One of SDPB's big projects was our documentary, Vanished South Dakota: Towns of Yesterday, which will tell the stories of some of the towns that have nearly disappeared from the map in our state.
What has made a seemingly simple project more difficult has been that no single existing map has all of these lost towns already on it! Some of the earliest towns we are researching, such as Texas Town, disappeared when railroad tracks were laid; whereas others disappeared when those same rail lines were discontinued. In addition, boundaries, locations of towns and even the existence of entire counties have changed over the decades. However, thanks to those who have shared their maps, and through the extensive collection at the Library of Congress, we have been able to locate each and every town currently on our list.
Our entire staff has enjoyed the process of gathering and researching the old maps and so we thought our fans might as well. Below is a collection of Dakota Territory/South Dakota maps from the Library of Congress collection. Feel free to download (click on a photo to download a PDF--files are LARGE!) and take a closer look.
1857 Iowa Central Rail Map
1872 Dakota Territory Map
1872 Rice's Sectional Map of Dakota Territory
1874 Watson's Rail Road Map
1874 Dakota (southern portion) Postal Route Map
1882 Map of Dakota, Southern Portion
1882 Chicago & North-Western Rail Map of Dakota Territory
1892 Rand, McNally & Co's South Dakota Map
1909 George F. Cran Map of South Dakota
1913 Rand McNally Commercial Atlas-South Dakota
