Reports: Iglesia ni Cristo buys town in South Dakota

The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), a religious group founded in the Philippines, now owns the nearly abandoned town of Scenic, South Dakota, for $700,000 or roughly P30,000,000, a local newspaper in the United States has reported. A report on September 26 by the Rapid City Journal, a South Dakota newspaper, cited records from Pennington County showing INC has bought 59 parcels of land in Scenic. “What the church plans to do with the nearly empty Old West town on the edge of the Badlands remains a mystery. The church hasn’t said anything about its plans for the property, and calls seeking comment from church offices were not returned," Rapid City Journal said on its website. Another story on Fox News verifies this story. INC has not released a statement on the matter, said INC minister Bien Santiago when GMA News Online called the group’s Central Temple in Quezon City on Sunday. Bought from rodeo legend A CNBC report on Sunday named the seller as 74-year-old Twila Merrill, a rodeo legend whose health began to fail about two years ago when she was stricken with cancer. She originally put up the town for sale with a $3 million price tag, but in July dropped the selling price to $799,000, or roughly 41 cents per square foot.

Satellite photo of the town of Scenic, South Dakota. Screen grab from Google Maps

The real estate agent who brokered the deal, David Olsen, said he was not allowed to divulge details of the sale because he signed a non-disclosure agreement, according to CNBC. But he did say that aside from Iglesia ni Cristo, he received more than 500 phone calls and 200 emails inquiring about the town-for-sale. Scenic is just on the fringe of the Badlands National Park, about 80 km southeast of Rapid City. The property sold to the INC has a total area of 46 acres – 12 acres in town and 34 acres around it – and includes a saloon, dance hall, museum, bunkhouse, two stores, a train depot, two jails (one “functioning" and the other abandoned), and a handful of out-buildings. The property was posted on buyscenicsd.com, which had offered video tours of the town’s site. Unfortunately, however, when GMA News Online visited the website, it had been hacked and was out of commission. — Paterno Esmaquel II and Marlon Anthony Tonson/LBG, GMA News