Welcome to Altoona ...
Although we found mention of Altoona during our research, we have little information about it.<1> Given the context of how Altoona was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it's a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..
While we are confident that Altoona was located in Beadle County, we don't know its actual location within the county.
We've added Altoona to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. We would especially like to find the location of Altoona - knowing its coordinates, we can explore things like its relationship to neighboring communities, nearby cemeteries, etc. If you can help us with Altoona, please Contact Us.
When the people of Altoona refer to themselves (known as a demonym), they frequently use Altoonan<2>
Time Zone: The area where we believe that Altoona might be (or was) located is in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time
We believe that Altoona would be found within the (605) area code.
Communities Also Named Altoona ...
Using our Gazetteer, we have found that there are 10 communities that are also named Altoona - they are located in Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Altoona.
Other Roadside Stops ...
Find a Community located in South Dakota
About Beadle County
About South Dakota
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Beadle County: www.beadlecounty.org/
The official website for State of South Dakota: sd.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went south past Altoona and then turned east". While Altoona could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Altoona as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.
Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Miller Creek to see Pete ... Miller Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.
Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.
Also keep in mind that Altoona could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <2> | A demonym is the name for a resident of a community which is usually derived from (or is related to) the name of that community. In other words, it's how the residents of Altoona refer to themselves. It's important to note that there aren't any rules for taking a community's name and turning it into a demonym. A demonym is informal and while the majority of Altoona may use one name, keep in mind that others may use something different. |
