SIOUX FALLS, S. Dak., city, county-seat of Minnehaha County; on the Sioux River, and on the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul and the Chicago Saint Paul, Minneapolis and I Omaha, the Illinois Central, the Rock Island, Watertown and Sioux Falls and the Great Northern railroads, about eight miles from the Iowa boundary. It was settled in 1856 by the Western Iowa Company of Dubuque, Iowa, but was abandoned the next year. Soon afterward the place was again set tled by eastern homeseekers. It was organized as a village in 1877 and chartered as a city in 1883. In the vicinity are extensive quarries of marble, jasper and other stones. The river here has a fall of about 100 feet in a half mile, forming a series of cascades which furnish ex tensive water power. The city is located in the midst of a rich agricultural community; corn, small grain, hay, livestock and dairy products being the principal sources of wealth. The chief industries are meat packing, manufacture of confectionery, metal culverts, grain bins, sash and cabinet work, crackers, brick, paper boxes, plows and harrows, soft drinks, soap, acetylene gas outfits, cigars, building-stone, pav ing-blocks and crushed rock from the quarries. Three creameries make a great quantity of butter and have built up a good cream, egg and poultry market. Some 4,000 people are em
ployed in manufacturing exclusivelyturning out products valued in excess of $33,000,000. The city is a strong wholesale and jabbing cen tre, being especially favorable for the distribu tion of agricultural implements and vehicles. Sioux Falls is not only the commercial and in dustrial centre of South Dakota, but enjoys a good trade in southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa. The principal buildings are the State penitentiary, State School for the Deaf and Dumb, State Children's Home, County Courthouse, Coliseum, municipal build ings and the 30 churches, which include a Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal cathedral. The public school system is one of the best in the country, the newer grade schools being of advanced type of construction, built on the one-story, community centre plan. Among the higher institutions of learning are All Saints School for Girls, the Lutheran Nor mal School and Sioux Falls College. The eight banks have a combined capital of $925,000. The government is vested in a three-man commis sion elected for a period of five years, one of the commissioners acting as mayor at a salary of $3,000 per year, and the other two commis sioners at $2,000 per year each. Pop. 32,000.