Johnson Siding, SD

Johnson Siding is a Pennington County community about 10 miles west of Rapid City, surrounded by Black Hills National Forest and organized around the crossing of South Dakota 44, Norris Peak Road, and Nemo Road. The 2020 census counted 614 residents. The name is railroad shorthand: Swedish immigrant John Johnson ran a sawmill on Rapid Creek, and the Crouch Line built a siding where trains could load lumber and let other trains pass. The line connected Rapid City with Mystic until 1948, and the mill supplied lumber for its bridges and trestles.

These days Johnson Siding is the Rimrock area's crossroads. The general store and gas station, deli, tavern, casino, volunteer firehouse, church meetinghouse, and community center sit in for the usual main street, while most of the area's work and errands reach toward Rapid City. Remnants of the old Hisega Flume can still be seen along the Rapid Creek canyon; the flume fed a small hydroelectric plant near Thunderhead Falls that served Rapid City until the late 1930s. Johnson Siding is a Black Hills place with a surprisingly compact plot: one sawmill, one railroad siding, and a handful of institutions that still make the junction feel like the Rimrock area's downtown.