Shocking! Tea, South Dakota Wasn't Always Tea, South Dakota

You've been to Tea, South Dakota. In fact, you might just live there. After all, Tea is one of the fastest-growing cities in South Dakota.

According to the 2020 census, Tea is home to 5,598 folks. Of course, that was in 2020. You can bet more people call Tea home now.

And of course, as far as any of us can remember, Tea has been, well...Tea. But that wasn't always the case.

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When Tea was incorporated way back in 1906, it was indeed Tea. But prior to that? Nope. It wanted another name, a name it couldn't have. The name?

Welcome to Byron, South Dakota.

That's right, in those early, early days the community was called Byron. And apparently, all was well until the town grew enough to apply for a Post Office. No problem, right? Wrong. There was a problem. There were too many towns named Byron.

You had your Byron in Georgia. You had your Byron in New York. There were Byron's in Wyoming and California. Too doggone many Byron's for the Post Office to handle. So, for the citizens of Byron, South Dakota, it was time to go back to the proverbial drawing board.

Community members met at the general store and tossed around a bunch of names and after a while decided to take a break for...

Tea.

Somebody said, "Hey, what about Tea"?

Yes, what about Tea. That sounded good and so Byron, South Dakota became Tea, South Dakota. And apparently, the Post Office agreed. Tea would be fine. And still is.

Parade.com Contributed To This Article

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