Philip, SD

Philip is a Haakon County city of 759 residents in the 2020 census and the county seat on the banks of the Bad River. Its name honors James “Scotty” Philip, whose ranch stood near the mouth of Grindstone Creek in the 1880s. The Chicago and North Western Railway reached the townsite in 1907; Philip incorporated in 1908 and became the Haakon County seat in 1914. A three-story courthouse built in the 1930s still serves the county today. The river remains close by.

Ranching and agriculture remain central to the city's working map. Grain elevators, a livestock auction, a veterinary clinic, and other farm businesses serve the surrounding ranches, while Scotchman Industries makes metal-fabrication machinery in town. The Bad River runs past the city toward the Missouri, giving Philip a different edge from the open upland prairie around it. Local identity also carries the buffalo-saving work associated with Scotty Philip, so the city's name links its railroad beginning to the ranching history that preceded it.