South Dakota Central Railroad

In the early 1880s homesteaders immigrated to Dakota Territory settling in this area. They established the villages of Dolph, three miles west, and Poinsett, five miles east. They traveled by foot, oxen or horse-drawn wagons to market products and pick up supplies at the nearest railroad stations which were twelve to seventeen miles away.

In 1906, the South Dakota Central Railroad (SDC) was extending a line northward from Sioux Falls to Watertown. Area landowners met with SDC officials at the Roisum School, located one mile west of here, hoping to persuade them to build the railroad through here. The landowners subscribed $100 per quarter section of land and donated thirty-five acres for a townsite.

SDC staked out what would become Lake Norden on October 15, 1907. Soon many businesses sprang up and many of the buildings from Dolph and Poinsett were moved in. The first train arrived on December 31, 1907. The depot was built a few feet north of here; and four grain elevators and stockyards were also built near the tracks.

The town had thirty-three businesses by 1909. The early locomotives were steam powered. In the 1940s diesel electric engines came into use. In the early days as many as two freight trains and two passenger trains made round trips daily between Sioux Falls and Watertown. The towns SDC served included Crooks, Lyons, Chester, Wentworth, Rutland, Nunda, Sinai, Ahnberg, Arlington, Badger, Lake Norden, Hayti, Thomas, and Foley.

SDC was financially troubled from the start. A terrible accident on March 4, 1916, thirteen miles north, near Thomas, killed three people and destroyed the entire train when it crashed through a fire weakened bridge. A bankruptcy court ordered the sale of SDC to the Watertown and Sioux Falls Railway.

By 1928 the Great Northern Railroad had taken control. In 1970 Great Northern merged with three other railroads to become Burlington Northern. Burlington Northern, in turn, merged with Santa Fe Railway in 1995 to form BNSF Railway. The last passenger train came through Lake Norden on December 30, 1952.

When the last freight train departed on May 22, 1980, it left behind a legacy of seventy-three years of railroad history, as well as the town of Lake Norden, that exists today because of the South Dakota Central Railroad. This marker is provided by the Lake Norden Historical Society and BNSF Foundation.