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Sioux Falls is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota, and the county seat of Minnehaha County. The estimated 2006 city population is 148,000. As of the Census Bureau's July 1, 2006 population estimates, Sioux Falls ranks as the 166th largest U.S. city by population. Sioux Falls is the primary city of a metropolitan area of 223,000. Chartered in 1856 on the banks of the Big Sioux River, the city is situated on the prairie of the Great Plains at the junction of I-90 and I-29. Sioux Falls is a regional center of urban and rural interaction.

History

The history of Sioux Falls revolves around the cascades of the Big Sioux River. The falls were created about 14,000 years ago during the last ice age.The lure of the falls has been a powerful influence. Ho-Chunk, Ioway, Otoe, Missouri, Omaha (and Ponca at the time), Quapaw, Kansa, Osage, Arikira, Dakota, Nakota and Cheyenne people inhabited the region previous to European descendants. Numerous burial mounds still exist on the high bluffs near the river. (Also see Blood Run Site.) These people operated an agricultural society that built fortified villages on many of the same sites that were previously settled. Lakota populate urban and reservation communities in the contemporary state and many Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, and other Indigenous Americans reside in Sioux Falls today.

The first documented European visit was made by French voyagers/explorers, in the early 1700s, who mapped the area and took census counts of the Indigenous cities communities at that time (with the Blood Run population being 10,000 people, not outnumbered in population until the 1800s by Euro-American settlers, thus this area has been a thriving urban area for quite some time).

The first documented visit by an American (of European descent) was by Philander Prescott, an explorer, trader, and trapper who camped overnight at the falls in December 1832. Captain James Allen led a military expedition out of Fort Des Moines in 1844. The early descriptions of the falls were published in The States and Territories of the Great West, an 1856 book by Jacob Ferris which inspired townsite developers to seek out the falls.

Two separate groups, the Dakota Land Company of St. Paul and the Western Town Company of Dubuque, Iowa organized in 1856 to claim the land around the falls, considering a promising townsite for its beauty and water power. Each laid out 320-acre claims, but worked together for mutual protection. They built a temporary barricade of turf which they dubbed "Fort Sod," in response to hostilities threatened by native tribes. Seventeen men then spent "the first winter" in Sioux Falls. The following year the population grew to near 40.

Although conflicts in Minnehaha County between Native Americans and white settlers were few, the Dakota War of 1862 engulfed nearby southwestern Minnesota. The town was evacuated in August of that year when two local settlers were killed as a result of the conflict. The settlers and soldiers stationed here traveled to Yankton in late August 1862. The abandoned townsite was pillaged and burned. The war was prompted by the foul treatment, dislocation, and subsequent starving of Dakota people by settlers pouring into Minnesota on Dakota homelands.

Fort Dakota, a military reservation established in present day downtown, was established in May of 1865. Many former settlers gradually returned and a new wave of settlers arrived in the following years. The population grew to 593 by 1873, and a building boom was underway in that year.The Village of Sioux Falls, consisting of 1,200 acres, was incorporated in 1876 and was granted a city charter by the Dakota Territorial legislature on March 3, 1883.

The arrival of the railroads ushered in the great Dakota Boom decade of the 1880s. The population of Sioux Falls mushroomed from 2,164 in 1880 to 10,167 at the close of the decade. The growth transformed the city. A severe plague of grasshoppers and a national depression halted the boom by the early 1890s. The city grew by only 89 people from 1890 to 1900.

But prosperity eventually returned with the opening of the John Morrell meat packing plant in 1909, the establishment of an airbase and a military radio and communications training school in 1942, and the completion of the interstate highways in the early 1960s. Much of the growth in the first part of the 20th century was fueled by the agriculturally-based industry, such as the Morrell plant and the nearby stockyards (one of the largest in the nation).

In 1981, to take advantage of recently relaxed state usury laws, Citibank decided to relocate its primary credit card center from New York to Sioux Falls. Many claim that this event was the primary impetus for the increased population and job growth rates that Sioux Falls has experienced over the past quarter century. Others point out that Citibank's relocation was only part of a more general transformation of the city's economy from an industrially-based one to an economy centered on health care, finance and retail trade.

Sioux Falls has grown at a rapid pace since the late 1970s, with the city's population increasing from 81,000 in 1980 to a 2006 estimate of 148,000.

-In 2006, Men's Health Magazine ranked Sioux Falls as the 93rd Angriest City in the Nation, out of 100 cities studied in the survey.
-In 2007, Allstate awarded Sioux Falls with the Allstate Safety Leadership Award in recognition of the safe drivers of the area, with Sioux Falls residents averaging an accident once every 13.7 years.
-Also in 2007, Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal ranked Sioux Falls the 9th Best City for Minor League Sports, In its ranking of Minor League Markets.
-In the November 2007 issue of Men's Health Magazine, Sioux Falls was ranked #2 on the list of cities with the least debt, finishing just behind Billings, MT

Law and government

City Government: The city of Sioux Falls is led by a mayor-council (strong mayor) form of government. Mayoral elections occur every four years. City council seats are also contested every four years. However, not all of the council members are elected in the same year, as the council elections are staggered throughout even-numbered years. The council consists of five members elected to represent specific sections of the city and three additional seats that represent the city as a whole (that is, at-large). Sioux Falls operates under a home rule arrangement with the state of South Dakota.

Crime: The per-capita general violent crime rate in Sioux Falls is roughly half the United States average. Mayor Dave Munson is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets."

Politics: Like much of eastern South Dakota, the Sioux Falls area leans Republican in presidential elections but is more moderate than the state as a whole. In the 2004 presidential election, for instance, George W. Bush won both Minnehaha and Lincoln counties, receiving 56% and 65% of the vote, respectively. However, Democratic congressional candidates have won Minnehaha county in many recent U.S. House and senate elections.

Geography
Sioux Falls is located at 43°32'11" North, 96°43'54" West (43.536285, -96.731780).
According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 2000, the city had a total area of 145.9 km² (56.3 mi²). 145.9 km² (56.3 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.04% water.
Sioux Falls has been assigned the ZIP codes 57101, 57103-57110, 57117-57118, 57188-57189 and 57192-57198 and the FIPS place code 59020.
Sioux Falls is located in the extreme eastern part of South Dakota, about 15 miles west of the Minnesota border and 8 miles northwest of the Iowa border.

Metropolitan Area

The Sioux Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of four counties, all of which are located in South Dakota: Lincoln, McCook, Minnehaha, and Turner. The estimated population of this MSA in 2005 was 207,000, an increase of over 10% from the 2000 census According to recent estimates, Lincoln County is the ninth-fastest growing county (by percentage) in the United States. In addition to Sioux Falls, several cities and towns included in the metropolitan area are Brandon, Dell Rapids, Tea, Harrisburg, Lennox, Hartford, and Baltic.

Parks and Recreation
Sioux Falls maintains numerous parks that are spread throughout the city. Probably the best known of these is Falls Park, established around the city's namesake waterfalls on the Big Sioux River, just north of downtown. Other notable parks include Terrace Park, McKennan Park, Sherman Park, and Yankton Trail park. A popular feature of the park system among locals is a paved 14-mile path used for biking, jogging and walking. The path follows the course of the Big Sioux River, forming a loop around central Sioux Falls. During the winter, Great Bear Recreation Park offers skiing, snow boarding, and tubing.

Climate
Due to its inland location, Sioux Falls experiences a humid continental climate, which is characterized by hot, relatively humid summers and cold, drier winters. The average high temperature for the warmest month, July, is 86°F(30°C) while the average low for January, the coldest month, is 5°F(-15°C). The highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 110°F(43°C) in 1936, and the lowest was -42°F(-41°C)in 1899. Winters receive an average snowfall of 39.6in.(100cm).

Economy

Originally centered on quarrying and agriculturally-based industries, the economy of Sioux Falls has become greatly diversified and more service-based over the last half-century, making the city an important location for financial services, health care, and retail trade.

Partially due to the lack of a state corporate income tax, Sioux Falls is the home of a number of financial companies. The largest employer among these, and fourth largest employer overall, is Citigroup. Other important financial service companies located here include Great Western Bank, Total Card Inc., BankFirst, Capital Card Services, HSBC, PREMIER Bankcard, and Wells Fargo.

Sioux Falls is a major regional health care center. There are four major hospitals in Sioux Falls: Sanford Health, the largest employer in the city, Avera McKennan Hospital, the second largest employer, as well as the South Dakota Veterans Hospital and the Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota. Sioux Falls is also the site of several mail-order pharmacy centers.

Because of the relatively long distances between Sioux Falls and larger cities, Sioux Falls has emerged as an important regional center of shopping and dining. The Empire Mall, with 180 stores, anchors one of the primary retail zones in the southwest section of the city. This area, centered mainly around the intersection of 41st Street and Louise Avenue, contains many large national chain stores and restaurants. Downtown Sioux Falls is another important retail zone, offering more small, independent shops and restaurants than the Empire Mall area.

While no longer as economically dominant as it once was, the manufacturing and food processing sector remains an important component of the economy of Sioux Falls. The John Morrell meat packing plant is the third largest employer in the city. Other important manufacturing companies include Raven Industries, Hutchinson Technology, Tyco, and Gage Bros., which produces stone and building materials.

Demographics

Households
According to the 2000 census,GR2 there were 123,975 people, 49,731 households, and 30,783 families residing in the city. Currently the city is home to 144,900 persons with 66,778 households, and 44,242 families. The population density is 849.9/km² (2,201.4/mi²). There are 51,680 housing units at an average density of 354.3/km² (917.7/mi²).

Of the 49,731 households, 32.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.4% are married couples living together, 10.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 38.1% are non-families. 29.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.40 and the average family size is 3.00.

Distribution
The 2006 American Community Survey's estimates of the racial makeup of the city is 88.9% White, 2.6% African American, 2.2% Native American, 1.3% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 3.0% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races. 4.1% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. In the city the population is spread out with 25.2% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 32.4% from 25 to 44, 19.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 33 years. For every 100 females there are 97.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 94.4 males.

Income
The median income for a household in 1999 in the city is $41,221; in 2003 HUD reported Minnehaha County had a median household income of $45,872, while Lincoln County had a median household income of $59,571. The median income for a family was $51,516 in 1999; in 2005 HUD reported that amount as $56,150. Males have a median income of $32,216 versus $24,861 for females. The per capita income for the city is $21,374. 8.4% of the population and 5.6% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 10.3% of those under the age of 18 and 7.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Religion
The Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, one of the two dioceses in the state, has its cathedral on Duluth Avenue. St. Joseph's Cathedral is the largest church in South Dakota and one of the largest cathedrals in the United States. Sioux Falls is also the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota. The Episcopal Calvary Cathedral is the mother church for South Dakota Episcopalians.

The city's population is predominantly Protestant and the majority of the religious centers are Protestant churches, even though no single denomination outnumbers the Catholic residents.

Culture

Events
Downtown Sioux Falls plays host to an art walk every summer. The exhibits change yearly and most often reflect historical significance and progressive standards for the city.

Festival of Bands is a regional festival that hosts over 40 bands each year. The parade is in downtown Sioux Falls. Preliminaries are now held at Bob Young Field (Sanford Health Sports Complex), and Field Finals are held at Howard Wood Field.

Lifelight Music Festival is a free, three day Christian music festival that boasts over 100,000 attendants.

Jazz Fest is a two-day outdoor musical event, featuring two stages. It is free to the public with tens of thousand of people attending each year.

Arts
During the past decade, Sioux Falls experienced a renaissance of cultural interest. With a plethora of white collar jobs in the area, Sioux Falls' leaders saw a need for more arts and culture in the region. Several building projects excited change from a city with almost no theatre, and very little art, to an area with high attendance of theatre and arts events.

The Sioux Empire Arts Council continues to be an initiating leader in the arts scene of the Sioux Falls area and give out Mayor's Awards each year in several categories for excellence demonstrated by Sioux Falls residents within the particular form.

Poetry and literary events began to come to greater popularity with the opening of the Sioux Empire Arts Council Horse Barn Gallery (see Deb Klebanoff) and of a National Endowment for the Arts-supported Writer's Voice which included a reading series of 38 nationally known poets and writers (per year) who performed works and youth workshops through the Sioux Falls Writers Voice in local performance spaces, at the YMCA aftershool program, and in local area schools.

These two entities along with the resurgence of events regularly hosted at the Washington Pavilion's Leonardo's Cafe (Lincoln High School Writer's Guild, advised by Allison Hedge Coke), the Sioux Empire Arts Council's Horse Barn Art Gallery (see Deb Klebanoff, Allison Hedge Coke, and Tom Foster), and several coffee house locations, including Black Sheep Coffee (see Charles Luden). See also Rob Robinson.

During this renaissance Hedge Coke moved to Sioux Falls from Rapid City as she was serving the State of South Dakota as first a part-time literary artist in the Sioux Falls Schools and then, for several years, a full-time literary artist in residence for the Sioux Falls school district, while later simultaneously teaching at Kilian College and the University of Sioux Falls, and while continually participating at-large in the national literary field as a visiting writer/performing artist. Tom Foster moved to Sioux Falls (from California), having already developed a presence in the California Slam scene and was integral to keeping public open-mics going strong. Charles Luden continued to make poetry a typical presence throughout the art scene as he had advocated for decades by this time. Deb Klebanoff began to create more high-profile city spaces for poetry and literary events to be secured through the city and area government. Hedge Coke continued to initiate and implement new literary programming while advocating for youth involvement and neighborhood issues in Sioux Falls Arts & Cultural life. The Washington Pavilion continued to donate space for literary activities as well as the Siouxland Sioux Falls Library. Eventually, David Allen Evans returned to Sioux Falls as the current State of South Dakota Poet Laureate and enhanced the now vibrant literary scene with his reintroduction to the Sioux Falls community and presence as the state poet. Rosie Blunk, long-time theater teacher from Sioux Falls, retired from teaching and began hosting the Poetry Out Loud! state competitions as well.

The Sioux Falls Jazz and Blues Festival, JazzFest, has become a huge summer favorite in Sioux Falls and the region. JazzFest is a two-day outdoor musical event featuring two stages and is free to the public. The event is held the third weekend in July at Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls. Thousands and thousands of people attend annually.

Landmarks

The Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science contains the Kirby Science Discover Center, as well as two performing arts centers that host several Broadway productions and operas. The South Dakota Symphony's home hosts dance groups as well as smaller theater and choral events. The Visual Arts Center, also part of the Pavilion complex, hosts six galleries of changing exhibits, all free of charge. The Wells Fargo Cinedome is a multiformat 60ft dome theater that plays several films each month.

-The Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum provides the area with natural history and animal exhibits in its 50 acre park.
- The Delbridge Museum is one of the most comprehensive selection of dioramas and mounted animals in the world.
-The memorial to the World War II battleship USS South Dakota is on State Highway 42 (West 12th Street) and Kiwanis Avenue.
-The 114th Fighter Wing, located at Joe Foss Field. The 114th houses F-16C/D fighter aircraft. This unit is well known for its support of community activities and services.
-One of the few replicas of Michaelangelo's David is near the downtown area.