American Adventurer
Agency-listedMunicipalFree

Selby City Park

Drive-up · public land · SD · 45.50961, -100.02891
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The land manager lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.

Free overnight camping in the Selby city park, one mile off US-83 in Walworth County -- a genuinely useful stop on the long empty run between Pierre and the North Dakota line, and one of the very few places in South Dakota where a town says the word FREE out loud. The City of Selby's own site puts it simply: "Additionally the park offers free overnight camping and is equipped with restrooms, and multiple picnic areas." For a town of a few hundred people this is a surprisingly big park. The city lists a softball field, a baseball/football field, a tennis court, a sand volleyball court, rodeo grounds, two playground areas and a swimming pool. Restrooms and picnic areas are confirmed by the city. WHAT THE CITY DOES NOT SAY -- and we will not invent it -- is how many nights you may stay, whether there are hookups, whether there is drinking water for campers, or whether the restrooms stay open outside the summer season. None of that is on the page. Treat this as a flat, legal, free place to sleep rather than a campground with services, and call the city before you count on anything more. If the stop saves you a motel night, spend a few dollars in town -- that is how these small-town free parks keep existing. We have not visited this site.

USGS topo — contours & terrain
USGS topographic map of Selby City Park
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Aerial image of Selby City Park
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Weather outlook — at Selby City Park
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,905 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Selby City ParkNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.

Everything you need — measured from Selby City Park · public land · SD

15 MI30 MI60 MIYOUR CAMPN ↑Dump · 30 miDCenex · Fuel · 0 miFDrakes Place · Grocery · 19 miGPharmacy · 27 miRxAce Hardware · Hardware · 20 miHSelby Oil Co · Mechanic · 0 miMMobridge Medical Clinic · Urgent care · 20 mi+Outfitter · 20 miOGlenham Post Office · Mail · 12 mi@Grand River Casino · EV fast charger · 23 miEV
Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer
Nearest of each
  • FFuel0 mi
  • MMechanic0 mi
  • @Mail12 mi
  • GGrocery19 mi
  • HHardware20 mi
  • OOutfitter20 mi
  • +Urgent care20 mi
  • EVEV fast charger23 mi
  • RxPharmacy27 mi
  • DDump30 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: fuel & food sit about 0 mi out.

Not within 60 mi: Water, Propane. Plan those before you head up.

One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗

The site — Selby City Park

Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
1,905 ft
State
SD
Coordinates
45.50961, -100.02891
Cost
Free

Nearby & resupply — around Selby City Park · public land · SD (OpenStreetMap)

  • Drinking waternone within 10 mi
  • FuelCenex · ~0.5 mi
  • Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
  • Dump station~29.8 mi
  • GroceriesDrakes Place · ~18.6 mi
  • PharmacyPharmacy · ~26.8 mi
  • Hospital / clinicMobridge Medical Clinic · ~20.5 mi
  • HardwareAce Hardware · ~19.8 mi

EV charging — from Selby City Park · public land · SD — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearby restrooms — around Selby City Park · public land · SD — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Open Selby City Park elsewhere

Google satellite →Gaia GPS →CalTopo →Back to the map →

How we know this — Selby City Park

Source
public land records
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
SOURCE: City of Selby official website, https://selbysd.com/parks-rec/ -- fetched this fire and the sentence string-matched in the RAW page body via data/fetch_town_page.py, not taken from a search summary. Quote verbatim: "Additionally the park offers free overnight camping and is equipped with restrooms, and multiple picnic areas." The amenity list quoted in field_note is from the immediately preceding sentence on the same page. The page shows no date. NOT STATED ANYWHERE ON THE PAGE, therefore not claimed and left NULL/absent in this row: night limit, hookups, potable water, seasonal closure. water is NULL for that reason -- the city mentions restrooms but never mentions drinking water. COORDINATE: OpenStreetMap via Overpass API, park polygon (way, leisure=park) centre 45.5096098,-100.028909. The polygon is UNNAMED in OSM, so identification rests on the amenity match rather than on a name: inside/adjacent to that polygon Overpass returns a leisure=swimming_pool at 45.5104,-100.029331, multiple leisure=pitch, a leisure=track and several leisure=playground -- which matches the city's own list of pool, ball fields, tennis, rodeo grounds and two playgrounds. A swimming pool is a distinctive thing for a town this size, so the match is treated as conclusive. The OTHER unnamed leisure=park in Selby, at 45.5069072,-100.0340102, has no amenities mapped in it at all and sits on the town centre -- that is a square, not this park, and was rejected. GNIS was checked first and has NO park feature in Walworth County, so USGS could not supply this coordinate. Selby town centre per GNIS is 45.5063788,-100.0320657; the park pin is about 0.4 mi north-northeast of it, consistent with an edge-of-town park. CAVEAT: the pin is the PARK, not a marked campsite -- the city does not publish where in the park you camp. Dedupe: nothing in the database within 5 km; nearest row is Gettysburg City Park 56 km away. Verified 2026-08-17 01:05:16. | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.

What we don’t know about Selby City Park

A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.

Before you go — Selby City Park

Water on public land →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →Camping with a dog →All field notes →
Been here? Tell us what changed. This page is built from public records, so the fastest way it gets better is somebody who has actually pulled in. Road washed out, site gone, gate locked, or it is exactly as described — all of it useful. Send a report →