SFS-Community Guide 2022-02-01 Draft - Flipbook - Page 4
HISTORY
A (very) brief history of Sioux Falls
The area we now know as Sioux Falls was originally
Shortly after the railroad arrived, construction
occupied by the Sioux Indians — the namesake for
began on the Queen Bee Mill, a flour mill built to
both the Big Sioux River and the city that would form
harness the power of the Big Sioux. (You can still see
around it.
the ruins of the mill today in Falls Park.)
Settlers began living in the area in the mid 1850s,
The John Morrell meat packing plant — known as
and the area became a village in 1877. A year later,
Smithfield Foods today — opened in 1909, and about
the railroad came to town, bringing with it both
five years later construction began on the Sioux Falls
economic and population growth.
Stockyards.
Sioux Falls incorporated as a city in 1883, six years
The Sioux Falls School District was established in
before South Dakota would achieve statehood.
1871, and expanded to four schools by 1885.
W H AT WAS S IO UX FA L L S L I K E
It was also an era of quartzite buildings, a growing
IN T H E EA R LY YE A R S ?
population and — for a brief period — easy divorces.
Sioux Falls’ economy was largely centered on
agriculture in the late 1800s — and it continued to
play a major role through the 1900s as well.
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SIMPLIFIED COMMUNITY GUIDE
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