Every time we drove by the Big Sioux River, I would sing "BIGGGG SIOUX RIVER" a la "Old Man River" from Show Boat. Don't you think Lizzie deserves some sort of award for patience? Because I do. Anyway, yesterday, while we were driving in East Sioux Falls, we learned from a historical marker that a stone called jasper and quartzite was quarried here, and workers got horrible consumption from inhaling the dust. This stone that you see here is quartzite, and though it brought prosperity to the area for a while, the advent of concrete, a national depression, and a plague of grasshoppers killed the boom in the early 1890s, and while East Sioux Falls completely disappeared, except for some old rail road spurs, Sioux Falls proper eventually regained prosperity via a meat packing plant, an airbase, the interstate system, and agricultural industry.
These are the Sioux River Falls, carving their way through the quartzite. There were tons of children around, but unfortunately none fell off the cliff into the swirling waters below. I mean fortunately.
That park is really pretty, but you should know that for most South Dakotans, the big attraction of Sioux Falls is the mall.
ReplyDeleteOh no. :( I feel so much shame at my ignorance.
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