Wagner, SD

Wagner is a Charles Mix County city whose railroad beginning is mixed with Yankton Sioux and immigrant history. The first Wagner was a tar-paper store and post office south of the present city; Walter W. Wagner later took Milwaukee railroad officials fishing, and the town laid out in 1900 was named for him. Today the Charles Mix County Historical Society keeps an original log cabin, church, blacksmith shop, post office, and farm equipment just off Highway 46. Wagner’s school, airport, and transit buses fill in the current map. It is south-central South Dakota with a railroad name, a fishing story, and a local museum full of county-sized memories.