Nahant, South Dakota facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nahant, South Dakota
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 Nahant, South Dakota
Location in South Dakota
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| Country | United States |
| State | South Dakota |
| County | Lawrence |
| Founded | 1890 |
| Elevation | 5,682 ft (1,732 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-7 (MST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
Nahant or West Nahant is a ghost town in Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. It was founded in 1890. A ghost town is a place where most people have left, and very few or no one lives there anymore. Nahant was once a busy town, known for its logging (cutting down trees for wood) and a bit of mining (digging for valuable minerals) in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Contents
The Story of Nahant
How Nahant Started and Grew
Nahant began in 1890. It made most of its money from the nearby Montana Mine. In 1902, the Globe Mining Company started working there. Later, the McLaughlin Tie and Timber Company came to the area and began cutting down trees.
Because Nahant was close by, the McLaughlin company started giving it a lot of money each month in May 1906. That same year, McLaughlin built a ten-mile railway line to Moskee, Wyoming. Another company, the Ray Company, also mined in the area for a short time.
In 1909, McLaughlin added more railway lines to Tinton and Cold Springs in South Dakota. These train lines helped many small logging camps grow. All these camps were connected by telephone.
Life in Nahant
Nahant had many buildings. There were two rows of houses, a boarding house, a post office, and a two-room school. The town also had a well, a large water tank, and a carpenter shop. A special club house offered fun activities like basketball and roller-skating. The Nahant basketball team was even famous for beating the team from Deadwood once!
Most of these buildings were built by the McLaughlin company. A nearby roundhouse held one of the train engines that McLaughlin borrowed. In March 1909, 40 students went to the school. However, parents were not happy with the teaching, so the school closed in June of that year. At its busiest time, Nahant had about 500 people living there.
Challenges and Decline
The McLaughlin Company faced many problems. In April 1909, a big fire completely destroyed their $40,000 mill. The fire was so large that people 15 miles away in Lead could see it! The company's insurance only covered about half of the damage.
Even though the lumber in the yards and the planing mill were saved, five railroad cars were destroyed. Three of these cars held 975 wooden railroad ties. Also, 90,000 board feet of lumber, a shed with thousands of ties, and six carloads of fresh logs were lost. Luckily, the houses in town did not lose their lighting during the fire.
The McLaughlin Company never fully recovered from this fire. They eventually closed down because they ran out of money and had poor management.
After the company closed, the town slowly died out. The post office and a hotel stayed open for a bit longer. The old school building was moved to a ranch near Brownsville. Today, only one house remains from the original town of Nahant.
Where is Nahant?
Nahant is located in the Black Hills of Lawrence County, South Dakota. You can find it at 44°10′36″N 103°45′20″W / 44.1766505°N 103.7554753°W. It was built on a hilltop close to other places called Montana City and Elkhorn.
