The photos on this page are from the Ed Munson collection. Oran Sorenson tells us that several years back, Mr. Munson collected these photographs from various personal archives and held a presentation of said historical photos at the Garretson Historical Society and Museum. Recently, David Sorenson acquired the portfolio and has shared its contents with the Gazette for publication. We encourage our readers to write in with letters and anecdotes about these photographs as we plan to publish the entire portfolio over the course of many months.
Above: Standing where Don’s Auto is today is the Hotel Grand of Garretson. E.W. Skinner, who had a tree claim in the location, began construction of this hotel when the town started. It was called the Skinner block and later was dubbed the Hotel Grand. In a time when the railroad was the main form of transportation, much of the town’s business, visitors, guests and many town gatherings and meet- ings were held there. Dentists from Sioux Falls made regular weekly trips up the railroad to serve members of the Garretson Community as well as salesmen, attorneys, seed salesmen and livestock brokers and more.
Below: Looking east on Third Street toward Main Ave. is a view of what snow removal looked like more than a century ago. The streets were boardwalks, and snow removal was done by the business owners and citizens themselves with shovels, clearing a path as best they could to get about their daily business. If the handwritten label on the photo is correct, that would indicate the location of the old Post Office. If any of our readers are able to identify any of the people in this photo and the historical context, please feel free to write in and tell your fellow readers about it.
