Oakaton, South Dakota is a ghost town. As of the 2020 census, there were a total of 31 people living in Oakaton. However, they are not living in any sort of town as the buildings are pretty much vacant and crumbling. Therefore, it is probably a population that is dedicated to rural farming in the area. Even their post office closed a few years ago.
Oakaton holds a special and strange memory for Tammy and I because of something that happened to us there back in August of 2004.
At the time we were heading from Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin, to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We were towing our 2001 R-Vision Trail Cruiser Travel Trailer. Our friends, Brad and Tammy Meixner, and their two boys, were going to meet up with us at the first campground stop in the Badlands. They were towing their pop-up camper at the time. Since our schedules were different, and we lived two hours apart, we would be on the road at the same time, but didn’t expect to be traveling together until after the Badlands. After the Badlands, we would all go together to the next campground near Mount Rushmore.
Tammy and I left in the evening with the expectation that we would stay overnight at the Lacrosse, Wisconsin, wayside. This is also known as the Lacrosse Rest area 31. It is a beautiful rest stop on the Mississippi river. This was a rest area that we had stayed at frequently on the way out west. They allowed overnight camping and it was quiet and always seemed like a safe place to stop for the night.
That evening as we entered the city of Lacrosse, we decided to get stop for dinner before heading on to the wayside. To the left we saw a chain restaurant with a big parking lot and decided to stop there. Turning left from the stop light, we went across a torn up section of road. It looked like the area was undergoing some sort of repaving – only worse. There was debris piled up everywhere. Even though it was a real mess, it wasn’t anything that either one of us was overly concerned about. We went in, had a nice dinner and came out to a very flat trailer tire.
Upon examination I saw a large nail going through the tire. It was now dark outside. I immediately called AAA to get some roadside assistance. We waited, and waited, and finally I told Tammy “Well, I’m not waiting all night, I’ll just get started”.
I jacked up the trailer, removed the tire, and installed the spare. It probably took me all of thirty minutes. We then called AAA and cancelled the call. I want to say that I’ve had AAA for over thirty years. Ordinarily, I have had no problems with them responding if we have an issue. This time however, we were both pretty disappointed in the service.
Well, we ventured on to the wayside which was only seven miles further, and spent an uneventful night.
The next day I told Tammy that at some point, in the very near future, we would need to get another spare tire. It didn’t matter to me what brand as it would just be a spare tire anyway. I don’t remember the brand of tire that the Trail Cruiser came with, but I do remember it was an obscure brand. Typically travel trailer manufacturers don’t use top of the line tires on their trailers. I always research the tires that come from the factory. If I find that a tire brand that is on one of my trailers has an iffy track record, I will immediately switch out the tires to a better brand. These tires passed my research but they were still a brand I hadn’t heard of before buying the trailer.
Well we began our journey towards the Badlands. As we reached the end of our second tank of gas that day, I saw a sign for gas, and took the exit. The sign at the bottom of the exit pointed left for gas. It appeared we would need to drive a few miles south to get to the gas station. What we drove into was a very small intersection that is now considered (and probably then ) a ghost town – Oakaton, South Dakota.
The gas station was a very small two pump operation. A very young attendant came to the car and asked if he could help. I told him we just needed gas, but we also needed to find a tire shop to get a spare, and asked if there was one nearby. He asked if he could see the tire. So I pulled the flat tire out and rolled it over to him. He looked at the tire, then got a big grin on his face, and he said “I have that exact tire in stock”. I was blown away. What are the odds a tiny little service station in the middle of nowhere, a ghost town no doubt, would have our specific (and obscure) brand of tire?
In about five minutes we had our gas and a brand new tire. It was definitely the fastest tire change I have ever experienced, and by far the least expensive. I was surprised at how little he charged me for the tire. It was a very twilight-zone type experience!
Well that Gas station building is still standing in Oakaton, I have no idea if it is open or closed. It sits across the street from the old Oakaton Grain Elevator.
You see, the most interesting things can happen to you when you travel the highways with your travel trailer, ghost town or no ghost town.
The rest of our trip with Brad and Tammy went off without a hitch, with the exception of a few cool nights, one with some rain.
I often think about that smiling gas attendant and our short visit to Oakaton, South Dakota. You may want to stop there some time and take a few photos before it disappears into history.
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