The Olde Main Street Inn has been standing on Chadron’s Main Street since 1890, and it wears every one of those years well. Built as the Hotel Chadron in Italianate style — it’s on the National Register — the building did a stint as the headquarters of Gen. Nelson Miles while he investigated Wounded Knee in the winter of 1890-91. You don’t get a backstory like that at a Hampton Inn.
These days it’s a B&B with a working saloon, and the saloon is the thing: live local music, a crowd that mixes ranchers with Chadron State professors, and the kind of lie-swapping the inn’s own description promises. Ask about Anna and Jack, the resident ghosts — the innkeeper will tell you which rooms to avoid if you’d rather sleep.
It’s the natural headquarters for the Pine Ridge country: the Museum of the Fur Trade and Chadron State Park are both an easy drive, and the innkeeper knows the region cold.