A River Runs Through It

While traveling through South Dakota, we visited the lovely city of Sioux Falls. Like our our home city of Portland, Oregon, it has a river running through the middle of town! Here the river is surrounded by the beautiful Falls Park, which has been an integral part of the city's history and growth.

Founded in 1856, Sioux Falls grew up around the Big Sioux River. The river is named for the Lakota Sioux people who lived in this region. The river flows to the southeast for a little over 400 miles until it joins the Missouri River near Sioux City, Iowa. As it courses through the city, it flows over a waterfall which is the city's namesake.

The community started from settlers and trappers, land speculators, and miners. While founded in 1856, growth was slow, and by 1860 the population was still small at only 1,100 residents. Growth was hindered by conflicts with the Indians, by difficult farming conditions of severe droughts and locust infestations, and by a lack of substantial timber for building homes. Additionally, there was no established transportation to provide a reliable way of hauling agricultural products or building materials to the region.

Over the next few years, development of the area was spurred on by several events. The Homestead Act of 1862 was enacted by Abraham Lincoln, offering 160 acres of free public land to settlers if they lived on and cultivated the land for 5 years. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in the 1870's, bringing more settlers and miners to South Dalota. Then in 1878, the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad extended their rail line to Sioux Falls. The railroads continued to expand in this area, and triggered the Great Dakota Boom, bringing settlers, miners and businesses to Sioux Falls. The population grew rapidly to over 10,000 people, and by 1890 Sioux Falls had became a central point for transportation and commerce. Today it is the largest city in South Dakota.

In Falls Park, the ruins of the Queen Bee Mill are a reminder of the key role the river played in the economy. The mill was created through the work of Richard Pettigrew, who was a lawyer, entrepreneur and South Dakota's first senator. He obtained funding to build the flour mill, powered by the river, so that local farmers could process their crops locally instead of having to ship their grain to Minnesota. The mill was built in 1879, and the first flour milled in 1881. The mill was a massive building, 7 stories high and capable of processing 1,200 barrels of grain per day. However, it only operated until 1883. It was closed because the river's flow was only occasionally sufficient to operate the mill at full capacity, causing the owner to go bankrupt. In 1911, the mill was reopened and converted to hydroelectric power. It continued to operate until 1918.

From 1918 to 1929 it served as a storage facility, and then remained unused until 1956 when the building was destroyed by fire. For the next decade, the falls area was neglected, overgrown and was considered unsafe. Finally in 1966, restoration efforts were led by resident Helen O'Connor, who created the RISE (River Improvement Society) organization to clean up the river and surrounding park. The final transformation began in 1990 as part of a larger effort by the city to revitalize the area and create a beautiful community park that attracts many visitors.

Murphy, Alan and I enjoyed walking along the banks of the river at Falls Park which offers lots of places to relax and admire the rushing water.

Among the many parks and other recreational spaces in Sioux Falls, one that I especially enjoyed was The Sioux Falls Butterfly House and Aquarium. It is an enclosure of free-flying butterflies with a large variety of different species from all over the world. Inside is a lush tropical forest of plants, maintained at a warm 80 degrees, that is home t0 800 butterflies of many brilliant colors,

Some interesting Butterfly facts from their website - Butterflies have taste receptors in their feet to help them find the right kind of food.

Butterflies sometimes drink from mud puddles to get the nutrients they need.

They can't fly if the temperature is colder than 55 degrees. They will shiver and bask in the sun to warm up their flight muscles.

Butterflies have poor eyesight, and have trouble seeing things that are more than 12 feet away, but they can see ultraviolet colors that humans cannot see.

Some butterflies will consume toxins from poisonous plants to make themselves unappetizing to birds that might eat them.

Additional information that I learned about these delicate creatures - There are almost 20,000 species of Butterflies!

Most Butterflies can't hear, so they communicate visually and chemically.

A group of butterflies is sometimes called a Flutter.

Their life span is often just a few weeks. Some species can live as long as a year.

Butterflies can't fly when they first emerge from their chrysalis because their wings are crumpled and soft. They have to pump fluid into the veins in their wings and allow them to dry and harden for a few hours before they can fly.

They consume a purely liquid diet and drink nectar from flowers, tree sap and fruit.

Some species of butterflies are endangered including the Monarch Butterfly. This is due to loss of habitat, climate change, deforestation, pesticides and invasive plants replacing the host plants where they nest and lay eggs.

There are 800 species of Butterflies in the United States - 19% of them are at risk of extinction. Conservation efforts include habitat restoration, planting of host plants like Milkweed, and avoiding the use of pesticides.

Butterflies eat through a long straw-like tube called a proboscis. When hungry, they unroll the proboscis to sip nectar and other liquids. When they are finished eating, they curl it back up.

Butterflies like brightly colored flowers that are open during the day - Milkweed, Coreopsis, Bee Balm, Coneflowers and Buddeleia (Butterfly Bush) are a few of their favorites.

Butterflies rest at night, but don't sleep like humans do. Instead they rest - a behavior call roosting - sometimes in groups. They may rest for a single night or for as long as the entire winter to conserve energy and avoid predators.

Most butterflies stay close to home, but some species like Monarchs migrate. Monarchs can travel from 50 to 100 miles in a day and will migrate as far as 2,500 miles which can take up to two months time. Each Monarch only migrates once in their lifetime. Some species of Monarchs do not migrate, as they are able to get all they need from their current habitat.

We also explored the Cathedral Historic District, which is in the neighborhood of Nob Hill. The district is comprised of approximately 14 blocks of historical old homes of prominent citizens that were constructed in the late 19th and early 20th century. The houses are in the Victorian Queen Anne style and the Mediterranean Revival architecture style. The district also includes the Cathedral of St. Joseph which is a very large Catholic cathedral built in 1916.

Home of Senator Richard Pettigrew, built in 1889.

The Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture was popular from 1880 thru 1910. The style is characterized by features such as highly decorated gabled roofs, dormer windows, turrets and wrap-around porches. Some have stained glass windows.

This lovely Garden Fairy sculpture, created by Sondra Jonson, was located in front of one of the homes. It was part of the Sculpture Walk, which is an annual art exhibit in Sioux Falls of public sculptures. These works of art are loaned by the artists for installation throughout the downtown area. The exhibit is an adjudicated event, and cash prizes are awarded to winning artists. Here is a link to their website where you can see some of these unique works.

https://sculpturewalksiouxfalls.com/sculptures/years/2024/

A beautifully carved doorway with an open wrought iron gate that looked so welcoming!

We also enjoyed a walk in the public garden at the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum. The mission of the garden is to celebrate native plants and preserve the natural character and history of the Sioux Falls area. It was full of relaxing walkways bordered with lovely flower beds. A perfect haven for gardening/photography buffs like me and anyone just looking for a peaceful stroll!

Common Yarrow, Summer Sunflowers and Lavender -

Brilliant Cardinal Flower -

A busy bee tasting the nectar of the Hostas -

A lovely ruby red Hibiscus -

The most enormous grasshopper I have ever seen!

Garden Phlox -

Siebold's Plaintain Lily, a variety of Hosta -

A border of summer flowers by the pond -

And a lovely Tiger Daylily -

Our time in Sioux Falls was also remarkable for the abrupt and unexpected event of blowing out a second (!) tire on the RV. Wanting to avoid any repeats of this lovely experience, Alan wisely found a truck tire dealership in town and had new shoes put on the RV all the way around. We had four new tires installed - while we waited - on our wedding anniversary! While not exactly sparkley, those tires were surely the most extravagant anniversary gift I've received...and definitely the safest :) All in all, we are thankful for roadside assistance to change the tire, and getting out on the road again!

Now those are some BIG tires!