Ardmore is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in Fall River County,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

, United States. The town was founded in 1889 by European-American settlers. The population was 1 at the 2020 census.

Description

The town is believed to have been derived from the name of Dora Moore, a local teacher. It is at an elevation of 3,556 feet. Ardmore was featured in the May 2004 issue of ''

National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

.'' The community is located approximately north of the

–

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

border along South Dakota Highway 71. It is located next to a stretch of

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

railroad. Approximately 15-25 abandoned houses have survived at the site. The town sign is still standing.

History

In 1927, President

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...

stopped in Ardmore. The town survived the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

without one family on welfare. The decline of agriculture and move of young people to other areas for work reduced the population. The last time the town had a recorded population was in 1980, when the 1980 census showed a population of 16 residents. Ardmore celebrated a reunion on September 4, 2010, at the Ardmore Volunteer Fire Department.

Education

The school district is Edgemont School District 23-1.
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Notable person

* Doc Middleton, a former resident and infamous

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

References

External links

Populated places in Fall River County, South Dakota Unincorporated communities in South Dakota Populated places established in 1889 1889 establishments in Dakota Territory {{SouthDakota-geo-stub