Legion’s Post Home and Prairie Lounge to Permanently Close

Although the American Legion Willman-Fee Post 14 will no longer have a post home “up on the hill” in Wessington Springs, the post’s members are dedicated to continuing the longstanding service they’ve provided to the community.

“We won’t be doing business as the Prairie Lounge and we won’t have our post home, but the Legion will still go on, the Legion will always be there,” explained Melissa Schimke, former finance officer for Willman-Fee Post 14 and 26-year member of the American Legion. “Although we won’t be able to operate out of the post home we built and thought we could maintain, we still have a core Legion member base to put forth the effort to maintain Legion Baseball, the honor guard, service to our fallen veterans and to be present as an American Legion.”

Schimke, on behalf of the local post, announced this week that the Legion building, financed through the Small Business Administration (SBA) is in the process of being forfeited to foreclosure. After a tornado destroyed Post 14 and the Prairie Lounge in 2014, members decided to rebuild their post and continue with the bar and steakhouse under the same name.

“The Prairie Lounge that was once profitable for the Legion has, in recent years, been costing the Legion money,” explained Schimke. “Not only can we not pay our building payment, we can’t support the lounge.”

In order to satisfy local Prairie Lounge debts with area vendors, Legion members have launched a raffle for a Mahindra Roxor 4x4 off-road utility vehicle. Tickets are being sold beginning this week until Labor Day 2024. The drawing will be held in conjunction with the South Dakota State Fair at the American Legion building on the fairgrounds at noon on Labor Day, Monday, September 2. Tickets may be purchased for $40 each or three for $100 by contacting a Willman-Fee Post 16 Legion member.

“We are holding the raffle to help pick up some local debt that the Prairie Lounge won’t be able to pay. We also want to make sure the Legion as a whole has money to continue its community support,” said Schimke.

For 105 years, Willman-Fee Post 14 has lived up to the American Legion mission of mentoring youth, sponsoring programs in the community, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting strong national security and continued devotion to fellow service members and veterans. Nationally, the veterans service organization was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness.

Schimke said the Legion wants to assure the communitythatpreviously scheduled reservations at the building’s event center will be honored but the Legion is not taking any new reservations.

In the near future, the Prairie Lounge will be open in the afternoons by volunteers to help sell the bar’s inventory. Schimke said that days/hours of operation will vary and interested patrons can look to the Legion’s Facebook page for details.

Schimke pointed out that local Legion members realize that the Legion is muchmorethanabuilding, it’s a veterans service organization dedicated to the community.

“We want to be known as a Legion that is still functional and although we are losing our post home, we still want to support the programs we are known to support: Legion Baseball, Legion caps and coats for new members, providing flags for the community, color guard duties and markers for all of our veterans’ grave sites.”