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Sioux Falls, 1877-1880 University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 2004 A Dakota Boomtown: Sioux Falls, 1877-1880 Gary D. Olsen Augustana College - Sioux Falls Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Olsen, Gary D., "A Dakota Boomtown: Sioux Falls, 1877-1880" (2004). Great Plains Quarterly. 268. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/268 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. A DAKOTA BOOMTOWN SIOUX FALLS, 1877 .. 1880 GARY D. OLSON The "Dakota boom" is a label historians have claiming of land by immigrant and American almost universally adopted to describe the would, be farm owners in the plains of Dakota period of settlement in Dakota Territory be, Territory and adjacent areas. Less well known tween the years 1878 and 1887. The term is the impact this rapid, large,scale settling of "boom" has been applied to this period largely the land had on the rise and growth of townsites because of the volume of land claimed and the aspiring to become prosperous ci ties. We know rapid increase in Dakota Territory's popula, the rural landscape changed as sod houses and tion that occurred during those years. Most dugouts were erected, fields plowed, and trees accounts of this time period have treated the planted. But what impact did the boom have Dakota boom as a rural phenomenon, and cer, on the urban landscape? tainly its main manifestation was the rapid This essay is a case study examining the evolution of a specific Plains townsite, Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory, into a prosperous town KEY WORDS: Dakota Boom, Dakota Territory, when it experienced a rapid infusion of popu, Immigrants, Northern Plains, Sioux Falls. lation as a result of the Dakota boom. I will argue that the experience of Sioux Falls was typical of the growing urban areas between Gary Olson is a Professor of History at Augustana 1877 and 1880. Unlike some towns on the College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He completed Plains, Sioux Falls had a natural asset in its this essay during a 2003,04 sabbatical leave when he water power, and it was fortunate in acquiring was a Scholar in Residence at the Center for Western Studies. Prof. Olson has served as an editor for the early rail connections to the settled areas far, Norwegian Studies Association and a reviewer for ther east. But in most other ways Sioux Falls South Dakota History. He has recently revised and was similar to dozens of townsites that experi, updated Sioux Falls, South Dakota: A Pictorial enced the same opportunities and problems History. brought by the torrential stream of prospec, tive land seekers who inundated the surround, [GPQ 24 (Winter 2004): 17-30] ing countryside. Thus, Sioux Falls can help us 18 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2004 to understand better what the Dakota boom and what they did, as well as to allow some meant to the emerging urban centers of the inferences to be drawn about the nature of the region. This focus on looking at the growth of community. _ _,_ ~f"~· .<, ,-" . , urban areas on the Plains is important because It must be noted, of course,that quantifica, the prevailing stereotype in many popular tion data, whkJile- per~)Viding access to ne,w his, books, films, and even some textbooks is to torical information, has its: own limitations. view this time period as a strictly rural phe, The process of entering theaHata into the SPSS nomenon. As we will see in the data on Sioux program requires ~~reefive' categorization. Falls, the image of the lone farmer with his sod The residents' occupations were assigned to house should be accompanied by the image of categories of professional, self,employed busi, a soon to be prosperous business leader living ness, skilled and unskilled labor, clerks, and in a thriving cityscape. public officials. Not all listed occupations lent Several historians have contributed signifi, themselves obviously to anyone category. For cantly to our understanding of the process by instance, into which category would one place which the Great Plains was settled, and the a cook in a hotel, the foreman of a railroad current study builds on them. John C. Hudson crew, or a prostitute? It is also true that census has helped us to understand better the role of takers were not always as careful or complete railroads in creating towns on the western fron, as a researcher might wish, and residents could tier. He has also used census data to plot the not always provide information, like their par, movement of people from various states and ents' place of birth. Still, if one recognizes foreign countries into and out of the Plains that these and other limitations of the data states. William Silag, in his study of mobility information exist, quantification can be very in the Sioux City region, used the federal cen, illuminating, especially when other sources of sus and other public records to define better information are scarce or absent. the characteristics of that region's mobile Population growth alone confirms that population, a phenomena common to the fron, Sioux Falls shared in the Dakota boom. From tier generally. Two classic writers on frontier a population of about 600 in 1876, the federal urban history, Lewis Atherton and Daniel census of 1880 counted 2,164 residents in Boorstin, have focused mainly on the general Sioux Falls, which by the 1890 census had elements that were important in giving fron, increased to slightly more than 10,000. In tier townsites success or failure. In contrast, short, the city grew by a factor of nearly six, this study applies the concept of microhistory, teen in the boom period. Statistically, the cen, a model provided by Gilbert Fite in his study sus reveals that the residents of Sioux Falls in of "agricultural pioneering."l 1880 were predominately white, male, single, The centerpiece of information for this young, and literate. In this regard Sioux Falls study is derived from the 1880 tenth federal in 1880 was probably typical of most new towns census. The federal census provides a "snap' at the edge of the midwestern American fron, shot" of Sioux Falls at the time the informa, tier. Beyond the time period of this study, tion was collected. It contains copious however, Sioux Falls became atypical in the information on each person listed, including sense that it did not boom and bust but con, gender, age, marital status, literacy, occupa, tinued to grow and prosper long after many tion, place of residence, place of birth, and other boom towns of the "Great Dakota Boom" parents' place of birth. The information in the had stagnated or even disappeared. 1880 federal census has been tabulated and cross' tabulated using the Statistical Package THE ANTICIP A TORY PHASE for the Social Sciences (SPSS). This process enables the census data to provide an insight First, it must be said that the boom began into these residents, where they came from in Sioux Falls slightly earlier than it did in A DAKOTA BOOMTOWN 19 FIG. 1. United tates government survey map of tudie , Augu tana C II ge. Dakota Territory as a whole. By December being brought in via freight wagons from the 1877 a newspaper article reprinted from the railhead of the Worthington and Sioux Falls Austin (MN) Register reported that Sioux Falls Railroad, which had been moving closer dur­ "residents claim 1500 inhabitants."2 This was ing 1877 but by December was still about a bit optimistic, for five months later the local twenty miles away at Beaver Creek. This early Pantagraph announced that Sioux Falls had population boom anticipated the coming of "at this time" a population of over 1,000 resi­ the railroad to Sioux Falls. dents, "which has increased more than one In March 1878 the Sioux Falls Pantagraph half during the past year."3 The Austin jour­ reported that "the rush of travel has fully be­ nalist, who had just returned from a visit to gun." Every day brought large numbers of new Sioux Falls in November 1877, observed that arrivals. The hotels, the Pantagraph observed, "a great many houses have been built this sum­ "are crowded to their utmost capacity; the mer and several are now in course of erec­ boarding houses have eager customers for all tion."4 The note of surprise in this report their hash; the livery stable keepers are taxed probably stemmed from the fact that every­ to the utmost capacity to supply newcomers thing the visitor from Austin had observed with conveyances to visit the adjacent coun­ had taken place before Sioux Falls had secured try ... [and] the lumber dealers are up to their a rail connection to the outside world. All eyes in business." The newspaper went on to building materials and merchandise were still describe the atmosphere of Sioux Falls: "The 20 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2004 Great Plains Quarterly Un iversity of Nebraska-Uncoln ~--.- 1 5 QStreet FIG. 2. The last remnant of Fort Dakota , a barracks , was removed from the middle of Phillips Avenue in July, 1873 . Courte y f th Center for We tern tudie, Augu tana College. noise of the saw and hammer is heard in all June that Sioux Falls had been overwhelmed parts of the town from morning till night."5 In by being "the vortex of a whirlpool of immi, April the Pantagraph announced that new ar, gration for months."7 rivals were increasing, averaging about forty, five per day, "coming by stage, by livery, by THE BOOM freighters' wagons and on foot." Some, the newspaper explained, stayed in town "looking The federal land office had been moved to for business chances," but most headed right Sioux Falls in 1873, but the pace of its business.
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