Ghost Towns in SD (Sioux Falls, Rapid City: hotel, houses, high school)

[MJ1986]

I'm a huge fan of ghost towns...any other ghost town enthusiast out there? Does anyone know of a good ghost town -- one that was once booming but now just abandoned buildings? I know the Black Hills has tons of them...

[sdgoldpanner]

mjg,
Yes, there are tons of Ghost Towns in SD. Try the following links.

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/sd/topic...ningtoncty.htm

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/sd/sd.html

It will take you the better part of 2-3 months to check them all out.

Bob

[DannyBanany]

I guess you kinda answered your own question. Try the Black Hills. There is a really neat one between Deadwood and Pactola Lake on Highway 385. I am not sure of the name of it, but it's by the Nemo Road Junction. There are also a lot of abandoned buildings and houses in Hart Ranch just south of Rapid City. 1880 Town is a cool one too, and it's along I-90 by Midland? Maybe?

I've often wondered though, is 1880 Town real or is it just a tourist trap.

There are some in the Western Black Hills too, but I've never ventured that far into the mountains. It's just dirt roads and trails. The occasional recluse is spotted out there too. KINDA CREEPY!!!

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by DannyBanany

I guess you kinda answered your own question. Try the Black Hills. There is a really neat one between Deadwood and Pactola Lake on Highway 385. I am not sure of the name of it, but it's by the Nemo Road Junction. There are also a lot of abandoned buildings and houses in Hart Ranch just south of Rapid City. 1880 Town is a cool one too, and it's along I-90 by Midland? Maybe?

I've often wondered though, is 1880 Town real or is it just a tourist trap.

There are some in the Western Black Hills too, but I've never ventured that far into the mountains. It's just dirt roads and trails. The occasional recluse is spotted out there too. KINDA CREEPY!!!

Danny, the town you mentioned, I believe is Brownsville. Thats right on 385. However, if you jump on Nemo rd, headed for Nemo, there is Roubaix about a mile. If you keep going, you come to Benchmark, Greenwood, Novak, Tomahawk, and then Nemo. Bet you didn't know there was that many towns on that road, did you?

[DannyBanany]

My favorite road to drive on in the Black Hills is Norris Peak Road. It twists and curves and at times it has a VERY steep grade. Recently, a gas tanker rolled off the road during a storm causing the road to be closed temporarily.

To get to it, just go about 10 miles west of Rapid City on Nemo Road. It has great views and beautiful, lush scenery.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by DannyBanany

My favorite road to drive on in the Black Hills is Norris Peak Road. It twists and curves and at times it has a VERY steep grade. Recently, a gas tanker rolled off the road during a storm causing the road to be closed temporarily.

To get to it, just go about 10 miles west of Rapid City on Nemo Road. It has great views and beautiful, lush scenery.

I used to live across the highway from Johnson Siding, so I traveled Norris Peak quite often.

[DannyBanany]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

I used to live across the highway from Johnson Siding, so I traveled Norris Peak quite often.

LUCKY!!! That's probably my favorite area of the Black Hills besides Spearfish Canyon. It's very serene, secluded, and pretty.

[Chris19]

I have a 1930s highway map of South Dakota that have quite a few towns listed that are dried up now. I remember that there is are a few ghost towns near Sioux Falls (oddly enough), which fizzled out decades ago. Klondike (even though it across the Big Sioux River in Iowa) is north of Canton and directly east on the road that many Lennox people take to I-29. The town had an old flour mill. Hooker is another one but in the southeastern part of Turner County in the Viborg/Centerville areas. Schindler (even though it is a cluster of houses now) was a thriving town northeast of Harrisburg on SD Highway 11 earlier in the 20th century and fizzled out in the middle part of the century, but resembles more of a development of acreages mostly built in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1960s and earlier maps, there used to be a West Sioux Falls and a South Sioux Falls, but those were absorbed into Sioux Falls.

Blood Run was an old Indian settlement, before the Sioux came to the area, and has artificacts and is northeast of Harrisburg along the Big Sioux River. Iowa has been more proactive with preserving the area, but it would be neat to have it as a park with an interpretive site.

Vermillion used to be next to the river until a big flood in the 1880s. The community was relocated to the higher ground a couple miles north.

The history of these towns, ghost towns and actual towns, are very intereting and as much should be preserved as money allows.

[DannyBanany]

Scenic is also an interesting one. It's at a junction on the way to Pine Ridge from Rapid City. We went through it once on a gov't class trip back in high school. It's just an old bar and a couple shacks. They used to hang people there.

[ElkHunter]

Danny, they also hung people in downtown Rapid City. There used to be a hanging tree down town when I was little. It was a historical monument. But it finally rotted away and fell down. It was in front of the big hotel on Main.

I too like the mystery's of ghost towns. The problem is that the state, and the historical society has went to naming ghost towns. For instance, they're recently (last 5 years) named Vayland as a ghost town. 30 years ago, only one family lived there. Today, the same family lives there. But now, it's called a ghost town. When I seen that come onto the list I immediately called my cousing and asked him if he moved. Nope. But there's no longer a post office there. When they pulled the post office, it became a ghost town in the eyes of the state.

So just because they list ghost towns, it may not be. I would consider a ghost town, empty and void of people. haha