Manchester

Overview

The town a tornado finished

Manchester began as Fairview, a stop on the Chicago & North Western Railroad across the prairie of eastern South Dakota. It took its later name from Chester H. Manchester, the first postmaster. In its good years it had a town hall, grocery stores, two grain elevators, a depot, a bank, churches, a high school, a hotel and a newspaper. Grace Ingalls Dow, sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, spent much of her adult life there and taught in the local school. She died in 1941. De Smet, the Little House town, is seven miles east along the railroad.

As the railroad faded, so did Manchester. The Depression emptied it further, and by 2000 the census found 40 people. On June 24, 2003, a tornado rated F4, half a mile to a mile wide, came in from the south and destroyed the handful of buildings left, including the post office. Some people were taken to hospital, but KELO reported no one was seriously hurt. Storm chaser Tim Samaras had set a probe in the tornado's path; it recorded a pressure fall of about 100 millibars, the deepest ever measured directly.

No one rebuilt. The state disincorporated Manchester in 2004, and a monument went up at the old town hall site in 2007.

Timeline

Railroad town to empty field

1. Railroad eraThe town, first called Fairview, grows on the Chicago & North Western line. It is renamed for Chester H. Manchester, its first postmaster.
2. Before 1941Grace Ingalls Dow, Laura Ingalls Wilder's sister, spends much of her adult life in Manchester and teaches in the local school. She dies in 1941.
3. 1930sRail traffic slows and the Depression drives residents away. A road reaches the town in the late 1930s.
4. 1986The railroad announces it will abandon the line, then sells the tracks to the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern.
5. 2000The census counts 40 people.
6. Jun 24, 2003An F4 tornado half a mile to a mile wide destroys the town. A storm chaser's probe in its path records a pressure drop of about 100 millibars, the deepest ever measured directly.
7. 2004The state disincorporates Manchester.
8. 2007A monument is placed at the site of the old town hall.

What's left

What you'll see

The monument placed in 2007 stands where the town hall was, KELOLAND reported in 2023. Our sources describe little else at the site. Compare the 1991 aerial above, with its tree-lined blocks and houses, with today's imagery below, where a few buildings remain on the old streets.

The historic maps below follow the town from 1899 to 1985. The 1899 USGS sheet draws Manchester as a small grid of blocks on the railroad. The 1953 sheet shows it on the railroad and the highway between Iroquois and De Smet, and the 1985 sheet shows a short loop of streets north of the highway.

• 2007 Manchester monument

Historic maps

Manchester on USGS maps, 1899–1985

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18991:125,00019531:250,00019851:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Manchester is on US 14, a few minutes west of De Smet. From Sioux Falls, take I-29 north to US 14 and head west.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Have photos of Manchester?

We haven’t added more photographs of Manchester yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Manchester?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Manchester

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our South Dakota index.

• St. Marys21.3 mi S · Miner
• Medary47.5 mi E · Brookings
• Vayland53.9 mi W · Hand
• Lily56.2 mi N · Day
• Grand View75.0 mi SW · Douglas
• East Sioux Falls78.8 mi SE · Minnehaha
• Plana84.5 mi N · Brown
• Hooker87.9 mi SE · Turner

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Manchester, South Dakota", retrieved October 2026: names, the railroad, town businesses, Grace Ingalls Dow, distance to De Smet, decline, the 2000 census, the tornado and probe, disincorporation, 1881 incorporation.
2. KELOLAND News, "Remembering the Manchester tornado 20 years later" (June 2023): no serious injuries, families didn't rebuild, the 2007 monument at the town hall site.
3. Wikipedia, "2003 South Dakota tornado outbreak", retrieved October 2026: the F4 rating and the record 100 mb pressure reading.
4. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Manchester from the air in August 1991, before the tornado, with US 14 along the bottom: U.S. Geological Survey, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): De Smet 1899, 1:125,000; Watertown 1953, 1:250,000; De Smet 1985, 1:100,000.