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You say these towns are close to lakes? Can you swim in these lakes or just for fishing? What are the towns like? I am looking for a small town. Close to a lake or lakes. Good schools. I prefer old homes late 1800's to early 1900's. Maybe a few hangout spots, and a couple of resturants. Is there such a place?
You can definitely swim in the lakes. Watertown has Lake Kampeska & Pelican Lake right outside of town and Aberdeen has Mina and Richmond Lakes about 7-10 miles out. If you move to Webster you'll be driving about 10-30 minutes to the lakes in the Waubay area. Watertown and Aberdeen are larger and have more job opportunities though. There is Northern State University in Aberdeen and Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown as well. All three are nice towns and have decent schools and the types of houses and trees you're looking for, but it's only fair to also mention that the Aberdeen/Webster/Watertown region generally has the worst weather in the state.
Missoula, Montana. I LOVE Missoula (and Montana in general), and almost moved there a few years back. Couldn't quite get it together though, so I had to pass. It kinda broke my heart, because, when I visited there, it truly felt like home...
You can definitely swim in the lakes. Watertown has Lake Kampeska & Pelican Lake right outside of town and Aberdeen has Mina and Richmond Lakes about 7-10 miles out. If you move to Webster you'll be driving about 10-30 minutes to the lakes in the Waubay area. Watertown and Aberdeen are larger and have more job opportunities though. There is Northern State University in Aberdeen and Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown as well. All three are nice towns and have decent schools and the types of houses and trees you're looking for, but it's only fair to also mention that the Aberdeen/Webster/Watertown region generally has the worst weather in the state.
If I were to pick between the three, I would pick Watertown due to good interstate access and it being closer to Sioux Falls and Twin Cities. It is a friendly and clean community that is steadily growing. Aberdeen and Webster are nice communities also. Aberdeen has many nice older homes along with Webster. I have not been too far into Watertown's older areas.
I realize the Madison has an employment crisis right now. But we stayed at a resort on Lake Herman and visted Lake Madison also...I was impressed with the area.
Being from the Watertown and Brookings areas, I would have to pick Brookings over Watertown right now by a longshot. Watertown has several stores closing, while Brookings just opened 6 new ones last summer and is opening a few more within the next few months. There is plenty of work in Brookings. I looked at the job service page for Watertown and the newspaper, there isn't much of anything for work right now, plus the pay is so much lower than Brookings (I think because Brookings is closer to Sioux Falls they need to stay competitive, plus the economy is doing well compared to most towns). There isn't the best choices right close by Brookings for lakes, except Oakwood is only 30 minutes away, and Lake Benton MN, which is a cool little town. There is a lake 10 minutes from town that people live on, swim in, etc, and sometimes it's nice, while other times it's green, but that's most lakes on eastern SD anyhow. I think Lake Cochrane (near Clear Lake, SD) is one of the more nicer lakes in general.
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