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.
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.