Buffalo Bodega
Deadwood, South Dakota · Civil War & Reconstruction · Est. 1877 · Open today
Since 1877
Irish immigrant Mike Russell arrived in Deadwood by stagecoach on March 6, 1877, and that June opened the Buffalo Bar, named for his friend and hunting partner Buffalo Bill Cody. At the time Deadwood had at least 17 saloons; the Buffalo Bodega is one of the very few of those original establishments still operating, and it has occupied the same Main Street site since its founding. Over nearly 150 years the building has housed everything from Gold Rush-era vice to a full-sized stuffed buffalo said to be a gift from Buffalo Bill. Midwest Motels of Mitchell, SD acquired the multi-building Buffalo Bodega Complex in 2007 and renovated several buildings, and today it operates as a saloon, steakhouse, and gaming complex in Deadwood's National Historic Landmark district.
The bar was named for Buffalo Bill Cody, the founder's real-life friend and hunting partner — and it opened in June 1877, twelve years before South Dakota became a state.
What to order: The saloon's full-sized mounted buffalo — by tradition a gift from Buffalo Bill Cody — presiding over a Gold Rush-era barroom that now anchors a steakhouse-and-casino complex.
How solid is the claim?
South Dakota’s oldest bar — the evidence
Buffalo Bodega in Deadwood is our featured pick for the oldest bar in South Dakota, with a claimed founding year of 1877. Widely cited (bar history, Deadwood tourism, SD media) as the state's oldest bar, on the same site since June 1877 — one of the only survivors of Deadwood's original ~17 saloons. Rival Saloon No. 10 predates it (1876) but its original building burned in the 1879 Deadwood fire and today's Old Style Saloon No. 10 operates at a different location, breaking same-site continuity; Buffalo Bodega's own history has name changes and casino-era rebranding, so it falls short of fully 'Verified.'
Competing Claims
Other South Dakota establishments with a stake in the title: