Oh boy: snow, coming down heavily in the morning, when we departed from Vermillion after a hearty breakfast at Cafe Brulé with Cole, tourism rep of SD. Out we drove, fortunately it was only an 1-hour-drive on an interstate highway, towards Sioux Falls, situated in the southeastern tip of South Dakota, at the Big Sioux River. Across the river, to the East, is the border between Minnesota (north) and Iowah (south), only about 15 mi away. Well, we have already been close to the Canadian border in North Dakota, and, in Vermillion we were only five miles away from Nebraska - have seen quite a few states from the distance already!
Sioux Falls - we were kind of happy to get some "city life" for a change. The city was founded in 1856 on the banks of the Big Sioux River and is considered the fastest-growing metro area in South Dakota with a population of approximately 185,000. It is home of a number of financial companies as Wells Fargo and Citigroup, but especially it is a health care center with four major hospitals. Also, there is a large shopping mall - Empire Mall - at least half a dozen of breweries and an attractive downtown with a booming culinary scene.
We met with Jackie at the Falls Park, a truly spectacular spot: waterfalls falling down over red stone, Sioux Quartzite, quarried locally. 7,400 gallons (over 28.000 l) of water drop 100 feet (30 m) deep per second. Not really high, but spread out, and, unusual because of the large area it covers and the red stone. There is a Visitor Center and an observation tower as well as several historic buildings. Eye-catching are especially the remains of the seven-story Queen Bee Mill, an adventurous enterprise of Richard Pettigrew. In the fall of 1878 he had decided to built a grain mill but needed an investor and found a New Jersey capitalist by name Seney. The mill opened in 1881, nearly $500,000 was spent on the construction, however, by 1883, the mill was closed because it was not profitable. Another historic building is the Light and Power Company Building, which is now a Cafe with a patio. Must be nice in summer!
Actually, there are two downtowns: the one around Phillips Avenue and - younger - the "EastBank" with storehouses around the railroad station, called "8th and Railroad." More and more shops and especially restaurants, bars and breweries are popping up. We had great coffee and pastries at Queen City Bakery in one of the historic buildings and later in the day enjoyed really good beer at Fernson, one of the many breweries in town.
An absolute highlight besides the Falls Park is the Good Earth State Park, in the outskirts of town. The visitor center there gives a good idea about the Indian village of the Oneota culture, which was discovered here. The village was blooming from about 1500 to the end of the 17th century. At its peak, up to 10,000 people may have been living here peacefully, mostly gathering for trade. At the time, Boston for example, only counted about 2,000 people!
The People who lived at Blood Run controlled the trade of the soft red pipestone which came from SW Minnesota ("Pipestone") and was highly regarded and used for ceremonial items like pipes. Large pieces were brought to Blood Run and people from other tribes came to trade. Beginning of the 18th century, the region was abandoned, people moved away for reasons not known exactly. Descendants of these people are known today as the Omaha, Ponca, Ioway and Otoe Indians.
The visitor center - where they show an interesting film - is surrounded by an area of tall grass prairie and old trees and there are lots of trails. We walked a shorter one down to the banks of the Big Sioux River - despite the snow!!! - and noticed how strange it looked: green leaves still on the trees, snow-covered and heavily bending down. Apparently fall was left out and weather went directly from summer to winter.
Afterwards, we explored the downtown area, checked out shops and especially the sculptures of "Sculpturewalk" (pics) - a great local art program. Unfortunately, the "Arc of Dreams" - a monumental steel arch over the river - was not accomplished yet, but will be a new attraction later this month.
We quickly drove back to the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel in the outskirts of town to clean up, defrost and dress up for our dinner in one of the top restaurants in town: Parker's Bistro. They had live music, but we especially enjoyed the excellent food (buffalo meatloaf with sweet potatoes and duckbreast with peaches and grits, and we enjoyed good conversation with Jackie and with the owner of the restaurant, Rick Weiland, a Democratic politician from SD, who served under Bill Clinton.
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