LINGLE – Looking for a unique place to stay during your vacation? How about staying in a grain bin?

Joe Wilson of Lingle began this project in December of 2020. 

“When we have traveled in the last few years, we’ve stayed at Airbnbs wherever we’ve gone and I kind of just had the idea of well, why not us,” said Wilson. “We figured between hunters that come into the area and people going into the Black Hills, Cheyenne Frontier Days, Yellowstone, Sturgis; we felt like there was enough and the uniqueness of it, we feel will be a draw to keep it busy.

Wilson and his wife originally thought that a grain bin would be far too complex. Wilson thought, “Let’s sell off the grain bins and build a small house on the concrete pad. We considered doing that and we were going to do that and then just enough people kind of told us, well, ‘why don’t you do it out of the grain bin.’”

After thinking about it, Wilson and his wife agreed to give it a try and Wilson began working on it. 

Wilson commented on the prep work that needed to be done before he began building. “There’s a raised floor that needs to be taken out and all the machinery that’s associated with a grain bin. The blower and the auger and all that. We had to take all that stuff out and all of the waste, drain and animal waste, and dead animals that were underneath that raised floor had to all be cleaned out and it was just a mess,” said Wilson.

The grain bin is 30 feet in diameter and will have approximately 1,000 feet of living space. Wilson said, “The loft will just have four beds, just open area with four beds. The main floor will have a master bedroom with a king size bed, bathroom, toilet, sink, washer, dryer, air conditioner, and Wi-Fi, of course. It’ll have all the amenities that a regular Airbnb has and just the uniqueness of being in a grain bin.”

Another thing that will add to the uniqueness of the property is that it is will be almost entirely composed of reclaimed or repurposed materials. 

“So, pretty much, 100% of the framing is repurposed materials. All the lumber has been pulled out of local barns, houses I’ve torn down, chicken coops that I’ve torn down and repurposed the lumber. The old windbreak fencing, anything that’s in good condition that I could use, I have,” said Wilson. “The stairs to the loft will be made out of the raised floor panels that was in the original grain bin.”

Wilson has been working on the project every chance he gets. His goal is to be ready to open by Memorial Day weekend.