Top 11 Novels Set in South Dakota (That Aren’t by Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Hundreds of novels are published every year. Those books are often set in exciting places like space or the future. Sometimes they take place in amazing locations like London, Tokyo, or even Omaha. And a few books are even set in South Dakota! And some of those are not by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

South Dakota is often associated with Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie books because she lived here and wrote books about this part of the country. Then there was that TV show.

When it comes to novels, Laura Ingalls Wilder and South Dakota go together like cowpies and campfires.

So, we turned to the good folks at GoodReads, a center of 'book-internet,' to see what are the top favorite novels set in South Dakota (that aren't by Laura Ingalls Wilder).

You may not think of South Dakota as the crossroads of celebrity life. That's a good thing, we kind of like to live under the radar here on the upper plains.

But, living in South Dakota we are just a few degrees away from stardom. Not just because the author of the Little House on the Prairie books is from here. Or because every time Tom Brokaw shows up on TV, someone will say, "You know he's from Yankton."

We may not have as much of a chance at a celebrity sighting in South Dakota as we would in Minneapolis, but there are some famous personalities you may run into in the 605.

When it comes to South Dakota and Hollywood, we've seen our fair share of films that have used our state as the backdrop for a number of productions over the years. They may not have always filmed here, but movie folk love to set stories here.

We're all familiar with the blockbusters like 1990's Dances With Wolves, 1959's North By Northwest, and more recently, 2007's National Treasure: Book of Secrets. But our state's life on the big screen goes back nearly 100 years.

According to IMDb, it all started with Courtin' Wildcats, a 1929 film which, like so many of the 29 films on this list, is a Western set in the time before South Dakota became a state in 1889.