Groton, SD

At the 2020 census, Groton was a Brown County city of 1,380 people that began as a railroad stop. It was organized and platted in 1881, named for Groton, Massachusetts, and quickly picked up the seventh post office in Brown County. C. H. Prior, a New Englander who bought the townsite, helped bring New England names to the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul line. Nine businesses opened in the first three months, two newspapers joined the new town, and by 1883 Groton had three wards and 410 people. Even the town's first artisan well became part of local lore: it served a flourmill and water system, then developed into an unstable chasm that residents eventually had to cap.

Groton still works as a crossroads, with U.S. Highway 12 and South Dakota Highway 37 meeting the old railroad-town pattern. The city describes its school, business district, and recreation facilities as the pieces that keep a small northeastern South Dakota hub moving. That mix feels right for a place whose history started with rail access and quickly added newspapers, shops, a flourmill, and civic wards. Groton is a town that kept translating the same location into new forms of connection.