Geddes, SD

Geddes is a city in central Charles Mix County, in south-central South Dakota's prairie-and-Missouri River region. The city began as a railroad town when the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad reached the area in 1883, and it was named for railroad executive David B. Geddes. Farming and livestock quickly shaped the local economy, with the rail line giving producers a way to move goods and bringing settlers and businesses to the new town.

Geddes has an unusually concentrated set of reminders from the surrounding region's earlier layers. The Geddes Historical Society preserves the Papineau Trading Post, the boyhood home of South Dakota governor Peter Norbeck, a red-white-and-blue schoolhouse, a claims shanty, and the WNAX building. The trading post dates to 1857 and sits near the Missouri River, while the schoolhouse and claims shanty show how later settlement worked on the prairie. Today the city still runs on civic groups, farming, local churches, school, and community events such as Fur Trader Days and Rooster Rush. The local scoop is that Geddes is both a railroad town and an open-air history stop, with the town's older layers gathered close enough to walk between.