The second leg of my journey brought me to the ghost town of Vayland, South Dakota. Though the township was officially founded in 1909, white settlers had been living in the area as early as the mid-1800s. The town itself grew out of a railroad siding established in 1896, originally called "Silex #2" before being renamed to "Vayland."
Life on the South Dakota prairie was harsh and often brutal, with residents facing challenges such as droughts, blizzards that killed hundreds, and a bank robbery in between the boom times. Despite these challenges Vayland persevered and grew until the Great Depression and Post-War Period, which saw many residents moving to larger, more prosperous settlements nearby. Even as Vayland declined a few residents managed to hold on into the 1970's. Vayland was unofficially abandoned after the general store owner died in 1972, which coincided with the closure of the post office. The only gas station in town only lasted three more years before it too closed in 1975.
But little did I know when I rolled into town, Vayland wasn't
entirely abandoned. As I wandered the old town taking photos I noticed one house that looked to be in better condition than the rest, and that was right when the owner came home. With her car parked between my car and the main road and her dog standing between me and my car, I decided the best way to handle being confronted by a property owner in a "farmer with a shotgun" part of America was to talk my way out.
This proved to be completely unnecessary, because as soon as I explained that I was a photographer she smiled, introduced herself as Lora, and offered to show me around the place. As she led me around the old township grounds, she explained that her late husband Roger bought the property in 1981 to operate a scrapyard from. Everyone has a hobby or passion project, and his was rebuilding Vayland.
To that end he bought old buildings from around South Dakota and had them moved to Vayland with the intention of restoring them and perhaps even laying the foundation of Vayland's rebirth. When Lora married Roger in 1995, this dream became hers too. Though Roger dedicated his life to rebuilding Vayland, it was not to be- Roger died in 2018, and with him the dream of returning Vayland to its glory days. The scrapyard closed, the buildings fell to ruin without his expert carpentry skills, and Lora continued to live alone as the last resident of Vayland.
While she didn't outright say it, I got the impression that after Roger's death her dream shifted from rebuilding Vayland to making sure it was remembered. With her children having long since moved away and surrounded by the slowly crumbling ruins of her husband's life's work, she turned her efforts to recording as much of Vayland's history as she could gather into one volume, along with personal anecdotes and poetry. We talked for hours about the history of Vayland, and as our conversation drew to a close she pressed a bound copy of her manuscript into my hands and told me to share it with my friends.
I looked online for any copies of her book, but I was unable to find any for sale. As far as I can tell, the only distributions of her book are the copies she personally hands out to anyone interested. So, in the spirit of her words if not the letter, I took the time to scan each page and combine them into a full PDF of her book, which can be found by clicking the link below.
Vayland Memories: In A Broken Down Yard If you have the time and have an interest in ghost towns and settler life, give it a read. Remember Vayland. And if you ever pass through town and stop beside the collapsing schoolhouse, tell Lora that James says hello and that he wishes her well.
