Bridgewater a stinkin’ little town in South Dakota

When I was a kid we would drive past the one-puddle town of Bridgewater on our way from Sioux Falls to Mitchell.

Passers-by last summer would have recognized the town of 600 by the smell.

Forty-four tons of rotting putrid meat will do that.

Behind the freezer doors at a meat plant mysteriously abandoned by its owner, the 44 tons of bison meat managed to hold its own for months, masked by the brutal chill of two South Dakota winters.

Once the power was cut and spring thaw arrived, nature took over. And enough rotting meat to fill a high school gym did exactly what you'd expect: It stank.

It stank at the bank. It smelled at the law office. It reeked at the cafe. Even the jewelry store wasn't immune.

Everyone in this tiny town could smell it, everywhere they went. A putrid odor so downright nasty the cleaners sent to mop up the gooey mess of liquefied meat — topped by a blanket of swarming white maggots and buzzed by a legion of flies — gave up after two days.

More of the stinkin’ tale here.