SIOUX CITY, a city of western Iowa, U.S.A., on the Mis souri river at the mouth of the Big Sioux, soo m. W. of Chicago ; a port of entry, the county seat of Woodbury county, and the second city of the State in size. It is on Federal highways 20, 75 and 77; has municipal and commercial airports ; and is served by the Burlington Route, the Chicago and North Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, the Great Northern and the Illinois Cen tral railways. Pop. (192o) 71,227 (15.7% foreign-born white, the majority from Russia, Sweden, Norway and Germany) ; 79,183 in 193o by the Federal census. The city has a beautiful site of 45 sq.m., at an altitude of 1,158 ft. The narrow lowlands along the rivers and creeks are occupied by industry and commerce, while the several distinct residential districts are built on high bluffs, commanding views into three States. On opposite sides of the city stand reminders of the coming of the white man and the departure of the Indian : a shaft of white stone erected to the memory of Sergeant Charles Floyd of the Lewis and Clark expedi tion, who died here in 1804 ; and the grave of War Eagle (d. 185i), a powerful chief of the Yankton Sioux and a friend of the early settlers. In Riverside park is the Council Oak, under which took place many councils of war and peace. The park system in cludes 1,119 acres. There are 82 churches and 31 public schools. The hotels have 2,000 guest rooms and the hospitals Boo beds. Since 1912 the city was operated under a commission form of government. It is the see of a Roman Catholic bishop, and is the seat of several institutions of that church and of Morningside college (Methodist Episcopal, 1894). Sioux City is an important
jobbing, marketing and manufacturing centre. The output of its factories in 1927 was valued at $124,585,809.
The site of Sioux City was a favourite camping ground and meeting place of the Indians. The first white visitors of record were Lewis and Clark and their companions in 1804. In 1848 William Thompson built a cabin on the bluff where Sergeant Floyd had been buried ; and in 1849 Theophile Brughier, a French Cana dian in the employ of the American Fur Company, settled at the mouth of the Big Sioux river, was received into the tribe of the Yankton Sioux, and married War Eagle's daughter. In 1854 the city was platted by Dr. John K. Cook, who was surveying a part of the region for the U.S. Government. The first mail arrived in July, 1855; the first steamboat from Saint Louis in June, 1856. The city was incorporated in 1857, with a population of 400. In 1868 the first railroad reached the city, and a few years later a packing plant was established. The decade 188o-90 was a period of phenomenal development. The population increased from 7,366 to 37,806; factories, commercial houses and railroads multi plied ; public improvements and utilities were begun on a large scale. The panic of 1893 brought temporary depression and an actual loss of population between 1890 and 1900; but since 1900 growth and progress have again been rapid, the population increas ing 115% in the first 20 years of the century.