111 Miles From Anywhere: How Tuthill, SD Became South Dakota's Most Isolated Town
Tuthill, SD — population 73, Bennett County — is the most isolated inhabited place in South Dakota. The nearest city of 10,000+ residents is Pierre, SD, sitting 111 straight-line miles away. South Dakota has 334 towns under 10,000 residents; Tuthill is the most isolated among them.
The link opens the SimpleMapLab Map Radius Tool with a 50-mile circle drawn around Tuthill. Try expanding the radius to see how far you have to look before encountering any 10,000+ city — the answer is roughly 111 miles in the direction of Pierre.
Why this happened
South Dakota's loneliest town is typically in the West River — west of the Missouri River — where ranching country stretches between Rapid City (in the far southwest) and Sioux Falls (in the far southeast). Towns like the ones in Harding, Perkins, or Stanley counties sit 90+ miles from any qualifying anchor.
The West River / East River divide defines South Dakota's geography. East River (the eastern third) is agricultural and reasonably populated; West River is sparsely populated ranching country with vast distances between settlements. The Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations — both in West River — are home to communities that have historically lacked the population to qualify as anchor cities.
South Dakota's 5 most isolated towns
The top 5 most-isolated inhabited places in South Dakota, sorted by distance to the nearest 10,000+ city.
| # | Town | Pop. | Distance to nearest 10K+ | Nearest city |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuthill | 73 | 111 mi | Pierre, SD |
| 2 | Saint Francis | 1,317 | 105 mi | Pierre, SD |
| 3 | Martin | 2,084 | 97 mi | Box Elder, SD |
| 4 | Colome | 833 | 94 mi | Mitchell, SD |
| 5 | Rosebud | 2,071 | 93 mi | Pierre, SD |
How South Dakota compares
The states ranked closest to South Dakota on this metric. Click any for the dedicated breakdown.
Draw your own radius
Open a 50-mile circle around Tuthill →
Try the 100-mile radius to see whether a major city falls inside — for Tuthill, it doesn't, because the nearest qualifying city (Pierre, SD) sits 111 miles away.
More about South Dakota
See the full breakdown of South Dakota's counties at /states/south-dakota/counties — population, area, median income, and county seat for every county, plus a labeled printable map. The companion study 100-mile radius around South Dakota's capital measures the share of South Dakota's population that lives within day-trip distance of the capitol — an inverse framing of the isolation question this page poses.
Methodology (brief)
We aggregate the US Census ZCTA dataset by postal city, treating any (postal city, state) pair with ≥ 50 residents as a town. Anchor cities are places with ≥ 10,000 residents. For every South Dakota town below the anchor threshold, we compute the straight-line distance to every anchor city in the US (cross-state distances count). The town with the largest minimum distance is South Dakota's loneliest. Full methodology on the hub page.
Suggested citation: SimpleMapLab (2026). The Loneliest Towns in America: South Dakota. Part of the Most Remote Inhabited Places study. Retrieved from https://www.simplemaplab.com/studies/most-remote-places/south-dakota. CC-BY 4.0.