Sioux Falls: Education and Research

Elementary and Secondary Schools

South Dakota boasts one of the highest graduation rates in the country. Public elementary and secondary schools in Sioux Falls are in Sioux Falls School District 49-5, which enrolls the highest number of students in the state. A five-member, nonpartisan school board appoints a superintendent. Teachers in the district have an average of 15.6 years of experience, and 45.5 percent hold advanced degrees.

The following is a summary of data regarding Sioux Falls public schools as of the 2003–2004 school year.

Total enrollment: 20,337

Number of facilities

elementary schools: 23

middle schools: 5

senior high schools: 4

other: 4

Student/teacher ratio: 16:1

Teacher salaries

average: $37,728

Funding per pupil: $5,071

Fifteen parochial and private elementary and secondary schools provide alternative educational curricula to about 3,700 students. Special schools in the city include a vocational school for the handicapped, a school and hospital for disabled children, and a school for the deaf.

Public Schools Information: Sioux Falls School District, 201 E. 38th St., Sioux Falls, SD 57105; telephone (605)367-7900

Colleges and Universities

Sioux Falls is home to Augustana College, the largest private college in the state. Affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church and enrolling 1,800 students each year, the college awards Bachelor of Arts degrees in more than 40 areas of study and Masters of Arts in nursing and secondary/special education. The University of Sioux Falls, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, enrolls nearly 1,500 students pursuing degrees in such areas as business administration, elementary education, exercise science, biology, and theology/philosophy. USDSU Sioux Falls is a partnership of three universities—the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, and Dakota State University. USDSU Sioux Falls caters to adult students by offering evening and once-per-week classes; each year more than 1,900 students pursue degrees at the certificate, associate, bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels.

In 2001 the Southeast Technical Institute, which serves 3,500 full- and part-time students, opened the newest building on its 168-acre campus. The Sioux Falls campus of Colorado Technical University offers associate, bachelors, and masters degrees in such areas as technology, business, criminal justice, and health sciences. Sioux Falls serves as the primary clinical campus of the University of South Dakota School of Medicine, as well as site for the nurse anesthesia graduate program of Mount Marty College. Kilian Community College, located in downtown Sioux Falls, offers studies in such areas as accounting, business management, computers, chemical dependency, medical office professional, and word processing. Other institutions of higher learning include National American University, North American Baptist Seminary, and Sioux Valley Hospital's School of Medical and Radiologic Technology.

Libraries and Research Centers

The Siouxland Libraries System maintains holdings of about 387,000 items including periodical titles, tapes, videos, and art prints. It consists of the main library, two city branches, eight county branches, a bookmobile, and an outreach service van. The library, a depository for federal and state documents, houses special collections in South Dakota history and oral history. A new, 14,900-square-foot Oak View city branch will open its doors in the spring of 2005.

The Mikkelsen Library and Learning Resources Center at Augustana College holds more than 200,000 volumes; the Center for Western Studies, a special collection within the library system, brings together 30,000 volumes pertaining to the Upper Great Plains and oral history.

A dozen or so other libraries and research centers are operated by colleges, hospitals, Siouxland Heritage Museums, and such government agencies as the Sioux Falls Police Department, the South Dakota State Penitentiary, and the United States Geological Survey.

Public Library Information: Siouxland Libraries, 201 N. Main Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57104-6002; telephone (605)367-8720; fax (605)367-4312

Sioux Falls: History

Falls on Big Sioux River Attract Settlers

Attracted by the economic potential of the Sioux Falls on the Big Sioux River, Dr. George M. Staples of Dubuque, Iowa, organized Western Town near the falls in 1856. Staples and his group hoped that the settlement would become the capital of the Territory of Dakota, but it was not chosen. Instead, in the winter of 1856, the Legislature of Minnesota Territory chartered the Dakota Land Company and established the town of Sioux Falls.

In August 1862 the settlers, fearing violence from the local Native Americans, abandoned the village. Raiders did burn the buildings and destroy everything, including an old Smith printing press used by the Sioux Falls Democrat that was dumped in the Big Sioux River after it was stripped of decorative items. Fort Dakota, a military post, was established in the area in May 1865, to help assure the resettlement of Sioux Falls. Another incentive came when the water power of the falls was harnessed in 1873. A scourge of grasshoppers in 1874 hurt resettlement, but by 1876 Sioux Falls claimed a population of 600 people. Sioux Falls was incorporated as a town in 1877 and as a city in 1889.

In the last decades of the nineteenth century, Northern European immigrants were attracted to the Territory of Dakota, which resembled their homeland. The establishment of rail transport in the area in 1878 enabled locals to begin shipping "Sioux Falls granite," a pink quartzite bedrock second only to diamond in hardness. The city's two church-affiliated private schools date to this period; Augustana College, a Lutheran school, was founded in 1860, and the University of Sioux Falls, a Baptist school, opened in 1883.

Agriculture Provides Economic Base

Life on the Plains was a test of endurance. Snow began falling in October 1880 and continued until the following spring, isolating residents and forcing them to burn corn, wheat, hay, and railroad ties for heat sources. In spite of hardship, Sioux Falls gained in economic importance. South Dakota's lenient divorce law brought outsiders into Sioux Falls until the law was changed in 1908. One memorable case unfolded when the wife of heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons sought a divorce in Sioux Falls. Her distraught husband followed her and managed to change her mind. To celebrate their reunion, Fitzsimmons forged horseshoes and passed them out to admirers; in the process, the local blacksmith shop's floor gave way, injuring a young boy. Fitzsimmons then organized a benefit performance and gave the proceeds to the boy's family.

In 1942 the U.S. War Department leased Sioux Falls land for the construction of the Air Force Technical Radio School, invigorating the local economy and social life. Sioux Falls native Joe Foss won the Congressional Medal of Honor for shooting down 31 enemy airplanes in the Pacific campaign of World War II; after the war, Foss returned to Sioux Falls to become a successful businessman and commander of the South Dakota Air National Guard.

A Leader in Financial Services and Retail

Today Sioux Falls, through the processing of agricultural products, serves as a distribution center for farms in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Ushered in by Citicorp, financial services has emerged as a primary industry, with healthcare close behind. The city is also a retail hot spot—the largest retail center between Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Sioux Falls attracts more than 14 million shoppers each year. Spurred in part by a statewide initiative, the city is focusing on becoming a driving force in research and technology. Sioux Falls offers amenities and points of interest including the University of Sioux Falls and Augustana College, a Baptist seminary, a school for the deaf, and its namesake, the Falls of the Big Sioux River.

Historical Information: Pettigrew Home & Museum, 200 W. 6th St., Sioux Falls, SD 57102; telephone (605)367-7097

Sioux Falls: Communications

Newspapers and Magazines

The Sioux Falls daily newspaper is the Argus Leader, which is distributed every morning. Other newspapers, including a farm tabloid and college publications, appear weekly and bimonthly. Several magazines are published in Sioux Falls on such subjects as education, wool growing, trucking, knitting and weaving, and poetry.

Television and Radio

Five television stations are received in Sioux Falls; cable channels are available by subscription. Radio listeners tune in programs on nearly two dozen AM and FM radio stations in the city, which also receives radio broadcasts from Florence and Reliance, South Dakota.

Media Information: Argus Leader, 200 S. Minnesota Ave., PO Box 5034, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5034; telephone (605)331-2205; toll-free (800)222-5207

Sioux Falls Online

Argus Leader. Available www.argusleader.com

City of Sioux Falls home page. Available www.siouxfalls.org

Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce. Available www.siouxfallschamber.com

Sioux Falls Convention & Visitors Bureau. Available www.siouxfallscvb.com

Sioux Falls Development Foundation. Available www.siouxfallsdevelopment.com

Sioux Falls School District. Available www.sf.k12.sd.us

Siouxland Libraries. Available www.siouxland.lib.sd.us

Selected Bibliography

Brown, Dee Alexander, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971, 1970)

Christopherson, Marie, Driftwood in a Time of War (Prairie Plains, No 4) (Center for Western Studies, 1995)

Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth, The Power of Horses and Other Stories (New York: Arcade Pub., 1990)

Landau, Elaine, The Sioux (New York: F. Watts, 1989)

LaPointe, Frank, The Sioux Today (New York: Crowell-Collier Press, 1972)

Turner, Ann Warren, Grasshopper Summer (New York: MacMillan, 1989)

Wilder, Laura Ingalls, By the Shores of Silver Lake (New York: Harper & Row, 1971)

Wood, Ted, A Boy Becomes a Man at Wounded Knee: Ted Wood with Wanbli Numpa Afraid of Hawk (New York: Walker, 1992)

Woster, Terry, Stephen Thurman, and Catherine Thurman, The Spirit of Sioux Falls (Towery Publ., 1992)

Sioux Falls: Population Profile

Metropolitan Area Residents

1980: 109,435

1990: 139,236

2000: 172,412

Percent change, 1990–2000: 23.8%

U.S. rank in 1980: 270th

U.S. rank in 1990: Not reported

U.S. rank in 2000: 180th

City Residents

1990: 100,836

2000: 123,975

2003 estimate: 133,834

Percent change, 1990–2000: 22.9%

U.S. rank in 1980: 223rd

U.S. rank in 1990: 194th

U.S. rank in 2000: 195th (State rank: 1st)

Density: 2,201.4 people per square mile (in 2000)

Racial and ethnic characteristics (2000)

White: 113,938

Black or African American: 2,226

American Indian and Alaska Native: 2,627

Asian: 1,479

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander: 68

Hispanic or Latino (may be of any race): 3,087

Other: 1,521

Percent of residents born in state: 60.2%

Age characteristics (2000)

Population under 5 years old: 9,072

Population 5 to 9 years old: 8,619

Population 10 to 14 years old: 8,461

Population 15 to 19 years old: 9,073

Population 20 to 24 years old: 10,601

Population 25 to 34 years old: 19,853

Population 35 to 44 years old: 20,257

Population 45 to 54 years old: 15,513

Population 55 to 59 years old: 4,915

Population 60 to 64 years old: 3,879

Population 65 to 74 years old: 6,908

Population 75 to 84 years old: 4,908

Population 85 years and older: 1,916

Median age: 33.0 years

Births (2003, Minnehaha County)

Total number: 2,485

Deaths (2003, Minnehaha County)

Total number: 1,156 (of which, 11 were infants under the age of 1 year)

Money income (1999)

Per capita income: $21,374

Median household income: $41,221

Total households: 49,740

Number of households with income of . . .

less than $10,000: 3,367

$10,000 to $14,999: 2,827

$15,000 to $24,999: 7,146

$25,000 to $34,999: 7,133

$35,000 to $49,999: 9,740

$50,000 to $74,999: 10,468

$75,000 to $99,999: 4,526

$100,000 to $149,999: 3,056

$150,000 to $199,999: 799

$200,000 or more: 678

Percent of families below poverty level: 5.6% (40.4% of which were female householder families with related children under 5 years)

2002 FBI Crime Index Total: 4,189

Sioux Falls

The City in Brief

Founded: 1870 (incorporated, 1889)

Head Official: Mayor Dave Munson (since 2002)

City Population

1990: 100,836

2000: 123,975

2003 estimate: 133,834

Percent change, 1990–2000: 22.9%

U.S. rank in 1980: 223rd

U.S. rank in 1990: 194th

U.S. rank in 2000: 195th

Metropolitan Area Population

1980: 109,435

1990: 139,236

2000: 172,412

Percent change, 1990–2000: 23.8%

U.S. rank in 1980: 270th

U.S. rank in 1990: Not reported

U.S. rank in 2000: 180th

Area: 56.34 square miles (2000)

Elevation: 1,421 feet above sea level

Annual Average Temperature: 45.1° F

Average Annual Precipitation: 24.69 inches of rain, 38.1 inches of snow

Major Economic Sectors: Wholesale and retail trade, services, manufacturing

Unemployment Rate: 3.5% (February 2005)

Per Capita Income: $21,374 (1999)

2002 FBI Crime Index Total: 4,189

Major Colleges and Universities: Augustana College; University of Sioux Falls

Daily Newspaper: Argus Leader

Sioux Falls: Health Care

Sioux Falls has emerged as a major center for health care in a four-state region of the Upper Midwest. Central to the health care community is the University of South Dakota School of Medicine; several of the city's practicing physicians serve on the faculty of the School of Medicine, which maintains an association with five hospitals in the area. The Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System is a network of more than 150 healthcare facilities with 537 beds. The largest hospital in the system in Sioux Valley Hospital USD Medical Center, and the Sioux Valley Clinic is the largest and most comprehensive in the region. In 2002 Sioux Valley opened the NORTH Center, specializing in orthopedic and neurosciences. The Heart Hospital of South Dakota is the area's only hospital specializing in cardiovascular disease, and the 429-bed Avera McKennan Hospital offers the region's only burn unit, bone marrow transplant program, and kidney transport program. Other facilities include the Sioux Falls Department of Veterans Affairs Medical and Regional Office Center, the Children's Care Hospital and School, and Select Specialty Hospital, providing long-term acute care to patients with such health problems as traumatic brain injuries, ventilator dependence, and postsurgical complications.

Sioux Falls: Geography and Climate

Located in the Big Sioux River Valley in southeast South Dakota, Sioux Falls is surrounded by gently rolling terrain that slopes to higher elevations approximately 100 miles to the north-northeast and to the south. The city's climate is continental, exhibiting frequent weather changes from day to day and from week to week as differing air masses move into the area. During the late fall and winter, strong winds cause abrupt drops in temperature, but cold spells are usually of short duration. Snowfall and sleet average 38.1 inches yearly, and one or two heavy snows fall each winter, with blizzard conditions sometimes resulting. Thunderstorms are common in late spring and summer; tornadoes can occur from spring through summer. Flooding from melting snow runoff in the spring along the Big Sioux River and Skunk Creek is reduced by a diversion canal around the city.

Area: 56.34 square miles (2000)

Elevation: 1,421 feet above sea level

Average Temperatures: January, 14.0° F; July, 73.0° F; annual average, 45.1° F

Average Annual Precipitation: 24.69 inches of rain, 38.1 inches of snow

Sioux Falls city (1990 pop. 100,814), seat of Minnehaha co., SE S.Dak., on the Big Sioux River; settled 1856, inc. as a village 1877, as a city 1883. Settlers abandoned the site in 1862 because of Native American raids, but with the establishment (1865) of Fort Dakota it was resettled. Named for the falls on the Big Sioux River (which furnish power), Sioux Falls is the largest city in the state and the commercial, industrial, and shipping center of an extensive agricultural area. It has long been a major livestock market and meat-processing center, but financial services and other industries are now also important. Signs; building materials; computers; hot-air balloons; plastic, paper, and wood products; consumer and electronic goods; sheet metal; machinery; foods; apparel; and transportation equipment are among its manufactures. Sandstone ( "Sioux Falls granite" ) is quarried nearby. The Univ. of Sioux Falls, Augustana College, a Baptist seminary, and the South Dakota School for the Deaf are there. Also in the city are the state penitentiary and the U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center.

Sioux Falls: Convention Facilities

With more than 50,000 square feet of column-free exhibit space on the main floor and an additional 11,000 square feet in meeting rooms, the Sioux Falls Convention Center is the largest in the state. It hosts major national and regional conventions, meetings, and trade shows. The convention center is physically attached to the Sioux Falls Arena, which adds seating for 8,000 people and brings the total amount of exhibit space to more than 100,000 square feet; the Sioux Falls Arena will undergo a transformation into an exclusive convention and meeting facility in 2008. Meeting facilities are also offered by hotels and motels that provide more than 3,800 guest rooms in metropolitan Sioux Falls.

Convention Information: Sioux Falls Convention & Visitors Bureau, 200 N. Phillips Ave., Ste. 102, Sioux Falls, SD 57104; telephone (605)336-1620; toll-free 800-333-2072; fax (605)336-6499; email sfcvb@siouxfalls.com

Sioux Falls: Introduction

Sioux Falls, seat of South Dakota's Minnehaha County, is the largest city in the state and the center of the metropolitan statistical area that includes Sioux Falls as well as Lincoln and Minnehaha counties. The city first grew during the Dakota boom years of the late nineteenth century as the arrival of the railroad made possible the nationwide transportation of granite quarried in Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls has grown in many ways since then, and consistently tops the rankings by Forbes and Inc. magazines of top cities for business.

Sioux Falls: Municipal Government

Sioux Falls is governed by a full-time mayor and eight part-time council persons. Voters elect the mayor and council persons to staggered four-year terms.

Head Official: Mayor Dave Munson (since 2002; current term expires 2006)

Total Number of City Employees: 944 (2003)

City Information: City of Sioux Falls, 224 W. 9th St., Sioux Falls, SD 57104-6407; telephone (605)367-8000

Sioux Falls, South Dakota/USA Founded on the Big Sioux River in 1857 and named after the river and its falls.