Most People Have Long Forgotten About This Vacant Ghost Town In Rural South Dakota

There's something positively captivating about ghost towns. The allure of what once was and the eerie remnants that have been left behind. South Dakota's ghost towns tell stories of once-prosperous places where people lived, worked, and dreamed. While they might look like just vacant shells, they're actually remnants of a past time when life was very different. Here's a little ghost town in South Dakota that has its own stories to tell, and quite unique ones at that. Let's take a glimpse into the history of Capa, South Dakota.

Capa was a railroad town that was first organized in 1904.

It gets its name from the Lakota word for "beaver." You'll find the abandoned town of Capa about nine miles east of Midland.

Capa was never a large town, but when the railroad arrived in 1906, people began settling here.

They built homes, shops, and even established a newspaper, the "Capa Hustler."

A grand hotel was built in town, which featured hot water from a local artesian well.

The hotel offered mineral baths in a public bathhouse. The water that came out of the well was so hot that it served as the heating system for several of the buildings here.

At its peak, the thriving town of Capa had hundreds of residents.

The years during the Great Depression were tough on the people of Capa, and few people traveled through the steep valley to reach it, especially after Highway 63 was built. When the railroad pulled its operations out of Capa, the town was in trouble, and by 1976, when the post office closed, it was all but completely abandoned.

Today, all that remains of Capa are some abandoned buildings.

Some still have old, decaying furnishings inside - remnants of the lives that were once lived here.

The buildings are just hollow shells, and many have collapsed over the years.

We've heard that this pretty church is now a crumpled pile of boards.

Many of the buildings in Capa were moved elsewhere, but a few remain. If you drive through this little ghost town, remember that most of these buildings are on private property and those that are standing are likely very unstable. View them from the outside and make sure you're not trampling through someone's private land.

Did you have friends or relatives who lived in Capa, South Dakota? We'd love to hear your stories!

If you love learning about South Dakota's history, check out this quaint little tower that's a wonderful tribute to a life-long friendship between Sheriff Seth Bullock and President Theodore Roosevelt.