Editing Sioux Falls, South Dakota (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Sioux Falls, South Dakota|Timeline of Sioux Falls, South Dakota}}
[[File:Downtown Sioux Falls in the evening.jpg|thumb|left|Looking south on Main Avenue]]
[[File:South Dakota - Sioux Falls - NARA - 68148946 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Sioux Falls in October 1943]]
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 [[Wisconsin glaciation|last ice age]]. The lure of the falls has been a powerful influence. [[Ho-Chunk]], [[Iowa people|Ioway]], [[Otoe]], [[Missouria]], [[Omaha people|Omaha]] (and [[Ponca]] at the time), [[Quapaw]], [[Kaw people|Kansa]], [[Osage Nation|Osage]], [[Arikara]], [[Sioux]], and [[Cheyenne]] people inhabited and settled the region prior to Europeans and European descendants. Numerous [[burial mounds]] still exist on the high bluffs near the river and are spread throughout the general vicinity. Indigenous people maintained an agricultural society with fortified villages, and the later arrivals rebuilt on many of the same sites that were previously settled. [[Lakota people|Lakota]] populate urban and reservation communities in the contemporary state and many Lakota, Dakota, and numerous other Indigenous Americans reside in Sioux Falls today.<ref>{{cite web|title=American Indian Services Inc. |url=http://www.americanindianservicesinc.org/ |access-date=April 22, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304030725/http://www.americanindianservicesinc.org/ |archive-date=March 4, 2008}}</ref>

French voyagers/explorers visited the area in the early 18th century. The first documented visit by an American of European descent was by [[Philander Prescott]], who camped overnight at the falls in December 1832. Captain [[James Allen (Army engineer)|James Allen]] led a military expedition out of Fort Des Moines in 1844. Jacob Ferris described the Falls in his 1856 book "The States and Territories of the Great West".<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Sioux Falls |publisher=City of Sioux Falls |access-date=November 23, 2008 |url=http://www.siouxfalls.org/Information/history/siouxfalls.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705075009/http://www.siouxfalls.org/Information/history/siouxfalls.aspx |archive-date=July 5, 2008}}</ref>

Two separate groups, the Dakota Land Company of [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] and the Western Town Company of [[Dubuque, Iowa]], organized in 1856 to claim the land around the falls, considered a promising townsite for its beauty and water power. Each laid out {{convert|320|acre|km2|adj=on}} claims, but worked together for mutual protection. They built a temporary barricade of turf which they dubbed "Fort Sod", in response to native tribes attempting to defend their land from the settlers. Seventeen men then spent "the first winter" in Sioux Falls. The following year the population grew to near 40.

Although conflicts in [[Minnehaha County, South Dakota|Minnehaha County]] between [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] and white [[settler]]s 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 [[soldier]]s stationed here traveled to [[Yankton, South Dakota|Yankton]] in late August 1862. The abandoned townsite was pillaged and burned.

Fort Dakota, a military reservation established in present-day downtown, was established in May 1865.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.angelfire.com/mn3/rambow/vtour.html |title=Ft. Dakota Virtual Tour |website=Angelfire.com |access-date=March 18, 2017}}</ref> 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 {{convert|1200|acre|km2}}, was incorporated in 1876 and was granted a city charter by the Dakota Territorial legislature on March 3, 1883.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/us/A0845380.html |title=Sioux Falls |website=Factmonster.com |access-date=March 18, 2017}}</ref>

The arrival of the [[rail transport|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 [[Locust Plague of 1874|severe plague of grasshoppers]] and a [[Long Depression|national depression]] halted the boom by the early 1890s. The city grew by only 89 people from 1890 to 1900.

In the 1890s Sioux Falls became a destination for women seeking divorce due to having some of the nation's most permissive divorce laws and being accessible by rail. It was known as the "Divorce Colony" and remained a popular venue for divorces until South Dakota changed its residency requirements in 1908.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kindy |first1=Dave |title=When divorce was widely banned, desperate women went to South Dakota |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/07/03/south-dakota-divorce-capital/ |newspaper=Washington Post |date=July 3, 2022}}</ref>

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 agriculturally based industry, such as the Morrell plant and the nearby stockyards (one of the largest in the nation).

{{Wide image|Sioux Falls panorama 1908 1.jpg|650px|Downtown Sioux Falls in 1908, looking west}}

In 1955 the city decided to consolidate the neighboring incorporated city of [[South Sioux Falls, South Dakota|South Sioux Falls]]. At the time South Sioux Falls had a population of nearly 1,600 inhabitants, according to the 1950 census. It was the third largest city in the county after Sioux Falls and Dell Rapids. By October 18, 1955, South Sioux Falls residents voted 704 in favor and 227 against to consolidate with Sioux Falls. On the same issue, Sioux Falls residents voted on November 15 by the vote 2,714 in favor and 450 against.

In 1981, to take advantage of recently relaxed state [[usury]] laws, [[Citibank]] relocated its primary credit card center from [[New York City]] to Sioux Falls. Some 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.<ref>Hetland, Cara. ''Sioux Falls 25 years after Citibank's arrival.'' [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/02/23/siouxfalls], Minnesota Public Radio. February 24, 2006. (accessed March 23, 2007)</ref>

Sioux Falls has grown at a rapid pace since the late 1970s, with the city's population more than doubling from 81,182 in 1980 to 192,517 in 2020.

Then-President [[Bill Clinton]] made his final stop of the [[1996 United States presidential election|1996 presidential campaign]] in Sioux Falls.[https://sodakgovs.com/2021/07/06/presidential-visits-to-south-dakota-updated/]

{{Wide image|Sioux Falls Skyline.jpg|800px|Downtown Sioux Falls in 2010, looking west}}

===2019 tornadoes===
On the night of [[Tornadoes of 2019#September 10–11|September 10, 2019]], the south side of Sioux Falls was hit by three strong EF2 tornadoes, severely damaging at least 37 buildings, including the Plaza 41 Shopping Center. One tornado hit the Avera Heart Hospital, damaging portions of the roof and windows, and causing seven injuries, including a man who fractured his skull as he was thrown into an exterior wall of the hospital. Another tornado hit the busy commercial district near the Empire Mall, injuring one woman inside her home. Another touched down on the far south side in a suburban residential area, tearing the roofs off homes. The total damage was more than $5 million.<ref>{{cite report|author=National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota|title=South Dakota Event Report: EF2 Tornado|url=https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=857460|publisher=National Centers for Environmental Information|year=2019|accessdate=January 18, 2020}}{{cite report|author=National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota|title=South Dakota Event Report: EF2 Tornado|url=https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=857477|publisher=National Centers for Environmental Information|year=2019|accessdate=January 18, 2020}}{{cite report|author=National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota|title=South Dakota Event Report: EF2 Tornado|url=https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=857478|publisher=National Centers for Environmental Information|year=2019|accessdate=January 18, 2020}}{{Cite news|agency=Associated Press|date=September 11, 2019|title=Powerful storm strikes Sioux Falls with three confirmed EF-2 tornadoes|url=https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Powerful-storm-strikes-Sioux-Falls-with-three-confirmed-EF-2-tornadoes-560060791.html|access-date=September 25, 2020|work=KCRG News}}</ref>