Welcome to Gettysburg...South Dakota, that is

As you travel east or west along U.S. Highway 212 across eastern South Dakota, a town rises up out of the undulating farm land. You have reached Gettysburg ... South Dakota, that is.  As a dryly humorous billboard proclaims, it is: "Where the battle wasn't."  

The town is fairly prosperous. It comes complete with its own high school, county courthouse and a hospital. There are also several churches, grocery stores and gas stations. There is even a one-stop shop where you can get gas, groceries and rent the latest DVDs. No Blockbuster video here. There is also a hotel, the Gettysburg Inn & Suites. 

Tourist attractions are that witty billboard, the historic courthouse, a blacksmith shop, the Dakota Sunset Museum, the G.L. Stocker Blacksmith shop and the golf course at the Gettysburg Country Club. This town's economy is primarily geared to the local trade however, just like its other eastern South Dakota counterparts. They leave the tourist-oriented trade for the small towns in the Black Hills and a little place named Wall outside Badlands National Park.   

How can towns like Gettysburg survive without pandering to tourists? Simple: Farming. While agriculture is hard to come by west of the Missouri River, it is not so east of it. Small towns here can get by on that trade. Ranching also plays a key role in the local economy as well. All in all, the town is a refreshing contrast to the tourist traps that dominate South Dakota's western half.

Why the name "Gettysburg?" Civil War veterans founded the town in 1883. Originally it was to have been named Meade, in honor of Gettysburg victor George Gordon Meade. The name already was so popular however, that the Post Office rejected it. A Gettysburg veteran named John W. Kennedy suggested the town be named after where he had fought. That proposal was accepted. Today Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and Gettysburg, South Dakota, are "sister cities," with the veterans who founded the latter the tie that binds them.      

Image by Richard H.