Along a pair of railroad tracks lies the once bustling little town of Sitka, South Dakota. Now a ghost town with just the abandoned grain elevator and one home, it was once a station stop on The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and** Pacific Railroad** (CMStP&P), now only the trains of today’s BNSF Railway roll past. Very little is known about the history of the town.
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For a number of projects people say they look like the real thing and in this case it has a reduced scale look about. Not saying it’s fake or anything just the vibe is going the other way and I am ok with that.
Featured in the distance on Google Street Views
Nothing much of anything else around though …
What a lonely place …
A bit over 4 miles to the west along the railroad there is Glenham, population 112 as of 2020, maybe some of them have died of boredom since then …
They have a USPS office so a model builder can survive on mail order kits …
Further west is Mobridge, population 3261 in the 2020 census …
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It would make a neat little railroad scene.
Sitka station, where nothing stops anymore …
In Australia we paint our silos with murals depicting Aussie scenes .they are a great big ray of color .they aren’t metal like this one rather they are concrete .
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Interesting.
As an aside, there used to be a sign along a back road pointing to “Griffithswitch.”
I told my wife I bet it used to be so named because of a old railroad switch. It was. From the Texas State Historical Association:
Griffith, TX (Ellis County). Griffith is on Farm Road 2258 and Boggy Branch, thirteen miles west of Waxahachie in western Ellis County. It was named for J. W. Griffith, an early settler, and became known as Griffith Switch when a spur track for the International-Great Northern Railroad was laid through the community in 1903. It served primarily as a cattle shipping point. By the 1930s Griffith had a population estimated at twenty-five and one business. Its population remained at that level until 1970, when no estimates were available. At that time Griffith had a store, a cotton gin, and a gas station. In 1990 its population was reported as ten. The population remained the same in 2000.
Now nothing remains at all. And there is not even a trace of the old rail line. I’ve looked fairly often. The only hint of what once was is a barn with a sign that says “Griffith Blacksmith” and a bunch of old farm equipment out front, The county even removed the Griffithswitch (one word, in spite of how the article writes it) sign several years ago. In a few years, when the old timers on Farm Road 2258 die off, no one will have known a town ever exised there.
Sic transit gloria mundi
Is it near Griffith Switch Range?
Farm Road 2258 sure has some wide sweeping curves, almost as if it used to be something else …
Griffith Switch farm equipment museum??
Maybe it is not quite as “sleepy” as you think.
At least two new houses, decent size, have popped out of the ground between July 2008 and March 2023
If you’re Googling it, obviously you know it’s near the range. I don’t shoot there. (I don’t think it existed under that name until fairly recently) I find ETTS in Maypearl to be a better location, although I don’t shoot there much either. I usually go to Texas Defensive Shooting Academy in Ferris. Then we have the car (whichever needs it) serviced at a Jordanian friend’s place in Red Oak, while eating some pretty damned good Mexican food. When lunch is finished so is the car. We like to maximize our time. and knocking out three things at once is always a good thing. In fact, I took her last Thursday.
Free lifetime membership for SF guys. Well, most SF guys. One was PNG’ed for being a jackass.
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I was checking if Google maps found me the right spot, Texas is larger than Sweden …