Pine Haven Days

On the Saturday morning of Pine Haven Days, vehicles gather at the Pine Haven Community Center at 10 a.m. and pull out an hour later as the parade. For the 2026 celebration, held September 5 and 6, the Moorcroft Leader listed golf carts, trucks, classic cars “and other vehicles,” and the theme was “Red, White and Blue.” When the parade ends, the cars that want to be looked at longer move to Randy Blakeman’s lot for the Show ‘n Shine Car Show. The town sits in Crook County south of Devils Tower National Monument, in pine timber, with Keyhole Reservoir on three sides.

Hot dogs and side dishes in Waters Park

From noon to 4 p.m. the crowd moves to Waters Park for the community barbecue and games. In 2026 the town served hot dogs, burgers, chips and lemonade, and asked people to bring a side dish to share. The Leader put it plainly: “Bring your favorite side dish to share with your neighbors and friends.” The Frosty Cow and the Cake Pop Kitchen sold sweets while the barbecue ran. Missy Norton handled questions about the parade, car show and barbecue.

The Crook County Promotions Board listed the 2024 edition on August 31 and described it as a themed parade and a community potluck barbecue in Waters Park, with music, ax throwing, bouncy houses and vendors for children and adults.

Pancakes from the fire department

On Sunday the Pine Haven Volunteer Fire Department cooks breakfast in Waters Park from 9 to 11 a.m. In 2026 it served pancakes, eggs and sausage. At 11 the department drew the winning ticket in its raffle for a .22 Henry firefighter tribute edition rifle. Tickets were sold at the fire department and at the breakfast that morning, and the proceeds went toward bunker gear and training equipment. The town calendar showed the park busy from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The pages give no year for the first Pine Haven Days. The Devils Tower Country listing calls it the town’s annual celebration.

Ten-acre tracts above Keyhole

The town is younger than the reservoir it overlooks. Water shortages on the Belle Fourche River began, according to the Gillette News Record, at about 1908, when the river was first irrigated. The drought of the 1930s made the shortage worse. Federal engineers chose Keyhole as a dam site, and construction began June 29, 1950. Ranchers from Crook, Campbell and Sheridan counties went to Washington that spring to try to stop it. The dam was finished in October 1952.

Kenny Burr was 20 in 1950 and worked on it as one of about 15 “snot-nosed kids” driving water trucks and operating roller Cats on the McKean Ranch. He recalled crews running loaded dirt trucks down the buttes at 40 to 50 miles an hour: “No brakes. Dangerous.” The rock lining the reservoir was hauled from Missouri Buttes near Devils Tower. Burr watched cranes set it along the dam one stone at a time.

Coop and Betty Waters bought property near the new lake in 1954. The town’s own account says several families founded Pine Haven, and that the Waterses helped give the community its form. It says the idea began in the 1960s, when people found a stand of timber that sheltered campers from strong winds and storms. When a few of them decided to build summer homes, the Waterses began surveying 10-acre tracts. Within three years a thousand acres had been platted. A regional development page dates the town to the 1960s, when families began buying those tracts.

As building increased, residents voted for incorporation on December 19, 1986. The election of one mayor and four council members followed on March 17, 1987, the date the town still keeps as its birthday. The census counted 141 year-round residents in 1990, 220 in 2000, 490 in 2010 and 493 in 2020. The town says it grows to about 600 people through the summer. In 2018, Mayor Larry Suchor told the News Record that the town tends to empty out in winter, when retirees leave for warmer weather.

“Back in the early days you could buy a lot out there for $1,500,” Burr said that year. “Now they can be anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000. It’s hard to believe.”