Ghost Towns....Keyapaha, SD

     On top of the hill, like a haunted mansion from a scary book stood the Gooby house (also known to the Keyapaha Kids as the Ghost House). However, before Keyapaha, Gooby was, and still is, listed on early maps of South Dakota. At one time the Gooby family had a store, post office and home in that old crumbling building standing on the hill. It was locked up tighter than a drum and guarded by skunks living in the basement which deterred adventurous little explorers. 
     Located nine miles north of the Nebraska-South Dakota border and approximately three miles east of the Tripp-Todd County line in southwestern Tripp County, South Dakota, Keyapaha is still shown as a “dot” on many of the old South Dakota maps. Keyapaha was located thirty-two miles from the Chicago Northwestern Railroad which ended at Winner, South Dakota. Later the railroad was extended west to Wood, South Dakota. (This is the correct spelling for Keyapaha, South Dakota, as one word. In Nebraska, Keya Paha County and the Keya Paha River are two words.) In the Sioux language Keyapaha translates to “Turtle Butte '' or Turtle Hill ''.
By Marita Placek
Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. 
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