In 1886 the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Falls and Northwestern Railroad built a railway line from Larchwood, Iowa, through Springdale Township in Lincoln County to Sioux Falls in Dakota Territory, and the Springdale Station depot was established here; later it became Hobsonville. In 1891, two years after statehood, the community was renamed Shindler in memory of a pioneer homesteader. To serve area farmers, tradesmen built stores and homes at this site, and businesses included the Shindler State Bank, a general store, hardware store and lumber yard, post office, blacksmith shop, garage and service station, grain elevator, stockyards for shipping livestock by train, and a barber. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Line, the successor railroad, provided daily passenger, freight, and mail services. A town hall opened in 1910 and quickly became the social hub for the small community, hosting square dances, church services, Sunday school, basketball games, school programs, Red Cross meetings, talent plays, and community parties. Area residents also gathered when the circus train rolled through town, with parents and children waving at railroad cars carrying wild animals and entertainers. During Prohibition, three farmers built an open-air dance floor where summer dances with local bands were regularly held and became known as Bowery dances because of a rumor that a nearby bootlegger supplied alcohol. Young people from surrounding towns flocked there for Saturday night dances, and Shindler residents referred to those from Sioux Falls as the packing house crowd. The Great Depression of the 1930s, combined with years of drought and crop failures, led to Shindler's decline as automobiles replaced horse-drawn buggies and wagons and dirt trails to larger towns became graveled roads and later concrete highways. Businesses closed one by one, the bank failed, residents moved away, and when the post office closed in 1953, Shindler was no more.