The Abandoned Town of Lily, South Dakota

Hello friends welcome to the Midwest today we're traveling 150 miles Northwest of Sioux Falls to the abandoned former town of Lilly South Dakota the last census in 2010 stated there were four people living in two households in the town for lack of residence and anyone to take care of the Town business Lily was dissolved by the day County court in 2017 due to the population reaching zero after a little research I found some information posted by other Urban explorers saying that there still may be one or two people living in Lily I found the only house that looked like it had someone living in it with a plowed driveway and being a good Explorer I knocked at the door introduced myself and asked permission to park there while I documented their town I didn't want to get a visit from the local sheriff while I was wandering around so I thought it was the best thing to do they were very nice two households and this tiny little town almost abandoned many of the buildings are abandoned here it's got a lot of history in this town Lily wasn't always this small the census in 2000 reported 21 people living here and at its height in 1920 187 people lived here was a general store a Post Office three churches a gas station and several other businesses and homes for the growing town Lily was incorporated on July 13th of 1883. the town was named by its postmaster Ross Parks after his sister Lily Mr Parks and his sister homesteaded here in 1883. foreign here very well but it's like a museum in here for the Bandstand is exactly where it stood a century ago the Lily cornet band from 1899 to 1909 gave concerts for the enjoyment of the area residents they had a great reputation and were invited to perform in Pierre during the struggle to locate the state capitol interesting looks like across the streets of American Legion in the late 1800s railroad towns started forming about every 20 miles throughout this part of the country for the transportation of grain Lily Heritage Park [Applause] Lilly was one of these railroad Depot towns served by the Chicago Milwaukee St Paul and Pacific Railroad that operated here from 1898 to 1979. at one time Lilly had six operating grain elevators since all but one of those is burned foreign Independent School District 136 School Bill and Tower farming was the main occupation of the residents however one of Lily's original and most notable residents was its pharmacist Andrew guttum Sainz who settled his family here in 1889 with his wife Tamina Larson and their five children including Christine who was born in Norway where they came from in 1883. after they moved here and settled in they had six more kids and lived a really good life fast forward a handful of years and a young man named Hubert Humphrey moved into Lily and opened a pharmacy where he met his future wife Christine who would become the mother of the vice president Hubert Humphrey Jr who served as our 38th vice president under President Lyndon B Johnson foreign tube foreign thank you wow foreign foreign [Applause] foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign [Applause] oh well hmm [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign foreign about the town before I came and having the opportunity to explore what's left of Lily I can tell it was a really special place with thousands of lost stories of the few hundreds of people that were born lived and died here since the late 1800s walking through the snow I can't help but wonder what life was like for those people making a life for themselves out here in the Prairie what they were into what their dreams and goals were if they ever got to do any of those things and accomplish those goals man that's why I love these old towns it changes your perspective in a way that makes you consider your own life your own dreams your own goals if you'll ever make it ever accomplished those goals before your town and everything you know is long abandoned as well once again friends thanks for joining me on another adventure I appreciate your company I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Dray’s World

Views: 266,749

Keywords: Drays World, ghost town, south dakota, ghost towns, abandoned towns, ghost towns in south dakota, urban exploration abandoned, south dakota ghost towns, abandoned places, urban exploration, abandoned places house

Id: 7g94IXkE1wk

Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2023