South Dakota’s ghost towns are fascinating remnants of history and can easily evoke nostalgia for times long gone. Here’s a little town with a heartbreaking story that’s hard to forget; these ghost towns in South Dakota all seem to have intriguing histories, but some are sadder than others. Take Ardmore, for example:

The town of Ardmore was located near the South Dakota/Nebraska border, south of Hot Springs.
Google Maps
The town was founded in 1889, mainly as a stop for the New Burlington Railroad's trains. At the time, the steam engines needed to stop at little towns along the route to take on more water.
Ardmore was a town that suffered from drought and a noticeable lack of water almost from the beginning.
Greg Gjerdingen/Flickr
While Hat Creek provided water during wetter years, the water was fairly acidic. Ardmore provided the acidic water to the steam trains, which supplied fresh drinking water for residents in return.
In 1911, an experimental farm was established in Ardmore, to try a new concept called "Dry Farming."
Facebook/Ardmore SD
In the summer of 1927, President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge attended a town picnic at the farm.
Things went okay, but just a few years later, Ardmore was suffering from drought and the dry farming idea was abandoned.
Library of Congress
When the above photo was taken in 1936, the photographer was already referring to Ardmore as a "ghost town that is decaying as a result of drought."
When steam locomotives were replaced by diesel, the New Burlington Railroad no longer needed to stop for water.
MortAuPat/Flickr
The train still ran along the tracks near town, but it just kept going - no longer leaving fresh water for residents to use.
A few hardy souls stayed here for several more decades, but the town really never thrived again.
MortAuPat/Flickr
Of all the ghost towns in South Dakota, this one might have the most fascinating backstory.
By 1980, the U.S. Census showed that only 16 people called Ardmore home.
JohnTheBear/Tripadvisor
The little community occasionally hosts a town reunion, but the place is truly a ghost town. Many buildings and houses still stand - all remnants of a town that tried its hardest to survive, but in the end dried up and was abandoned.

Have you ever visited Ardmore? If you’re interested in exploring more of South Dakota’s ghost towns, check out Scenic, an abandoned town with an eerie atmosphere.

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Ghost Towns in South Dakota

Tori Jane | December 06, 2021

What are some creepy places in South Dakota?  

South Dakota is a lonesome state that certainly isn’t without its ghosts. There are more than a handful of eerie, creepy, and maybe even downright haunted places scattered all over the state, including numerous houses, homesteads, and even ghost towns.

Some of the state parks are even said to be haunted, too, like Sica Hollow State Park, which tends to give people the willies even when they’re not sure why. The grounds are thought to be haunted by Native American folks and their spirits, and sometimes folks report the stream turning red and hearing what sounds like war drums in the distance despite there being nobody present with drums at all.

Other truly creepy places in South Dakota that we love (for some reason) include: 

  • The old Orpheum Theatre in Sioux Falls
  • The Mount Moriah Cemetery (which is said to be haunted by the likes of Calamity Jane herself)
  • Old Devil’s Gulch

If you’re a fan of spooky places in South Dakota like we are, you’ll probably want to check out this list of a bunch of horribly creepy things you can do here.  

Where was Ardmore, South Dakota? 

Ardmore is an unincorporated community lurking in Fall River County. It sits about a mile north of the South Dakota/Nebraska state line, and it was established in 1889 by European-American settlers. It was never an enormous place, though it did enjoy some success during the Great Depression, during which the town survived supposedly without a single household or family needing to go on welfare. Unfortunately, however, Ardmore was not to last, and as folks moved away and agricultural efforts in the area declined, the population began to steadily decrease. It is now, for the most part, entirely abandoned; it sits now as a ghost town and the last time anyone was confirmed to have lived there at all was in 1980 when the census showed a meager population of just 16 people.  

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Ardmore, SD 57747, USA