Photo Courtesy of Gayla Piroutek

Electricity improved at Milesville

West Central Electric has been busy near Milesville this past week burying an electric line that comes from one mile west of Billsburg on Highway 34, four miles north to the Staben Dam, and then east into Milesville.  Each year West Central Electric buries some of its electrical lines, and this year one of the main lines into the Milesville area got updated. It is costly to bury lines, but the connections are more secure.  Overhead lines are at the mercy of wind and ice.  The line location will remain pretty much the same, but at least five miles of overhead line will be replaced by buried line.  The path of this line was, and still is, along a partially closed section line, on road remnants no longer maintained by the county. This line is, at times, hard for West Central workers to reach in the midst of a blizzard.
Why was the line placed in such a difficult location in the first place? Why wasn’t the line originally placed along the Milesville Road?
Back in the early history of the county, there was no Milesville Road. There was a main road north to south, but to reach it, folks from Milesville journeyed one mile west and then headed south. This road followed the section lines one mile west of what are now the Milesville Road and Highway 73, all the way to Philip. Gravel was sparse or non-existent, so if it had rained, there was no travel. There are some ditches where the road had been built up to drain water and a few small culverts or crossings.  For many years, it was the main route for the stage, mail line, freighters, and folks just traveling from Milesville to Philip.  When electrical lines arrived in the late 40’s or early 50’s, the poles were placed along this route.
With eyes of today that look at the present Milesville Road and Highway 73 leading the way to Philip, one wonders why so many settlers were so far west of today’s highway.  Now it begins to make sense.  Get out your Haakon County map and take a look.
This north/south route begins with several forks up at the Cheyenne River where the original White Thunder Ranch was located, and the homesteads of Lemuel “Lum” Elshere and others were found.  Head south and this route would have been near the Hardingrove store and post office, the Eymers, and the Elmer Williams, on the east side of Beaver Creek, before it reached the area of the present Staben Dam on Beaver Creek.  Heading south, it was near where the Wilson Neville’s, and later Clinton Neville’s, and the William Neumeister’s had settled, ending up west of the original “Sioux Ridge” store (later “The Ridge”, and now “T-34”).
Before reaching West Plum Creek the road passed by the Charles Case/ Jim Williams place and the Gebes place, and a little town known as Woodlawn.  West Plum Creek, originally known as Snake Creek, would have to be crossed.  
Other stops along the way to Philip included the Elbon store and post office, as well as Kroetch Lake, where Fredrick M. Kroetch homesteaded.  Farther south Medicine Creek and Grindstone Creek would be crossed, before reaching the west side of Philip.  Some electrical poles still lead the way through some of this old road, but parts have now been fenced out.  Beware, there are unrepaired washouts along this old road.
Eventually, Highway 73, which began in Lemmon, SD, way back in the 1930’s got extended to Philip, and on south. Thankfully, in the early 1990’’s some of Highway 73’s notorious curves were removed, and now a very good road leads all the way from Milesville to Philip.

The Pioneer Review

221 E. Oak Street
Philip, SD 57567
Telephone: (605) 859-2516
E Mail: ads@pioneer-review.com

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