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East Sioux Falls was a city located in southeastern Minnehaha County, South Dakota located about 6 miles east of Sioux Falls along South Dakota Highway 42 on the Big Sioux River.
During the 1880s, the quarrying of a distinctive pink stone known as jasper or quartzite had developed into a successful business in Sioux Falls. In 1887, the Sioux Falls Granite Company opened four quarries six miles due east of downtown Sioux Falls in Split Rock Township.
This area had an abundance of quartzite along the bluffs overlooking the Big Sioux River and exposure to the Earth's surface ensured that the stone could be easily mined. Hundreds of workers and their families settled in a nearby community known at the time as Ives.
In 1888, Sioux Falls officials convinced the Illinois Central Railroad to extend the tracks west from Iowa and through the city.
Influenced by the mining, the rail line was routed past the Split Rock quarries, opening markets for the stone in metropolitan cities such as Chicago.
Railroad officials named the depot East Sioux Falls, replacing Ives in the historical records. By 1890, the community had grown to over 600 residents which led to the incorporation of East Sioux Falls as a municipality.
Numerous structures were built in East Sioux Falls including worker's cottages, post office, town hall, depot, school house, general store, hotel, grain elevator, stable, saloons and jail. The remains of several buildings are still visible within the nature area.
The quarried stone was cut into building stones and paving blocks and shipped to construction projects throughout the country. The pink quartzite was superior in quality to other stones and possessed a coloring which was extremely delicate and pleasing to the eye. The stone was used in the construction of several Sioux Falls buildings including the Old Courthouse Museum, old post office (now the Federal Courthouse), Carnegie Public Library, and Pettigrew Home & Museum. Historical records show that hundreds of miles of roads in the larger cities of the west were paved with quartzite blocks cut at the East Sioux Falls quarries.
The city felt the impact of a slowing economy in 1891 and economic problems mounted with the depression of 1893. The tough economic times of the 1890s pushed the Sioux Falls Granite Company into bankruptcy and the property was acquired by George H. Perry who operated the East Sioux Falls Quarry Company for a time. By the turn of the century, concrete had taken the place of stone as a building material. These events contributed to the out migration of residents from East Sioux Falls and forced the city to give up its charter in 1913. People continued to reside in the community until the last few structures were demolished in the late 1980s. [1]
Pipestone is a city and the county seat of Pipestone County, Minnesota. The population was 4,215 at the 2020 census. The city is also the site of the Pipestone National Monument.
Harrisburg is a city in Lincoln County, South Dakota, United States and is a suburb of Sioux Falls. The population was 6,732 at the 2020 census.
Dell Rapids is a city in Minnehaha County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 3,996 at the 2020 census. It is known as "The Little City with the Big Attractions."
Quartzite is a hard, non-foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to grey, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink and red due to varying amounts of hematite. Other colors, such as yellow, green, blue and orange, are due to other minerals.
Split Rock Creek State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, located in Ihlen, or just south of Pipestone.
Gitchie Manitou is a small nature preserve in Lyon County, in the extreme northwestern corner of Iowa just northwest of Granite, Iowa, or just southeast of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This natural prairie preserve is noted for its ancient Native American burial mounds and precambrian Sioux Quartzite outcroppings, which are about 1.6 billion years old.
Palisades State Park is a state park of South Dakota, USA, featuring cliffs and rock formations eroded out of pink Sioux Quartzite. The park is located just south of Garretson, 10 miles (16 km) off Interstate 90. At only 157 acres (64 ha), it is South Dakota's second-smallest state park.
W.N. Flynt Granite Co. was a granite quarry that opened in 1809 in Monson, Massachusetts to provide granite for new construction at the Springfield Armory. In 1825, Rufus Flynt acquired the property, and began commercial quarrying with five employees. Flynt's son, William N. Flynt, took control of the company in 1839, and significantly expanded the quarrying operations. In 1875, a two mile long spur track was constructed to connect the quarry to the New London Northern Railroad in Monson. By 1888, the company employed over 200 workers, and produced about 30,000 tons of granite per year. By 1900, the quarry employed nearly 500 and was one of the largest employers in Monson. The quarry closed in 1935.
South Dakota is a state located in the north-central United States. It is usually considered to be in the Midwestern region of the country. The state can generally be divided into three geographic regions: eastern South Dakota, western South Dakota, and the Black Hills. Eastern South Dakota is lower in elevation and higher in precipitation than the western part of the state, and the Black Hills are a low, isolated mountain group in the southwestern corner of the state. Smaller sub-regions in the state include the Coteau des Prairies, Missouri Coteau, James River Valley, and the Dissected Till Plains. Geologic formations in South Dakota range in age from two billion-year-old Precambrian granite in the Black Hills to glacial till deposited over the last few million years. South Dakota is the 17th-largest state in the country.
Ellis is an unincorporated community in south-central Minnehaha County, South Dakota, United States. Ellis is located approximately one mile west of the Sioux Falls city limits on Ellis Road, or 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of South Dakota Highway 42. The Ellis & Eastern Railroad is based in Ellis, running 14.5 miles (23.3 km) to Brandon to the east. In 1995, the two largest commodities carried by trains were non-metallic minerals and chemicals, mostly for factories near Sioux Falls. The community is considered a part of the Sioux Falls metropolitan area.
The Sioux Quartzite is a Proterozoic quartzite that is found in the region around the intersection of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa, and correlates with other rock units throughout the upper midwestern and southwestern United States. It was formed by braided river deposits, and its correlative units are thought to possibly define a large sedimentary wedge that once covered the passive margin on the then-southern side of the North American craton. In human history, it provided the catlinite, or pipestone, that was used by the Plains Indians to carve ceremonial pipes. With the arrival of Europeans, it was heavily quarried for building stone, and was used in many prominent structures in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and shipped to construction sites around the Midwest. Sioux Quartzite has been and continues to be quarried in Jasper, Minnesota at the Jasper Stone Company and Quarry, which itself was posted to the National Register of Historic Places on January 5, 1978. Jasper, Minnesota contains many turn-of-the-century quartzite buildings, including the school, churches and several other public and private structures, mostly abandoned.
The Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, also known as U.S. Courthouse, Sioux Falls, is a historic federal office and courthouse building located at Sioux Falls in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. The building is still in use as a federal courthouse, being the seat of the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota. The structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Wallace L. Dow (1844-1911), often known as W. L. Dow, was an architect of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He has been referred to as the "Builder on the Prairie" and was "considered the premier architect of South Dakota in the late 19th century."
The Old Minnehaha County Courthouse, located at Main Avenue and 6th Street in Sioux Falls, is the former county courthouse of Minnehaha County, South Dakota.
The Carnegie Free Public Library, also known as the Carnegie Town Hall, is a historic Carnegie library located at 235 W. 10th St. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The library was built in 1903 through a $25,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation. Architect Joseph Schwartz designed the building, a Romanesque Revival structure with Neoclassical influences. The library was built from locally quarried quartzite, a popular local building material at the turn of the century. While the building's massive form and rough-hewn stone exterior are Romanesque, it features a Greek pediment above the entrance supported by four pilasters on either side of the doorway. The building represents the only use of Classical details in a quartzite building in Sioux Falls.
The Ellis and Eastern Company is a railroad owned and operated by Sweetman Construction Company.
The flag of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, consists of a zigzag pattern of thin white and blue lines, which divides an upper blue portion and a lower pinkish-red portion, and a yellow sun in the upper left corner. The zigzag represents the namesake falls of the Big Sioux River. The blue color and the sun allude to the flag of South Dakota. The pinkish-red portion represents the Sioux Quartzite nearby. The upward direction of the design represents the growth of Sioux Falls. The red, white and blue colors included in the flag are also a reference to the flag of the United States while maintaining city and state pride.
The Woodbury Granite Company (WGC) was a producer of rough and finished granite products. Incorporated in 1887, purchased and significantly reorganized in 1896, and expanded by merger in 1902 and thereafter, the company operated quarries principally in Woodbury, Vermont, but its headquarters and stone-finishing facilities were located in nearby Hardwick. Beginning as a quarrier and seller of rough stone, the company expanded into the business of finishing cut stone and grew from there. It made its name as a supplier of architectural (structural) granite, and grew to become the United States' largest producer, supplying the stone for many notable buildings, including several state capitols, numerous post offices, and many office buildings.
The Illinois Central Passenger Depot is a historic railroad station located at the Big Sioux River at 8th St in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Illinois Central was the fourth railroad to reach Sioux Falls on December 19, 1887. The station was designed by L.A. Hill and opened in 1888. The stone building has a Queen Anne design utilizing local Sioux quartzite with a light purple color as the principal building material. The tower room contained the ticket office while the rear projection contained the wash rooms. On either side of the ticket office were the passenger waiting rooms and beyond them, separated by solid masonry walls were the baggage rooms. The depot represents an unusual example of the Queen Anne style in railroad architecture.
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |