1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sioux Falls

SIOUX FALLS, a city and the county-seat of Minnehaha county, South Dakota, U. S. A., on the Big Sioux river, about 12 m. N.W. of the N.W. corner of Iowa. Pop. (1890), 10,177; (1900) 10,266, of whom 1858 were foreign-born; (1905), 12,283; (1910), 14,094. It is the largest city in the state. Sioux Falls is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Great Northern, the Illinois Central, the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha (North-Western lines), and the South Dakota Central railways. In the city are the State Penitentiary, the State Children's Home, the South Dakota School for Deaf Mutes, a United States Government Building, the County Court House, Sioux Falls College (Baptist; co-educational; founded in 1883), All Saints School (Protestant Episcopal), for girls, and a Lutheran Normal School (1889). The city is the see of a Roman Catholic and of a Protestant Episcopal bishop. The river falls here about 100 ft. in half a mile and provides good water power for manufactures. The total value of the factory products increased from $883,624 in 1900 to $1,897,790 in 1905, or 114.8%. Sioux Falls is a jobbing and wholesaling centre for South Dakota and for the adjacent parts of Iowa and of Minnesota. A quartzite sandstone, commonly known as jasper or “red granite,” is extensively quarried in the vicinity, and cattle raising and farming are important industries of the surrounding country. A settlement was made at Sioux Falls in 1856, but this was abandoned about six years later on account of trouble with the Indians. A permanent settlement was established in 1867, and Sioux Falls was incorporated as a village in 1877 and was chartered as a city in 1883.