Nansen Store

This two-part structure is what survived from the mini-community of Nansen. The name, probably given by the adjacent creamery operator A A Henden, came from the then-famous Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen. Although another store or two may have operated nearby, Nansen Store is the only long-term documented business. Its first owner-operators, Knut and Caroline Skaar, were in business by 1905 and added the two-and-a-half-story structure in 1910. In the 1940s their daughter Olga and her husband Bill Wall ran the store. In 1954 Malvin and Berna Hegdahl purchased the business. In 1958 Marie Maley became proprietor, but gave it up in 1959, and not long afterward the business closed. The Hegdahls continued using the store to room hunters during pheasant hunting seasons. In 1976 widow Berna Hegdahl sold the unused building to Bill Feller. After several years in which time and the elements took a toll on the structure, repairs were gradually made, with significant restoration efforts in recent years. In February 2014, Nansen Store was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

South Dakota · United States