South Dakota Central

South Dakota Central. . Following the establishment of the 1897 Taopi Creamery at the future townsite of Colton, discussions began about the need for a farm-to-market railroad. Paul F. Sherman of Sioux Falls and John E. Colton, village founder, spearheaded a movement to build a new railroad from Sioux Falls to Colton and on to Madison. In April 1902 the Sioux Falls to Madison Railway was incorporated. Because it was unable to acquire adequate funding, four months later a second corporation, the Sioux Falls and Manitoba Railway, was created. Its purpose also was to build a railroad between Sioux Falls and Madison by way of Colton. Surveys were completed from Sioux Falls to the Lake County line; however, the new company neither graded rights-of-way nor laid ties and steel rails., Two years later in April 1904, a third company started. Stockholders each purchased $16,000 shares of stock, and with capital of $160,000, the South Dakota Land Company began laying track in May 1904. Investors intended to build the new South Dakota Central Railway (SDC) and hoped to sell the line to a major railroad company for a handsome profit., The first line of railway track ran from Sioux Falls to the newly formed villages of Crooks and Lyons. Skunk Creek was bridged, and the right-of-way continued up a steep grade to Colton, a total distance of about 20 miles. Company offices were located in Sioux Falls, and the Illinois Central Railroad depot was used for all Sioux Falls passenger train departures and arrivals., In late summer 1904 the SDC owners were startled to learn that the giant Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway (Milwaukee Road) was surveying a line from Madison to Sioux Falls. Inevitable future competition from the Milwaukee Road dashed the hopes of the SDC investors for a quick, profitable sale of the young railroad. Instead management was spurred to seek an alternate route. The railway track was extended to Chester, Wentworth, Rutland, and Nunda and reached Watertown in 1907., Undercapitalized and heavily in debt, the SDC struggled financially until it entered receivership in 1916. It was eventually acquired by the Great Northern. In 1970 the original SDC short line became part of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe., The competing Milwaukee line linked Renner, Colton, and Madison in 1907. It, too, eventually suffered the same fate as the SDC. Bankruptcy Court receivers began abandoning track in 1935, and in 1942 the Milwaukee Road from Madison to Sioux Falls ceased to exist.