I find old houses like that interesting. I am sure they have stories to tell, but we can only use our imagination. I took this picture in August of 2000. This house is about 60 miles from my home, so I don't know if it is standing today.
There is a story though, I read it several yeas ago so I can't tell all of it. This house is about 1/4 mile from the old original townsite of Witten, South Dakota. I would guess this town was stared about the time homesteaders were allowed on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and Tripp County.
There was not much left in this old townsite when I visited it. It may not have been any larger than 2 or three blocks. No signs of streets left. There is an old bank vault, about 1920 this town had two banks, one was named the Atlas Bank. There is a cistern, some concrete bases that may have been light posts. In the concrete of these there are old car parts, connecting rods, pistons, spring leaves, etc. and in other places a few broken pieces of concrete that may have been parts of foundations.
Sometime during the late 1920's the railroad was extended northwest from Winner, SD. It bypasted Witten. It ran 1 or two miles to the south, Eventually most of the business moved nearer the railroad. There was still a grain elevater and a few homes when I was there. There had been a lumber yard, But I don't think it was in business anymore.
I do not know what the railroad people's intent was when they extended the railroad. I doesn't look like there was an adequate ecconomic base to justify building a railroad beyond Winner. I wonder if it may have been to secure water to run the steamers. Surface water is scarce in that area and shallow wells go dry much of the year. I think this railroad was built as far as Wood, South Dakota, then building stopped with the begining of the depression years, this may have been as far as it was intended. There are artesion wells near Wood. Maybe these would have been considered a source for water.
