Pumpkin Center and How Highways Make or Break a Community
Pumpkin Center owed its existence as a busting economic crossroads to State Highway 16. The major east-west roadway going between Sioux Falls and Rapid City put the Pumpkin Center on the map as a tourist stop. When Interstate 90 was built in the late 1950s, the new highway superseded the older route, Highway 16, and left Pumpkin Center in the dust.
Originally called Wellington Corner, Pumpkin Center began with a general store built by Luther and Anna Gage. The grounds were previously used by Francis Drake where he sold automobiles. In 1931, concrete paving had begun and eventually the first five miles of the newly built highway ran in both directions from the store now known as Pumpkin Center.
Its location was the most favorable. The store “bordered a section-line dirt trail used by horse drawn wagons and buggies and an occasional automobile.” At that time, the highway included an unimproved trail as part of the route and it was named ”Custer Battlefield Highway.” In 1926, it went on to be renamed State Highway 16. Today, this highway is known as Highway 248 and it follows the same pathway as Highway 16. After renovations, auto traffic increased and soon the corner store became a gasoline filling station. In the 1930s, more and more car dealerships, repair shops, and body shops were built which attracted people when they drove by. Not only did it serve as a good place for automobile services, it was a place where visitors could leisurely drink and when the weather was harsh, it served as a shelter. In the following years, the Pumpkin Center included community activities such as softball and baseball tournaments. The store had its own team and for many years this Center hosted many vacationers and hunters.
In the early 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower supported the idea of interstate highways as a defense measure to quickly move military men and material, and he claimed it would positively impact the postwar economy and job creation. Meanwhile in South Dakota, local leaders had mixed feelings about it. They worried about costs, land use, and whether or not sparsely populated areas needed interstates. Federal funding arrived with the 1956 Interstate Highway Act. The interstate highway system completely transformed South Dakota by improving transportation efficiency, connections of rural communities to markets, tourism of the Black Hills, and boosting business along those routes.
The improved roads encouraged automobile travel which ultimately positively impacted tourism by making spots such as the Badlands National Monument or Mount Rushmore National Memorial more accessible. The more traffic increased, the more motel businesses, gas stations, restaurants, and roadside attractions were booming. With that, more and more of these attractions appeared along the highway to serve travelers. These services clustered in towns, which in turn created a highly based tourist economy. Tourism along the highway was getting very competitive and highly dependent on travelers. Habitants that resided along State Highway 16 constantly promoted parks, landscapes, and recreational opportunities.
Although many towns benefited from this development, others were disregarded especially when the routes changed and when travelers stopped coming by. The construction of highways picked winners and losers: if the community was near the new road, tourism boomed; if the community was farther away, tourism languished.
The construction of highways played a very important role in expanding South Dakota’s economy and community development. The construction of the interstate highways improved transportation in many ways and encouraged tourism which in turn increased roadside businesses. Although they brought opportunities for economic growth, they also created uneven outcomes, helping some while leaving others out. The Pumpkin Center is a pivotal example of how location matters. Once the highlight of automobile travelers, and now disregarded because of new interstate. The last of Pumpkin Center was heard of in late 1993. That year marked the closure of all related enterprises and the dispersal of the communities in that area.
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