Article By: Marjorie Klieman Photos Courtesy Of: Marjorie Klieman, Jack McIntyre And Sturgis Buffalo Chip
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ake 40,000 bikers swarming a small city in South Dakota, add citizens concerned about rowdy behavior, stir in the resulting City Park camping prohibition and elimination of street vendors, and you have the recipe for a brand-new rally venue several miles outside the city. This 1980 scenario was the catalyst for Ron “Woody” Woodruff to create what later became known as the Sturgis Buffalo Chip. Woody, president and CEO of the Chip recalled, “The City of Sturgis was trying to get rid of the rally; they wanted to find ways to keep the bikers out of town. We used to throw keg parties in high school, right? We just find a place to go, invite people out, have a party, and make ‘em feel welcome. And sure enough, in 1981,
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October - November ‘21 - CYCLE SOURCE MAGAZINE
we found a place a few miles out of town that had a natural amphitheater. The folks that didn’t like bikers really couldn’t see what was going on the
other side of the hill.” According to Woody, the first few years were sparse. He was practicing law in Belle Fourche, and they’d come
out to that piece of borrowed land, take down the gate, chase the cows out of the pasture, and set up. They put up a small stage, and in August 1982, they had Johnny Paycheck, Susan Nelson, and some local folks entertain for what Woody called “a nice party” where a few hundred people came. The Chip is both nationally and internationally known, but that happened in steps. Woody says, “What really made a difference was probably in the second or third year when the Rapid City Journal came out because people were talking about us. And it didn’t take long for some of the folks in Sturgis to wish that they hadn’t encouraged somebody to take the bikers out of town. They were afraid the money was going out of town, but we weren’t making any money then. I think we
