and we sold 50 percent of it in 45 days, and the majority of the buyers are from Sioux Falls,” Keating said.

Deer Mountain, which opened in 1967, has not been operational since a bank took over in 2017. The new development will begin selling lots in late spring of 2022, he said.

Roads are scheduled to be done by mid-October.

At 6,200 feet, the elevation is the highest in the country east of the Rocky Mountains, Keating said.

“That’s special because of what it provides you,” he said, comparing it to Teton Village and Jackson Hole in Wyoming and Park City, Utah.

“Climate is a solid 10 degrees cooler consistently, and it’s just a special climate overlooked by people.”

There are 185 home sites planned on 630 acres, plus residents will have exclusive access to the two existing ski lifts, which are being restored and scheduled to be operating in December 2022.

“Many people look at it as a failed ski resort. That’s not what it is,” Keating said. “For many South Dakota people, Deer Mountain was a place where they learned how to ski and took their kids skiing and tubing.”

The skiing won’t be supervised or groomed, he added.

“It’s classic, old-school, European skiing where you jump on the lift and you’re on your own.”

While the skiing will be only for residents, Keating is building a massive public tubing park that he said will have the country’s longest tubing hill.

That will be on 50 acres and open in either 2022 or 2023, still leaving 250 acres of private park.

“It’s going to be really cool,” Keating said. “And we have a trail system designed through (the private park), and it will not be open to the public.”

Deer Mountain residents will have lots delivered with asphalt roads, high-speed fiber, water and electricity. It’s a 15-minute drive from Deadwood.

“It makes for a place where it’s truly a four-season community,” he said, pointing to neighboring recreation, including the 108-mile long Mickelson Trail, golf at Lead Country Club, 400 miles of ATV and snowmobile trails, fly fishing in Spearfish Creek and on-site snow tubing and clubhouse.

Keating said he expects most lot buyers will be from Sioux Falls, Denver, Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska.

“It’s really cool,”  he said. “It’s your last place to get a piece of heaven in the Midwest.”