Selby, SD

Selby grew out of a railroad survey in Walworth County, and its early history is unusually literal: buildings came to town by wagon. When the railroad bypassed Bangor, residents and businesses moved toward Selby's new townsite, sometimes taking whole structures with them; the J. J. Hoven store required 64 horses for the trip. The county-seat fight lasted eight years before records and courthouse contents moved from Bangor to Selby in 1903. By then Selby had banks, hotels, shops, a school, and a main street shaped by the new line.

Selby's civic core still carries that county-seat role. The Walworth County Courthouse, library, post office, Selby Area School, and city offices keep that civic role visible. An artesian well once struck water and gas deep underground, with enough pressure to raise water 50 feet and light buildings on Main Street. The well also supplied the town's first skating rink. Selby reads as a prairie railroad city assembled twice: first by surveyors, then by residents moving their homes, businesses, and government to the tracks.