Which City is the Trailer Park King of South Dakota?

Despite the name, mobile homes mostly stay in one place. Mobile home living can be an affordable way of life without the larger home hassle. Of course, there are drawbacks.

Trailer walls can be so thin that trying to hang a picture can make the home shake like a Jenga tower. And many "mobile-homers" have chased stray cats, skunks, and an entire family of badgers from under the home.

Get our free mobile app

Tornados are not friendly to mobile home parks. Most parks have a shelter nearby to use if the weather is threatening. After all, there is no basement in a mobile home. They didn't get the nickname "tornado magnets" for nothing.

Nonetheless, nearly 22 million Americans live in them.

And despite what you may think, not all of them look like this.

Where is South Dakota's largest mobile home population? Rapid City. And it's not even close. According to MHVillage.com, there are 52 mobile home parks in Rapid City - more than twice as many as in Sioux Falls. In fact, Pennington County has 73 parks as to where Minnehaha County has 26.

I'm not knocking mobile homes. I was a proud owner of one when I moved to Sioux Falls in the late 1980s.

I found it affordable with low maintenance and it worked out well. Met some great people, too. I also became an expert on heat tape, insulation, and skirting options to battle the extremely cold winters.

I also learned you can fix pretty much anything with duct tape and a hammer.

Get our free mobile app