Can You Name 10 South Dakota Town Names That End With A Vowel?

I'd like to buy a vowel, Pat.

South Dakota is filled with great towns from border to border to border to border. I've lived in more than a few, great places like Winner, Aberdeen, Brookings, Rapid City, and Sioux Falls. And only ONE that ends with a vowel.

Volga. Yessir, I lived in the home of the Cossacks back there in the very early '80s.

So my mind got to wandering (it's always had a tendency to wander and even more so the older I get). I wonder how many towns here in the State have a name that ends with a vowel?

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Now, just across the border there in Minnesota, my little hometown has a name that ends with a vowel. I'm sure you've heard of it and spent many a day there.

Leota.

But I digress. The subject of this just-for-fun exercise concerns the state of South Dakota. So back to it: How many towns in our state end with a vowel? Hmm...there can't be many, right Bucko?

Wrong. Turns out there's quite a bunch! These may not be all of them, but it's a pretty good start.

Akaska
Alexandria
Albee
Alpena
Ardmore
Astoria
Aurora
Belle Fourche
Belvedere
Bowdle
Bruce
Buffalo
Burke
Canistota
Canova
Carthage
Centerville
Chelsea
Colome
Columbia
Conde
Corona
Corsica
Dante
Dupree
Eagle Butte
Eureka
Estelline
Flandreau
Florence
Fort Pierre
Fruitdale
Gayville
Grenville
Hayti
Hecla
Hermosa
Irene
Java
Keystone
Kodaka
Lane
Leola
Lesterville
Long Lake
Mellette
Menno
Monroe
Montrose
Murdo
Northville
Nunda
Oacoma
Onaka
Onida

Pierre
Platte
Presho
Pringle
Pukwana
Ramona
Ravinia
Reliance
Revillo
Roscoe
Sinai
St. Lawrence
Seneca
South Shore
Tea
Toronto
Tulare
Utica
Vienna
Volga
Wakonda
Wallace
Ward
Wasta
Wetonka
White
White Lake
Willow Lake
Yale

Who did I miss? I guess if you live in a town that ends with a vowel you aren't so unique after all.

So what did we learn in the time spent here? Not much, but it was kind of fun. And there's nothing wrong with that!

The Remaining Drive-In Theaters In South Dakota

If you were born last century...you know, in the nineteen hundreds (ugh)...you may have spent a summer evening in the car watching movies. I don't mean on your phone, I mean at the drive-in movie theater!

If you were in Sioux Falls in the 1970s and '80s you may remember seeing Jaws and Indiana Jones at The East Park or the Starlite Drive-In. Both drive-ins opened just after World War 2.

The East Park didn't make it out of the '70s, closing in 1978. The Starlite survived long enough to see the birth of home video, closing in 1985.

FLASHBACK: Remember the East Park and Starlite Drive-in Theaters in Sioux Falls?

Drive-in movies had a bit of a resurgence during the pandemic. They were a way to go out and do something social without getting out of your car.

If you tried one during that time, or you remember the fun of a warm summer evening watching movies on that giant screen there are still places in South Dakota and around Sioux Falls you can do it.

Gallery Credit: Ben Kuhns