Manchester, South Dakota
| Manchester, South Dakota | |
|---|---|
| Ghost town | |
 Manchester, South Dakota
|
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| Coordinates: 44°22′46″N 97°42′10″W / 44.37944°N 97.70278°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | South Dakota |
| County | Kingsbury |
| Area | |
| • Total | 55.7 sq mi (144.4 km2) |
| • Land | 55.7 sq mi (144.4 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 1,608 ft (490 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 0 |
| • Density | 2.0/sq mi (0.8/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 57353 |
| Area code(s) | 605 |
| FIPS code | 46-40500 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1268540 |
Manchester was a small unincorporated community in Kingsbury County in the east-central part of the U.S. state of South Dakota. On June 24, 2003, the town was completely annihilated by a large F4-rated tornado, and has since become a ghost town. In 2004, the state of South Dakota officially disincorporated the town of Manchester.
Manchester was originally called Fairview; the present name honors a certain pioneer settler named Manchester. With the influence of the railroad, Manchester underwent rapid expansion, including the building of "numerous homes, a town hall, grocery stores, livery barns, a lumber yard, two grain elevators, a depot, a restaurant, a cream station, a bank, a pool hall, auto repair, blacksmith shops, gas stations, two churches, a system of township schools including Manchester High School, a hotel, a newspaper and a fabled town pump".
Grace Ingalls Dow, sister of Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder, spent a significant part of her adult life in Manchester. She worked as a teacher in the local school and died in 1941. Her sister Mary Ingalls lived with her for a while as well. Laura Ingalls Wilder spent many years (and set several of her Little House books) in De Smet, a similarly sized town seven miles to Manchester's east along the railroad line.
Into the 20th century, the diminishing importance of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad line through Manchester slowed train traffic and cut into the town's expansion, causing many to leave the town. This slide continued into the Great Depression as the line lay idle and more residents were forced to close their businesses and move elsewhere to find work. Despite road contact finally being made through Manchester in the late 1930s, little remained to induce people to linger and the few remaining residents began to die off or move away, with many relocating to nearby De Smet or Huron. Having lost many of its residents and its primary means of attracting more, Manchester's population steadily dwindled until a core population of no more than 100 residents remained, with most operating farms and ranches outside the town limits. The CNW railroad officially announced its permanent abandonment of the railroad line in 1986 and stopped maintaining the tracks. By 2003, less than a dozen structures (including two operating businesses) remained standing on the original Manchester town plot along US-14 and 425th Avenue.
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Wikipedia