Bonilla South Dakota? (Sioux Falls, Brandon, Dell Rapids: houses, live, floors)

[Newman Fan]

Can anyone please give info on Bonilla? Were does the name originate from? Just curios.

[Jammie]

http://www.city-data.com/township/Bo...Beadle-SD.html

OK, I was confused since I had never heard of Bonilla so I googled it. It appears to be a township in Beadle county. Is that what you're referring to?

[MJ1986]

According to a South Dakota history book I have:

"Bonilla is believed to have been named by William Kelley, division superintendent of the Milwaukee railroad, for General Manuel Bonilla, who was once president of Honduras. Another version is that the name is a corrupted form of the French words for 'good village'. It was platted in 1884."

The history was published in 1973 and it shows Bonilla having a population of 60. I drove by the town a few years ago, and all that is left is a few houses and a church.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Jammie

http://www.city-data.com/township/Bo...Beadle-SD.html

OK, I was confused since I had never heard of Bonilla so I googled it. It appears to be a township in Beadle county. Is that what you're referring to?

Jammie, Bonilla is a town in Beadle County. It's also in Bonilla township. The entire city is 4 blocks long and 1 block wide. So there's 5 streets. Don't know if anybody lives there anymore or not. Been years since I was through there. It's 15 miles straight North of Wolsey.

[DannyBanany]

Bonne Ville is French for "good town". Bonilla could be taken from that word, but it sounds more like Spanish villa or beautiful "Bonita". I'm going to have to go along with the namesake.

Where the heck did the name "Wall" come from?

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by DannyBanany

Bonne Ville is French for "good town". Bonilla could be taken from that word, but it sounds more like Spanish villa or beautiful "Bonita". I'm going to have to go along with the namesake.

Where the heck did the name "Wall" come from?

I was told that the name come from the Wall of bluffs as you are going East. Don't know if it's true or not, but that's what I was told by an old (90+) cowbody I used to ride with down in the bluffs. Yeah, he looked like he'd wore out 3 or 4 bodies, but that old codger could rope and ride better then I could. And he'd do it 17-18 hours a day.

[debey]

Bonilla SD...

was thru that area this summer. population...perhaps 30??...there is still a church there, I believe they share a minister w/several neighboring congregations.. Rural churches have been consolidating, or sharing ministers, for many years...
I can remember when the gas station was open, along Hiway 281, but that was when I was a small child....ok, so liuke 35 or more years ago.
Its about as clear as the memory of going to the Burdette(SD) store...I remember the wooden floors, and the great selection of candy!(some of it was bulk!)

[egg man]

Yes, was through there a few months back. Gas station is still there and an active church. A few houses and inhabitants that are either too poor to move away or are just die hards and hang in there.

Sad to say, we have town after town like that here.

Yes, Wall is named Wall because it is built along the north "Wall" of the Badlands. Of course it is most noted for having the world's largest and most interesting Drug Store.

[leroyleroux]

Heh, I know Bonilla. There are maybe ten families there, one with a ton of cats. The gas station is either closed permantly, or open for card players in the morning. And yeah, the church carries on. If I'm right the elevators are gone. No other businesses are there. A couple of years ago they tore down the dance hall. I guess it had a great dance floor, but these days no one really has a use for one.

[jmgg]

The number of towns like this in South Dakota is staggaring. My grandfather's old atlas from around the year 1900 lists hundreds of towns that most of us that have lived most our lives in SD never heard of. Once flourishing towns that are barely a memory.

Only within the last few years has SD's population matched the state's population in the 1920's. The big difference of course is back then the population was spread throughout the state and now it's concentrated in only a few areas with the remainder of the state gradually returning to prairie.

Just in Minnehaha County (Sioux Falls, Brandon, Dell Rapids etc) I can name a bunch of now extinct towns that most people around here never knew existed. Towns like Palisades, Taopi, Bogue, Morefield, Ben Clare all existed at one time. A couple of these towns moved mostly because of the railroad (Palisades and Taopi) and the others simply died.