Sioux City, Iowa

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Sioux City is a city located in northwest Iowa. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 85,013. It is the county seat of Woodbury County^{[Geographic references#6GR6]}.

Sioux City is at the navigational head of the Missouri River, about 90 miles north of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. Sioux City and the surrounding areas of northwestern Iowa, northeastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota are sometimes referred to as Siouxland, especially by the local media.

Sioux City is the home of Morningside College, Briar Cliff University and Western Iowa Tech Community College.

History

Early history

The region that would become Sioux City was inhabited by the ancestors of Native Americans for thousands of years. Europeans first came into contact with the native people during the eighteenth century, when Spanish and French furtrappers plied the Missouri River. In 1803, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, France sold a vast portion of central North America to the United States of America. This "Louisiana Purchase" was largely unexplored. Jefferson sent out the Corps of Discovery, under Lewis and Clark, to scientifically document the territory. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled up the Missouri and set-up camp near what would become Sioux City, Iowa. On August 20, a member of the expedition, Sgt. Charles Floyd died of "bilous colic" and was buried on a bluff overlooking the river. At the time of Lewis and Clark, the Omaha tribe of Native Americans were present just downstream from this region, and the Yankton Sioux were upstream. [William Thompson] established a trading post near Floyd's Bluff in 1848, and had early ambitions for founding a city. However, Thompson's hopes were never realized; settlers further upriver, between the Floyd and Big Sioux rivers, met with more success.

Settlement and founding

[Theophile Bruguier], a French-Canadian fur trader, is considered the first white settler on land that would become Sioux City. According to one legend, he told his friend (and father–in-law) Chief War Eagle of the Yankton Sioux about a dream he had regarding a rich land where two rivers joined near a high bluff. War Eagle told him that he knew of this land, near the mouth of the Big Sioux River. In reality, Bruguier had already passed this place many times in his voyages between Fort Pierre in the Dakota Territory and St. Louis, Missouri as an agent for the American Fur Company. In 1849, Bruguier established his farm on this same land; this farm included log cabins and tipis used by the family of War Eagle. Bruguier claimed all the land from the mouth of the Big Sioux River east along the Missouri River to near the Floyd River. In 1852 he sold the land from Perry Creek east to the Floyd River to [Joseph Leonais]. At about that time, Bruguier encouraged James A. Jackson, a fur trade outfitter from Council Bluffs (then Kanesville), to come upriver to establish a trading post. Jackson, in turn, convinced his father-in-law, [Dr. John K. Cook], of the area’s potential as a future city; Cook, an English-born Oxford-educated physician turned frontier surveyor, was most impressed by the location at the mouths of the Big Sioux and Floyd Rivers at the Missouri. In his official capacity as United States Federal Government surveyor, Dr. Cook established the little town of Sioux City in 1854, staking out its lots and streets. Joseph Leonais, who owned much of the land which would became the downtown area, sold it to Dr. Cook after much haggling for $3000. Within 3 years the new town had a population of 400 people and incorporated as a city.

Nineteenth century

The first steamboat arrived from St. Louis in June of 1856, loaded with ready-framed houses and provisions.

The railroad first arrived in 1868. About that time a few small factories opened. In 1873, [James Booge] opened the first large-scale meatpacking plant and created a demand which ultimately led to the opening of the livestock yards ("stockyards") in 1884. The period from about 1880 to 1890 marked the most rapid and significant progress made thus far in Sioux City's development. Street cars, water works, electric lights and other improvements appeared. Factories, [jobbing houses], meatpacking plants, retail stores and railroads increasingly came on the scene. The city's building boom included an elevated railroad (the [Sioux City Elevated Railway]) and early "skyscrapers". These changes mirrored growth that was occurring nationwide, especially in the transition of small pioneer settlements to thriving urban centers. In 1885 the city had a population of some 20,000. President Grover Cleveland visited in 1887.

In May of 1892, heavy rains caused the Floyd River to rise, sending a destructive wave of muddy water through the unprepared city. At least three thousand people were left homeless. The stockyards and railroad lines were all badly damaged, and a lumber yard caught fire. The final death toll from drowning was twenty-five, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

The nationwide Financial Panic of 1893 resulted in number of real estate investors and entrepreneurs in Sioux City losing great paper fortunes. [Edwin Peters], the developer and promoter of Morningside, claimed to have lost $1.5 million, only to be left with a debt of $7,000.

Twentieth century

The beginning of the twentieth century saw a population of 33,000.

In 1900, on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri River, construction began on the 100' tall Floyd Monument, a stone obelisk honoring the burial site of Sgt. Charles Floyd. Floyd died near here while exploring the region with the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804. The monument was recognized as the First National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of Interior in 1960.

In 1900, Sioux Cityans and the rest of the country were the victims of a fraud perpetrated by former Sioux City land speculator, developer, and (later) notorious wheeler-dealer [John Peirce]. Peirce was a colorful and flamboyant character, a decorated Union Army veteran wounded in the Civil War, and a major promoter during Sioux City's 19th Century boom years. Until fairly recently, Sioux City historians and civic promoters held Peirce in high esteem for his years of seeming dedication to the growth of Sioux City, especially of the North Side. Pierce Street, a major north-south thorougfare connecting uptown with downtown, is named after John Peirce (with a slight a change in spelling). More recent investigation has shown that in the end Peirce was a very clever scoundrel who actually got away with his crime. Like most other businessman, Peirce had been hurt very badly by the financial panic of 1893. While most of Sioux City's leading businessmen honorably spent years working and rebuilding to pay back their debts, Peirce began scheming for a way to bilk the public out of the funds he needed to effect his relocation to the west coast. In 1900, he initiated a nation-wide lottery to dispose of his northside mansion (which later became the Sioux City Museum). About 40,000 tickets were sold at one dollar each. The drawing took place at the Union passenger depot on Christmas Eve of 1900. It was first announced that the winner was a jeweler from Vinton, Iowa. However, a few days later, it emerged that the winning ticket was actually held by a New York millionaire, William Barbour. (Peirce had owed a hefty financial debt to Mr. Barbour.) The abstract for the [Peirce Mansion] reveals that a warranty deed transferred title to Barbour nine days before the actual drawing and nineteen days before Barbour was publically known to hold the winning lottery ticket. Barbour promptly sold the mansion to William Gordon, in exchange for bonds which were issued by the company operating the Combination Bridge. Peirce, a flamboyant figure to be sure, wrote an emotional goodbye to Sioux City in the newspaper before heading west, designed perhaps to cement his upstanding image in the community. Peirce collected his money and disappeared from Sioux City forever. Thus, Sioux City has the dubious distinction of having one of its busiest thoroughfares named after a grifter, while his former domicile serves as the City Museum.

On December 23, 1904, Sioux City suffered one of its greatest calamities when a fire broke out in the basement of the Pelletier Department Store on the southwest corner of Fourth and Jackson Streets. The fire ignited when a store employee named Hunt lit a match in a Christmas toy display area of the basement floor to ignite a gas jet to illuminate the display. The head of the match flew off and landed in mounds of cotton that had been used to simulate snow drifts. The room went up like a torch, and the fire quickly spred throughout the multi-story building. Although the Sioux City Fire Department had acquired a modern hook and ladder unit just a few years prior to the fire, it was neither manned nor equipped to suppress a rapidly spredding high-rise fire, whipped by wind gusts that quickly spred the flames to neighboring buildings. Over the next week a four and a half block area of the central downtown district was gutted by fire. Only one person died in the catastrophe, but the loss in property was in the millions of dollars. Sioux City business investors lost little time in rebuilding the core business district and the Sioux City Fire Department thereafter acquired the most modern pumping gear available and increased its manpower.

In 1914, the [American Popcorn Company] was started, launching its "Jolly Time" brand name and introducing popcorn to worldwide wholesale and retail markets.

In 1914, Big Bill Haywood, leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or "Wobblies") chose Sioux City as the scene of the IWW's annual "Convention." The event quickly, calculatingly and effectively devolved into a bloody "free speech fight." As news of the confrontation with City Police circulated in the national and international press, thousands more unemployed laborers, migrants and drifters, and not a few professional pick-pockets, Syndicalists, Anarchists and general 'ner-do-wells from coast-to-coast poured into Sioux City on foot and by box-car. Staged in the open along Lower Fourth Street, the Wobblies-- egged on by Haywood's looming stature, booming voice and Socialist rhetoric-- clashed with City police mounted on horseback. The police responded by repeatedly charging into the crowds of men, beating them mercilessly with night-sticks and conducting mass arrests. When the jail was full, men were rounded up and herded by mounted police to the railyards and bodily placed on cattle cars and shipped out of the city to be left on rural sidings in neighboring states. This was Sioux City's response to a simple tactic that the Wobblies had used more effectively in Spokane, Fresno, and San Diego in 1909: when a fellow member was arrested for speaking, large numbers of people descended on the location and forced the authorities to arrest all of them, until it became too expensive for the town. The series of mass demonstrations continued until the wind was taken out of the IWW's sails by the arrest of Haywood, its most influential leader, imprisoned under the Espionage Act of 1917. The 1914 Wobbly Convention in Sioux City was a significant display of the Socialist labor movement in U.S. history, and was part of the rising tide of that movement (see Wikipedia article: Industrial Workers of the World). Between 1915 and 1917, the IWW's Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) organized hundreds of thousands of migratory farm workers throughout the midwest and western United States, often signing up and organizing members in the field, in railyards and in hobo jungles, and up through the through the mid-1930s, the IWW organized predominantly African-American longshoremen on the Eastern Seaboard. It is notable that Sioux City's mayor from 1918 through the mid-1920s would be a politician with socialist leanings (see "Wallace Short", below).

Upon declaration of War with Germany in April 1917, Company L of the 133rd Infantry, Iowa National Guard, based in Sioux City, was mobilized for federal service. The company was sworn into U.S. service on 2 May, 1917 and along with other Iowa Guard companies, merged with the old Iowa 2nd Infantry Regiment. Posted to Deming, New Mexico, Company L saw the tail-end of efforts by the U.S. Punitive Expedition to capture Mexican bandit Pancho Villa. The deployment to the Mexican border provided an excellent training ground, and the Army lost no time preparing the troops for trench combat in France. With the formation of the federal 42nd "Rainbow" Division, most Company L men went into the trenches in France in 1918 as members of L Company, 168th Infantry Regiment. There they distinguished themselves in numerous campaigns including the Meuse-Argonne offensive and the capture of Sedan in November 1918, just six days before the Armistice. According to the official history of the 168th Infantry Regiment ("The Story Of The 168th Infantry," by John Tabor), the Iowa troops were under standing orders never to take German prisoners, and generally did not, except when specifically ordered to do so for intelligence purposes. Similar standing field orders existed throughout the American Expeditionary Force AEF on the Western Front. As a consequence of this order, all surrendering and wounded German prisoners were executed, and this tactic soon began to strike fear in the hearts of the Kaiser's troops, who thereafter often panicked and fled at the first sight of American troops. In the last 18 months of the war, the Americans seized more ground from the Germans than the combined allied armies had been able to gain in the entire previous three and a half years. The Rainbow Division, including the Iowans of the 168th, was responsible for collapsing the German left flank in the final German offensive of 1918. The grim, determined tactics of the 168th hastened an end to the war. It was an age of warfare without instantaneous global communication and "embedded" reporters. Upon settlement of the Armistice, on 11 November 1918, the 168th was detached and accomplished a 10 day forced march through Luxembourg and Belgium to the banks of the Rhine River. The Iowa men of L Company were stationed as part of the "Watch on the Rhine" at the village of Neiderzeissen, where they remained on occupation duty until December 1919. The 168th Infantry returned from overseas service and were welcomed in Des Moines with a parade, prior to discharge at Camp Dodge and return to civilian life. In 1920, these veterans and fellow-Sioux City war veterans founded the Edward Monahan Post 64, American Legion, at Sioux City. Upon deactivation from federal service, Company L was again subordinated to the re-constituted 133rd Iowa Infantry Regiment under State command.

On June 29th 1918, Sioux City suffered its greatest accidental loss of life when the four-story Ruff Pharmaceutical building (the Hedges Block at Fourth & Douglas Sts) collapsed. At the time of the disaster workmen were gutting the upper floors and preparing to lower part of the 1st floor to ground level. Meanwhile, retail activities had been allowed to continue at street level. The building suddenly collapsed, trapping scores of victims in the rubble. Gas mains ruptured, causing a massive fire that required 36 hours to contain. In typical city government fashion of the day, the City Safety Commissioner arrived on the scene and handed out bottles of whiskey to firemen and other rescuers. 39 people died in what became known as "the Ruff Disaster."

Labor unrest, including major strikes shut down the city in 1921 and 1922, most notably protesting conditions in the meatpacking industry. Interestingly enough, however, Sioux City's Mayor at the time was an avowed Socialist and Congregationalist Minister named Wallace Short. Viewed from the distance of time, Short was clearly one of the best mayors in city history, struggling to implement reforms in a gritty, wide-open cow town during an uncertain era of international political unrest and massive City corruption. However well-intended, Short's clear Socialist sentiments undoubtedly clashed with the handful of rich industrialists who dominated city affairs at that time-- and who tacitly endorsed loose morals as "good for business." Short's sincere efforts at reform were also foiled by corrupt police and city Commissioners, who resented his efforts to clean up a town which generated significant illicit profits from liquor, gambling and prostitution. Although one of Sioux City's greatest mayors, Short has no school, park or street named after him, and is largely forgotten.

The population grew to 47,000 in 1910 and to 71,000 in 1920.

The 1920s ushered in the Jazz and Flapper era as well as the Volstead Act, with its Prohibition of the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Although Iowa had already enacted statewide prohibition in 1916, neither the state nor federal laws had the slightest effect on the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in Sioux City-- although the means of distribution were about to change dramatically. Thriving financially in a wild and wide-open town with a mean reputation dating to its pioneer days, Sioux City tavern owners had openly defied an earlier 19th century Iowa prohibition statute. But the Volstead Act was backed by federal funds and enforced by a new force of federal agents not as willing to look the other way as Sioux City's manifestly corrupt police department had for decades. Consequently, not only was Sioux City a prime market for booze of all kinds by the 1920s, but local business owners had to devise newer and better-organized means of importing the illegal hootch. The 1920s thus witnessed the debut in Sioux City of Organized Crime. A criminal underworld element, distinctively Italian, Greek and Irish, and with ties to the Chicago, Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City Mob, quickly moved to seize control of this highly profitable illegal business. Virtually all of the openly defiant taverns-- as well as newly opened "speakeasies"-- were either directly owned by or in alliance with and dependent upon one of three criminal gangs: Italian/Sicilian, Greek and Irish bootleggers. The Italian mobsters had direct ties to both the Chicago (Capone) and Kansas City (Civella) crime families, as well as ties to lesser known La Cosa Nostra elements in Omaha, Nebraska and with Des Moines, Iowa Mafia Don Louis Fratta (AKA: "Lew Farrell"), who subsequently became one of the largest beer distributors in the Midwest after repeal. Beer, wine and liquor smuggling usually originated in Kansas City and Omaha, although some was imported from Canada through Minnesota and the Dakotas. Many a young Sioux City boy with a fast car and strong nerves made the overnight runs carrying trunk-loads of liquor and beer from Kansas City, or from illegal stills in the Missouri Ozarks. The terminus for such large deliveries was South Sioux City, Nebraska-- a five-minute drive from downtown Sioux City across the old Combination Bridge spanning the Missouri River-- where the mobsters cached the liquor and where a tiny police force could easily be avoided-- or paid off in cash or booze (It did not hurt either that James Vincenzo Capone-- Alias Richard 'Two Gun' Hart-- Al's older brother-- was serving as a Nebraska State Revenue Enforcement Officer as well as a State Sheriff in Dakota County at the time). From there, the booze would be smuggled aross the Missouri River caseload by caseload, barrel by barrel, in the backs of trucks or in the trunks of mobster cars in midnight deliveries. A City Hall led by Socialist Mayor Wallace Short pompously vowed to crack down on speakeasies, but the Police Department and Commissioner of Public Safety-- yet again turning a blind eye-- simply worked out a system whereby each illegal tavern owner would be arrested monthly, fined $100 and released to continue, business as usual. It can be safely assumed that the collected fines-- or a portion of them-- found their way into the pockets of Sioux City Police patrolmen as well as corrupt City Commissioners. Normally, police raids on speakeasies were not the result of dilligent police work; quite the opposite. If the Italians had a vendetta against the Greeks, or the Greeks against the Irish, the bootleggers would tip off the cops that the rival mob was scheduled to make a delivery of booze coming across from Nebraska on a particular night. The police showed no favoritism in busting up Italian, Greek and Irish - owned/allied establishments. But such raids were relatively rare, often conducted at the urging of federal revenue officers, and they were ineffectual in shutting down the profitable liquor trade. The city was, in fact, profiting from the illegal trade. Bootlegging liquor into Sioux City continued well past the Repeal of Prohibition for the simple reason that "liquor by the drink" continued to be illegal in Iowa beer taverns well into the 1950s. Consequently, many hungry depression era high school drop-outs turned to bootlegging for the mobs as a way to escape the poverty of the Great Depression, and beyond. Things did not begin to change until 1954, when Sioux City voters at last threw out the corrupt politicians and along with them the City Commissioner system that had protected underworld rackets for nearly 100 years in favor of a council-city manager form of government. But after-hours taverns continued to flourish in Sioux City-- aided by official state-mandated 3.2 percent alcohol restrictions on beer and the ban on "liquor by the drink"-- and thus after hours bars are, in fact, still in evidence there today. You just have to know somebody...

. For decades an anonymous donor calling himself "Mickey Finn" sent candy and other treats to the Sioux City jail for delivery to prisoners at Christmas time. The goods were always accompanied by a short note written in poor grammar. A former down an outer himself? Perhaps a wealthy uptown family member? Nobody knows.

In 1932 and 1933 a farmers strike occupied the city for some time, preventing food shipments in protest of very low agricultural prices.

A major scandal erupted in Sioux City in 1935, two years after the Volstead Prohibition Act was repealed, when it was discovered that corrupt Iowa state officials-- including the Iowa State Attorney General and leaders of the Iowa State Alcohol Control Board-- were operating a profitable extortion scheme to offer "protection" to local Sioux City tavern owners in exchange for payoff money. The Attorney General was arrested, tried and convicted in the Woodbury County Courthouse. It seems that the legalization of alcohol only provided corrupt state officials waiting in the wings an opportunity to profit from Sioux City's profound love of alcoholic beverages-- control over which had, until recently been the sole domain of organized bootleggers.

With war clouds on the horizon in Europe, Company L, 133rd Iowa Infantry Regiment was called to active duty in 1941. Upon mobilization, the 133rd Infantry was made a part of the U.S. 34th ("Red Bull") Infantry Division. Most members of Company L were among the Division's units that were sent to Londonderry, Northern Ireland early in the war. From Northern Ireland, the unit sailed for the Mediterranean Theater, where it saw its first combat in North Africa. In the first major U.S. offensive ground action against Germany in World War Two, the 34th Division was ambushed and badly mauled by German Panzer and mechanized infantry units at Kasserine Pass, Tunisia, in 1943. The division suffered horrendous casualties, including many POWs. Later reconstituted, the 34th saw subsequent combat in Italy.

Early in World War Two, the U.S. Army established a major training base at Sioux City, located at Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, 8 miles south of downtown. New, large runways were constructed to facilitate heavy bomber operations, and the Sioux City Army Air Corps Base became one of the prime locations for B-17 heavy bomber basic flight qualification training as well as home to various support and maintenance units. Hollywood actor and Pilot-Captain (later Colonel) Jimmy Stewart was posted to Sioux City with his squadron in 1943, where he and his crew completed their initial B-17 qualification prior to deployment overseas. Just following the war, in December of 1946, the 185th Iowa Air National Guard unit was established at Sioux City.

On December 14, 1949, the large Swift & Company packing house, located north of the Sioux City Stockyards and adjacent to the Floyd River channel, suddenly exploded, killing 21 Swift employees. The cause of the disaster was never fully confirmed, but the explosion was believed to have been caused by a leaking gas pipe.

In 1950 Sioux City had a population of about 84,000.

In the spring of 1952 the Missouri River rushed out of its banks and inundated downtown Sioux City. Many area communities were also flooded. It was in the aftermath of the 1952 flood that numerous cases of polio were reported in Sioux City and throughout the tri-state area. The polio epidemic hit this region of the country especially hard and lasted until vaccine was developed to combat the disease in the late 1950s.

On June 8, 1953, the Floyd River again flooded when a torrential downpour in the Sheldon, Iowa area sent a wall of water down into the lower valley. Fourteen people lost their lives. This flood was a major impetus for the Floyd River flood control project, including the building of a straightened, rock-lined channel and high levee through the city. The flood-prone [Bottoms"] neighborhood was razed for this project in 1962.

In 1962 Sioux City was named an All America City by the National Civic League.

The Sioux City Chamber and other leading civic groups organized River Cade, a week-long celebration of Summer and Sioux City history in 1964. The event has been held along the Missouri River front ever since, marked by an official street parade, a carnival, boat races, children's events and a grand ball.

In 1967, with the Vietnam War escalating under the Johnson Administration, the U.S Naval Reserve Construction Battalion (SEABEEs), based at Sioux City Naval Reserve Training Center, was called to active duty and deployed as part of Naval Construction Battalion (NCB) 2 to Danang, South Vietnam. These Sioux City Navy men frequently served under direct enemy sniper and artillery fire while engaged in building bases for the Navy and Marine Corps in the Danang area during their 13 month deployment. They served bravely, suffered casualties and returned with honor to their peacetime jobs as Sioux City construction men.

In February 1968, in direct response to the seizure by North Korea of a U.S. Navy surveillance vessel off the coast of North Korea, the 185th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Iowa Air National Guard, based in Sioux City, was activated for federal service. The squadron deployed to Phu Cat Air Base, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Members of the unit served with distinction in combat during their 12-month overseas deployment. The 185th suffered both killed in action and missing in action casualties before deactivation and return to Sioux City.

Likewise in 1968, Headquarters & Headquarters Company, along with Company L, 133rd Infantry, Iowa National Guard based at Sioux City, was also placed on alert and sent into federal service at Fort Carson Colorado following the Pueblo Incident. Although anxious to deploy overseas as a fighting unit, the Iowa Guard troops were sent to Vietnam piecemeal, as replacement troops. Some members of the Guard, including Military Policemen, deployed to South Korea. At least three Sioux City Guard members were killed in action in Vietnam during the war.

The 1970s witnessed a second, much more problematic decade of urban renewal in downtown Sioux City (see the "South Bottoms"). With advocacy primarily from a handful of non-native city urban planning staffers, and powerful executives of Sioux City's largest construction company-- who had a clear conflict of interest in the matter-- the citizenry permitted this ill-fated effort to go forth despite the total absence of valid historical, archeological or environmental impact studies or consideration for the businesses or people that would be displaced. By the end of the decade, much of historical Lower Fourth Street distict had been gutted, while the city had little to show for its efforts save four rather ugly parking ramps and a number of empty lots and deep holes in the ground. Meanwhile, all but a scant 2 blocks of the irreplaceable architecture of Lower Fourth Street's historic buildings disappeared forever. (See "Historic Fourth Street"). It took nearly another decade to rebuild the area-- though predicatably, with the primary lucrative contracts being awarded to Sioux City's largest construction company.

Labor unrest erupted yet again in Sioux City in the early 1970s with a series of strikes by union meatcutters, laborers and allied trades against the Iowa Beef Processor (IBP) Dakota City, Nebraska plant. After years of fruitless negotiations, management finally locked out union laborers, erected a shanty town of cinderblock houses on the company compound and imported Mexican laborers. This act, and the concurrent departure of the Zenith TV manufacturing plant, served as a wake-up call to the Woodbury County Labor Council, which had wielded considerable political power in its defense of Sioux City's primarilly blue-collar citizenry for generations. The streamlining of meat production processes-- as pioneered by IBP Corporation-- and the amalgamation of job tasks, revolutionized the industry in a way that would have major repercussions for Sioux City. Within 30 years, the meatpacking industry-- the industry that virtually "built" Sioux City-- would all but disappear within the boundaries of Sioux City, and along with it the once-dominant Sioux City Stockyards. "Clean" industries, including manufacturing of computers, would emerge to take its place. This not only changed the culture and attitudes of city residents but demographics as well. While this was a traumatic industrial transition, most residents would agree that the changes have been very healthy for a city that was once black-balled by business developers as a tough, strike-prone, unskilled blue collar, pro-labor town. This is not to denigrate the contributions of Labor, which won many basic working rights for all Americans in several landmark strikes in Sioux City in the first half of the 20th Century. But the influx of multinational corporations such as IBP and Gateway, their business philosophies and global outlook, have clearly transformed Sioux City to a cleaner and less violent city.

On July 28, 1986 an F4 tornado struck areas west and south of Sioux City, destroying one of the four power generation plants at Port Neal, six miles south of the Sioux City airport. Fortunately, no one was killed and the tornado avoided heavily populated areas.

On July 19, 1989 a Douglas DC-10 carrying United Airlines flight 232 crashed in Sioux City killing 112 but due to extraordinary efforts by the pilot and his crew, 184 on board survived. They were further aided by the advanced disaster training that the city had recently completed for its emergency workers. This event was memorialized in a made-for-TV movie "Crash Landing - the Rescue of Flight 232" starring Charlton Heston as Captain Al Haynes in 1991.

In 1990 Sioux City was again named an All America City by the National Civic League.

On December 13, 1994, an explosion killed four and injured 18 at the Terra International ammonium nitrate plant at Port Neal. The explosion released a cloud of anhydrous ammonia and nitric acid, forcing evacuations in nearby areas such as Salix. Fortunately, the toxic cloud stayed south of Sioux City.

In 2002, Sioux City Growth Organization (SCGO) was created. It's mission statement is "To inspire every generation to create a positive impact on the future of our community, promote promise, and show appreciation by bringing together voices for the common good, develop leaders, and take an active role." Kyle Adema was SCGO's first President, followed by Kyle Kelly. Lisa Burkholder is the current President.

Geography

Sioux City is located at [42°29′53″N, 96°23′45″W] (42.497957, -96.395705)^{[Geographic references#1GR1]}. Sioux City is at an altitude of 1,135 feet above sea level.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 144.9 km² (56.0 mi²). 141.9 km² (54.8 mi²) of it is land and 3.0 km² (1.2 mi²) of it (2.06%) is water.

Metropolitan area

As of the 2000 census, the Sioux City metropolitan area had 143,053 residents in four counties; the population was estimated at 142,571 in 2005 [link]. As defined by the Office of Management and Budget, the counties comprising the metropolitan area are (in descending order of population):

• Woodbury County, Iowa
• Dakota County, Nebraska
• Union County, South Dakota
• Dixon County, Nebraska

Two of these counties -- Union and Dixon -- were added to the metro area in 2003. In reality, only Woodbury, Dakota, and Union counties contain any metropolitan character; Dixon County is entirely rural.

Sioux City is considered the hub of Siouxland, a 30 to 50 mile radius area round Sioux City.

Demographics

As of the census^{[Geographic references#2GR2]} of 2000, there were 85,013 people, 32,054 households, and 21,091 families residing in the city. The population density was 599.0/km² (1,551.3/mi²). There were 33,816 housing units at an average density of 238.3/km² (617.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 85.23% White, 2.41% African American, 1.95% Native American, 2.82% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 5.27% from other races, and 2.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.89% of the population.

There were 32,054 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.1% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.2% were non-families. 27.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.14.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.1% under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 95.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,429, and the median income for a family was $45,751. Males had a median income of $31,385 versus $22,470 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,666. About 7.9% of families and 11.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.0% of those under age 18 and 7.8% of those age 65 or over.

Neighborhoods, commercial districts, and suburbs

City neighborhoods

• Leeds is a mostly residential neighborhood northeast of downtown Sioux City, centered near 41st Street at Floyd Boulevard. Leeds, was initially envisioned and planned as a "British-style" industrial center during the last of Sioux City's boom years to attract and house new industries. Although annexed by the city of Sioux City in 1890, Leeds retained its distinctive, separate community identity for more than a century, even sponsoring its own semi-pro baseball team, the Red Sox. Well into the twentieth century, residents were apt to say they hailed from "Leeds, Iowa" rather than Sioux City. Its high school, and later junior high school mascot was the Lancer. With budget cuts in 1980, the junior high school became a second elementary school for the area and with the closing of its secondary school Leeds lost another symbol of its unique identity. The suburb was the home of several major manufacturing companies for decades, including the American Popcorn Company and Sioux Tools Manufacturing Company. North-South streets in Leeds are named after American presidents.
• Kelly Park/Cole's Addition Officially known as Cole's Addition, this is a blue-collar residential area centered on the municipal park of the same name and situated directly east of Highway 75 and spanning several blocks, from East 7th to about East 11th Street. One of Sioux City's older residential neighborhoods, residents of Kelly Park were always fiercely independent-- a fact perhaps attributed to the neighborhood's isolation from other city residential districts. Separated by Highway 75 from the worst part of the old South Bottoms, one desiring to travel from Kelly Park to downtown in 1955 would have to drive through the most horrendous of rundown slums of the old South Bottoms to get there. Urban renewal did not improve Kelly Park's isolation, and probably made it more isolated. When the Bottoms were torn down and burned out, what remained in that huge expanse east of Kelly Park was the new Floyd River channel and a huge industrial park. The high bluffs to the south as well as the Chicago & Northwestern railroad right of way effectively isolated Kelly Park from Greenville and Morningside. It once was a thriving neighborhood, though it shared some of the same tough reputation as the old Bottoms, even though Kelly Park had much nicer homes. Kelly Park, like The East End, was not a neighborhood for strange kids to be in after dark. Today it includes three trailer parks east of Highway 75. It has been hit hard with the closing of its neighborhood grocer and elementary school.
• Springdale is a smaller neighborhood along 28th Street on the east side of Sioux City, near the Floyd River.
• Riverside is a flat, blue collar residential area on the west side of Sioux City, along the banks and floodplain of the Big Sioux River. Riverside is historically significant as the site of original land holdings of the first white settler in the territory-- Theophile Bruguier-- whose farm included hundreds of acres running from the mouth of the Big Sioux River northwest toward the South Dakota state line-- that area which today comprises virtually the entire suburb of Riverside. Not surprisingly, the area was settled by people of predominently French-Canadian heritage-- descendants of early 19th century American Fur Company trappers, packers and "voyageurs" who made their livings along the adjoining Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers. This French-Canadian heritage is still proudly in evidence in some pockets of Riverside, and even more so in the nearby communities of North Sioux City, McCook Lake, Jefferson and Elk Point, in neighboring Union County, South Dakota. The heart and soul of Riverside for decades was Riverside Park, where Bruguier's cabin was discovered and restored in the 1930s. Riverside Park was at one time the favorite location for large family picnics. The suburb had its own high school, Riverside High, until the opening of the new West High School in the 1970s. Riverside has a significant commercial district, although much of it has seen better days and there has been little new commercial investment activity in Riverside over the past 30 years.
• Morningside is the blanket term for the hilly southeast quadrant of Sioux City. Roughly demarcated by old Highway 75 (South Lewis Blvd.) on the west and old Highway 20 (Gordon Drive) on the north, it was originally a streetcar suburb in the late 19th century. Morningside was originally promoted by the entrepreneur and settler [Edwin Peters], who made his home near the original commercial center of the suburb, known as "Peter's Park". Peter's Park was also the location of the fine Victorian home of [Arthur Garretson], which was situated at the eastern terminus of the Sioux City Elevated Railway. For many years, the elegant Garretson mansion served as the Morningside Public Library. However, in the 1960's it was razed amidst much controversy, and replaced by an undistiguished modern structure. Peter's Park is also home to Morningside College, founded in 1894. Today Morningside is a large sprawling area of Sioux City containing numerous distinctive neighborhoods. As a whole, Morningside is a mix of older residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors, as well as home to most of the city's new retail and residential growth. Peter's Park is the historical commercial center of Morningside, although a boom of commercial development in the Southern Hills area over the past 20 years has dwarfed the Peter's Park commercial area. Morningside's East High School is regionally famous for its music and choral programs, and counts three nationally-prominent jazz musicians-- Jim Aton, Dick Aton, and Adam Schroeder-- among its graduates.
• The East End is a neighborhood on the far eastern side of Morningside. Land comprising this neighborhood was originally purchased and developed by early Sioux City packing house owner and land investor James Booge. The name is derived from the fact that this was the easternmost terminus - end of the line-- for street cars and buses travelling from all points west. The neighborhood is generally defined by South Maple Street on the west, Orleans Avenue on the north, Glenn Avenue on the south and the old Milwaukee Road railroad right of way, on the east. The first homes were simple one-story bungalows built in the 1920s, but later a variety of larger and more sophisticated homes were built. For many years a small mom and pop grocery and Carlson's Service Station anchored a small commercial area, which was situated at the point where Morningside Avenue turned southeast to become Iowa Highway 141. This has historically been considered to be one of the toughest, roughest neighborhoods in Sioux City, justified perhaps by a large amount of truancy and juvenile delinquency, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s. At one time in the early 1960s, the East End boasted more than a dozen sons and daughters serving court sentences ranging from house arrest to time in the Iowa State Boys and Girls juvenile reformatories. A deranged murderer/prowler/window-peeper/stalker named Kenneth Muff lived there and terrorized the neighborhood anonymously as the "East End Prowler" for ten years before finally being caught "red handed" when Woodbury County Deputy Sheriff Jerry Phelps, Sioux City Police Sergeant Herb Bonham and a private citizen (all residents of the neighborhood) took him into custody shortly after Muff brutally murdered an elderly East End woman by stabbing her 84 times with a butcher knife-- on the night before Halloween, 1961. The East End was also the spawning ground for notorious criminals "Red" Cours and Richard "Dickie" Spence, both of whom spent years inside prison for a variety of crimes, ranging from armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, jail-breaking and interstate flight to rape. Today the East End is much quieter, and just beyond it to the southeast is a new center of development, with acreages and high-end homes being built on former farmland near the Whispering Creek Golf Club.
• Polack Hill is a Morningside neighborhood that is home to a large concentration of Polish-American and Lithuanian-American residents. The district is situated on one of the highest bluffs in the city at the western-most edge of Morningside, and is bounded roughly by Pulaski Park and South Lewis Blvd. on the west, South Rustin St. on the east, Macomb Avenue on the south and Gordon Drive on the north. The center of Polack Hill is Dodge Avenue. The the bluff's edge affords one of the most spectacular views of Sioux City. Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and other Eastern European immigrants attracted to Sioux City by work opportunities in the meat packing industry developed this fine middle-class neighborhood from the 1920s onward. Many of these families moved up from the somewhat grittier South Bottoms to build their homes here. A strong Polish identity still marks this neighborhood. Until recently, this neighborhood was anchored by St. Francis Catholic Church, which sponsored ethnic Polish social and religious events each year. However, the Diocese of Sioux City has closed St. Francis Parish and the nearby (Lithuanian) St. Casimir Parish (designed by William L. Steele), amidst much controversy and ill-feeling. The term "Polack Hill" is not considered pejorative by its residents, who are extremely proud of their neat, tidy homes, their virtually crime-free neighborhood, their heritage, customs and traditions.
• Cecilia Park is a small district in west-central Morningside dominated by a fine municipal park, a traffic turnabout and a small but thriving commercial area. Cecilia Park lies some 1.5 miles north of Peter's Park, at the northwestern end of Morningside Avenue.
• Southern Hills is the newest area of residential development in Morningside, and arguably also the dominant commercial district of the city (See Commercial Districts). Beautiful custom-designed estate-style residences located in Southern Hills now easily rival some of the most beautiful traditional areas of the city, including Country Club.
• Greenville is a neighborhood corresponding to the lower Bacon Creek valley along Old Correctionville Road, and also includes residences and small businesses along the original Floyd River channel just upstream from the Stockyards. It is home to historic Floyd Cemetery.
• The South Bottoms is a now non-existent neighborhood that is of considerable historical interest. A [Bottoms Memorial] was created in 1997 to honor the immigrants and families who made this area of town their home. The South Bottoms was bounded on the north by East 18th Street and on the south by the Missouri River. The east edge was the Stock Yards, the Floyd River and Highway 75. The west edge approached Floyd Boulevard to the North and Virginia Street to the South, closer to the Missouri River. In addition, the Bottoms included some horrific slum pockets, including some areas along Division and Fowler Streets running north-south and a pocket situated east of the Floyd channel, and lying north of East 11th and South of East 18th streets and consisting of Chambers, Prospect, Pavonia and Adel streets. Some of the houses in these slum pockets were nothing more than tar paper shacks. Anyone travelling from Greenville or Morningside out to the old Sioux City Soo's Baseball Park via Division Street and westward on East 18th Street in those days vividly remembers this section of the Bottoms (and probably also remembers rolling up the windows and locking the car doors as they approached this run down eyesore). Ironically, a few of these most dumpy of Bottoms houses around Pavonia Street were not destroyed in the urban renewal project at all, and remained long afterward as testimony to one of the city's most blighted area.. Although this area was vexed by flooding by the Floyd and Missouri Rivers, the South Bottoms was home for mostly poor working families. Many immigrants, including Polish, Italian/Sicilian, Bohemian, Lithuanian, Irish, Scandinavian, and Mexican families lived in the area, along with Native Americans and African Americans. Residents usually walked to the factories and meatpacking plants where they worked. The South Bottoms also served as home to numerous taverns, after-hours clubs, and houses of ill-repute, and was home to a distinct Italian underworld element that actively engaged in illicit activities for decades. For a couple of generations, one prominent Sicilian family with Chicago Mob connections and which controlled underworld activities in Sioux City retained their family home in the Bottoms, from where they managed their largest nightclub operation at 11th & Steuben Streets. South Bottoms was razed in the early 1960's as part of the Floyd River flood control project.
• Rose Hill is a neighborhood characterized by large, century-old houses. The area has been in gradual decline but there is a revitalization happening. It is roughly bordered by 12th street to the south, McDonald Street to the west, Jackson Street to the east, and Grandview Park to the north. It is dotted with ethnic restaurants, laundromats and trendy coffee houses, tattoo parlors, pool halls, tiny art galleries, and import shops.
• Gilman Terrace is a neighborhood lining the 19th Street corridor as it cuts through the bluff and descends westward from the Heights toward Hamilton Boulevard. It formerly included one of the city's most popular parks with a public athletic field and outdoor skating rink in winter, as well as Heelan High School's Memorial Field. Today it is home to a strip mall and Memorial Field.
• The Heights includes the grand older neighborhood between Grandview Park and Hamilton Blvd., including East and West Solway, Kennedy Drive, and McDonald Drive. These are large estates from the 1890s-1940s including Prairie School, Victorian, Georgian, and Colonial homes.
• The West Side is the colloquial reference to areas west of Wesley Way, where the numbered streets are called "West 4th Street", "West 14th Street" etc. It is a mix of low income and middle class residential neighborhoods. The area's high school West High School, has a national award winning dance team. Henry Hey, a jazz musician currently touring with Rod Stewart, is a graduate. The Westside is also home to the headquarters of the ["Junior League of Sioux City"], a chapter of the international women's volunteer organization which has been a pillar of the community since 1921. Among the Junior League projects is the Children's Hands-On Gallery in the Sioux City Art Center, the Sioux City Public Museum, the upcoming Children's Museum which will be part of the Public Museum's relocation downtown, the refurbishing of Cook Park, and numerous other community projects.
• Smith-Villa Is a lovely old neighborhood on the upper west side generally bounded by West 20th Street on the north, Villa Avenue on the south (some would argue that Smith-Villa extends all the way south to West 4th Street), Center Street and Perry Creek on the east and West Steet on the west. The heart of this lovely old section of elegant 19th century homes and more modest 20th century bunglows is the former Smith Elementary School and the adjoining Children's Park which, with its municipally operated wading pool, was a very popular summertime gathering point for westside children in years past. The marvelous old red granite stone school was formerly the mansion of Doctor Smith, a prominent Sioux City physician in the 19th Century. Interestingly, all of the neighborhood's north-south streets are named after Doctor Smith's children: Rebecca, Isabella, George, Ross and Myrtle.
• Prospect Hill located on the lower west side, is one of Sioux City's oldest residential neighborhoods, situated within walking distance of downtown. It is bordered on the west by Cook Street, on the north by West Third Street, and on the east and south by the bluff's edge. A [monument] erected by Christian missionaries is situated at the top of the hill. From the top of the hill one can get a beautiful panoramic view of the city as well as South Sioux City, Nebraska, Union County South Dakota and the Missouri River. From the time of the Civil War to the 1920s, a group of shanties and run-down houses at the base of the east face of Prospect Hill, just west of Wesley Way, was referred to as "Hell's Half-Acre" (see "The Soudan and Hell's Half Acre" below), and contained houses of prostitution as well as gambling and opium dens.
• The Near North Side is the area just north of the main downtown business district, extending from 7th or 8th street up to 14th street, and bordered by Floyd Boulevard to the east and McDonald Street to the west. While it is sometimes thought of as a blighted neighborhood of gang activity and meth production, it is also an area of pride and hope and the most culturally diverse part of Sioux City. One hallmark of the area is the [Mary Treglia Community Center] which provides after school and summer programs, English lessons and Sioux City's community-wide bartering program which is patterned after the one in St. Louis. The Cathedral of the Epiphany, with its impressive twin spires, and adjacent Bishop Heelan Catholic High School are located in the Near North Side. The great stone "Castle on the Hill", [Central High School], is likewise in this neighborhood; it boasts of many famous gradutates including actors MacDonald Carey and Sharon Farrell, and has recently been converted to a residential complex. The neighborhood near and to the north of Central High School was home to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe beginning approximately a century ago, including the family of Esther "Eppie" and Paulline "PoPo" Friedman, twin sisters and 1936 graduates of Central High School who are better known as Dear Abby and Ann Landers. A traditional wooden synagogue, designed by William L. Steele, is still present here, and the Jewish Community Center is a cultural focal point. At the eastern edge of this district, immigrants from Lebanon/Syria, Ireland, Greece, and other countries settled in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Lebanese community was centered around St. Thomas Orthodox Church; the parish continues to be very active, and sponsors a popular yearly "Syrian Dinner" as a fundraiser. The Irish and other Roman Catholics in the neighborhood were served by St. Joseph Catholic Church and grade school. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church has long been a center of Hellenic life in Siouxland; following a fire, the sanctuary was recently completely redecorated with handpainted Byzantine-style [iconography] and gold leaf. While the ethnic face of this neighborhood has changed recently to include more people of Latino and Southeast Asian backgrounds, the churches remain a focal point of social activity.

• The North Side is the colloquial reference to the mostly residential neighborhood north of about 18th Street and ending near North High School. North High School is a ten time Iowa State jazz band champion and counts among its graduates Ryan Kisor and Scott Hesse, nationally known jazz artists. Large late-19th century mansions built in the Georgian, Queen Anne, and Victorian styles stand along Pierce, Jackson, and Nebraska Streets in this neighborhood. The Sioux City Public Museum, located in the historic [John Peirce] house, is a fine example of a Victorian home; it was built from Sioux Falls rose quartzite in 1890.
• Indian Hills starting at 27th and Cheyenne Boulevard, extending to North Outer Drive (known colloquially as Outer Belt) to the north and Floyd Boulevard to the east. Upscale homes were built between the 1960s and 1980s.
• Country Club is bordered by Hamilton Boulevard to the east, 36th Street to the South, and extends up the Perry Creek valley to the Plymouth County line. This is arguably the wealthiest neighborhood in Sioux City, characterized by traditional mansions and sprawling ranch style houses.

Commercial districts

• Downtown is the main business district. It extends from the Riverfront up to about 8th Street, and is flanked by the West Side and by Floyd Boulevard. Many buildings of architectural and historical interest are located here, perhaps most notably the [Woodbury County Courthouse]. The Courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark. It was designed in the Prairie School style by Sioux City architect William L. Steele in collaboration with Minneapolis architects William Purcell and George Elmslie. Steele, a protege of Louis Sullivan, was active in Sioux City during the early twentieth century and has a large body of work represented here. Also located downtown is the [Orpheum Theater], originally designed by the Chicago architects Rapp and Rapp, and built in 1927. The Orpheum was magnificently renovated in 2001 and has since hosted Broadway shows, international musical performers, and on special occasions, the [Sioux City Symphony Orchestra]. The [Tyson Events Center] is located near the riverfront, and is a 10,000-seat venue for conventions, entertainment, and sports events; it is the home of the [Sioux City Musketeers] professional hockey team.
• [Historic Fourth Street] (also called ["Lower Fourth Street"]) is a district on the east side of the main downtown area that is enjoying a renaissance. It is home to many of the older commercial buildings in the city, many of them designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, and of considerable architectural importance. From the 1880s to the early 20th century, this was a high-property-value district, containing magnificent buildings such as the [Peavey Grand Opera House], the New Oxford Hotel, the Plymouth Block, the Chicago House Hotel & Convention Center, and many other grand and architectually unique structures. Until urban renewal in the late 1960s and 1970s, the street anchored a unique neighborhood that extended for seven blocks westward from Wall Street to Jackson Street, and north-south between Third and Fifth Sts. Here it was that the International Workers of the World (IWW) staged a world-famous street convention and strike in 1914. From the 1920s to the 1960s, however-- as buildings aged, major tenants departed and property values began to fall-- this district slowly but increasingly began to accumulate less desirable tenants. As more and more of the original tenants moved out, they were replaced by numerous beer taverns; meanwhile, several of the hotels transitioned from their former 3- and 4-star status into cheap rooming houses and seedy houses of prostitution. The population of the neighborhood increasingly began to include transients, pickpockets, grifters, alcoholics and street walkers. From that point onward, Lower Fourth Street became a "tenderloin district" that largely defined Sioux City's dark and fabled image as "Little Chicago." This district was known far and wide in the Midwest as the center of wide-open vice and underworld activity, including gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor and drugs. Dozens of taverns, after-hours joints, mom and pop cafes, pensioner hotels, candy stores, movie houses, pool halls and clothing stores dotted Lower Fourth Street and the surrounding streets, and the district was populated by a wide assortment of colorful characters and underworld figures. By the 1960s, many of the commercial buildings had fallen into serious disrepair and the seediest section of Lower Fourth St was the mission district, centered in the 800 block. This included all the area from Third to Fifth Streets running east-west and between Jones and Jennings Streets running north-south. Here, the Sioux City Gospel Mission (flanked by two rough and tumble beer taverns) anchored the neighborhood, along with the once-grand Chicago House Hotel (built 1905), which offered refuge for down and outers not generally acknowledged or cared for by the rest of polite society. Contrary to its reputation as a den of iniquity (an ill-informed opinion expressed by outsiders with little knowledge of the neighborhood) the Chicago House served a much more important role, offering cheap lodging for aging veterans and single pensioners on fixed incomes. The Mission, just a few paces east, offered food for body and soul. Larry and Bertha Barr, kind-hearted, hard-working restaurant owners, operated a lunch counter on the ground floor of the Chicago House for some 30 years and never turned a hungry man away for lack of funds. A lot of dishwashers passed through their kitchen, however. A somewhat more pleasant section of Lower Fourth Street could be found just a few blocks east, in the 1000 block, where it intersected with Court Street. This was a bustling commercial intersection linking two major north-south and east-west thoroughfares. While this area was also dotted with rough beer taverns, and a few "questionable hotels," it continued to serve as home to several wholesale and jobber businesses, as well as the Aalfs Manufacturing plant. Despite local efforts to save the unique architecture of this "original downtown" area, all but two blocks of Lower Fourth Street fell under the wrecking ball and the bulldozer at the hands of the city in partnership with a variety of on-again, off-again developers-- most of whom proved unimaginative. By the 1990's, the city finally expressed some interest in the historical and architectural importance of the district, and this brought an economic and cultural revival, with coffeeshops, bookstores, art galleries, music venues, and restaurants moving into the neighborhood. Sadly, however, what remains is only a three block-- Iowa to Jennings-- fraction of a storied neighborhood that formerly contained Sioux City's most valuable historical buildings and some of its most interesting citizens.
• The Soudan and Hell's Half Acre. Open prostitution was a hallmark of Sioux City life and operated as a cottage industry from the earliest riverboat days through the 1950s. No longer existent, the Soudan and Hell's Half Acre were Sioux City's two most notorious red-light districts from the 1850s to the early 20th century-- although there were several other such districts (like the old original Cook Park area between West Fourth and West Fifth Streets and West Seventh Street-- both on the lower west side-- lower Pearl Street downtown, and a few houses in the old South Bottoms). Originally the Soudan consisted of houses along both sides of Third Street and extended for nearly a mile westward, past lower Pearl Street to the base of Prospect Hill, where some dozen shanties-- known as Hell's Half Acre-- had served as prostitution houses since early riverboat days (see Prospect Hill). The center of activity for the longest period of the Soudan's existence was the base of Jones Street and south of Third Street. For many years the Soudan was as well known as New Orleans' fabled Storyville, and the saying among local teenaged farm boys was that they had visited the Soudan to "see the Elephant." In the 1880s, a prohibitionist preacher named George Haddock was ambushed and gunned down on Water Street between Third and Fourth Streets, a stone's throw from Hell's Half Acre, one block from lower Pearl Street and a few blocks from the Soudan. In the early 1900s a Catholic missionary priest resigned and fled the city out of despair caused by so many teenaged streetwalkers in the city. By the early 1900s, City fathers were so embarrassed over the Soudan's presence in the middle of downtown that when plans were developed to lower the elevated railway tracks to street level, they proposed evicting the residents and relocating them to a "segregated" area at so-called "Boyer Park," on the riverfront and concealing the activity behind a high board fence. This would have created a de facto prostitution "ghetto" in Sioux City. There is no evidence that the City followed through on this plan, and while records are scant, it is likely that a major portion of the Soudan was destroyed by the great Christmas fire of December 23, 1904. As late as 1913, however, local newspapers still complained about "bed bug houses" of prostitution lining the south side of Third Street, as well as a similar area of "red dives" situated along lower Pearl Street (according to legend, "Pearl" was one of the local working girls) and along West Seventh Street on the Lower West Side. A little later, a local reporter wrote that Sioux City didn't seem to have any single concentration of such houses, but it certainly had "a lot of questionable hotels." Many of these questionable hotels-- located in Lower Fourth Street, including The Swan, in the 800 block of Fourth Street, and the formerly grand New Oxford, in the 1100 block of Lower Fourth Street-- had certainly seen better days by that era. They became active prostitution dens by the 1930s and into the 1950s as the area formerly known as the Soudan was razed to make way for several industrial warehouses and wholesaler distributor companies along the Third Street corridor from Jackson to Virginia Street. The area south of Third Street running to the riverfront was completely razed and rebuilt in the 1940s and 1950s to accommodate the I-29 highway corridor as well as parallel Highway 20 (Gordon Drive); today this district houses a railroad right of way, the Sioux City Convention Center, a couple of modern motels, several chain restaurants, a car dealership and other commercial businesses. At one time, however, the Soudan was the stuff of legend and lore and no doubt contributed to Sioux City's one-time reputation as "Little Chicago."
• The Stockyards is an historically important district located along the original lower Floyd River channel. Formerly one of the largest livestock trading facilities in the world, the Sioux City Stockyards was also home to large meatpacking plants (or "packing houses"), including Armour and Company and Swift and Company, who employed a significant number of residents. In its heyday, the Stockyards commercial corridor included the historic Livestock Exchange Bank as well as the offices of cattle companies, tack-and-saddleries, boot and western wear stores, lumber yards and hardware stores, restaurants and saloons. Following the closure of most of the meatpacking plants, and of the livestock yards themselves, the area became inactive, with only a few small businesses remaining. However, recently a very large retail lumber and home improvement center opened here, possibly a harbinger of economic revitalization for the district.
• Southern Hills is a large, newer commercial area of shopping malls and self-standing restaurants, shops, banks, medical and dental clinics, and other service industries. Sioux City's largest shopping mall, "Southern Hills Mall," as well as several additional smaller strip malls anchor a thriving commercial district. It is located on the southern fringe of Morningside in the beautiful Loess Hills-- a ridgeline of post-glacial drift-based hills that extends almost interrupted north to south along the western edge of the state. This area began development in the 1970's and is still actively growing in the 2000's. To the south and east of the Southern Hills commercial area, many acreages and high-end homes are being built.

Suburbs

• South Sioux City, Nebraska is directly across the Missouri River in Dakota County. With nearly 12,000 residents, it is by far the largest suburb of Sioux City. It was an All America City in 2003. Two bridges -- the Veterans Memorial Bridge and the Interstate 129 bridge -- connect Sioux City with South Sioux City.
• Dakota City, Nebraska is just south of South Sioux City. It is the county seat of Dakota County. Large beef-processing plants are located in Dakota City.
• North Sioux City, South Dakota is just across the Big Sioux River in Union County. It is home to a number of casinos. It is also the home to several major industrial concerns, including Iams Pet Food, Interbake Foods, and Gateway, Inc., the computer company.
• Dakota Dunes, South Dakota is an unincorporated "master-planned community" just west of Sioux City in the extreme southeast corner of South Dakota. Construction began circa 1989. Expensive new homes, suburban-style office parks, and a country club golf course designed by Arnold Palmer characterize this area.
• Sergeant Bluff, Iowa is a mainly residential suburb adjacent to the southern city limits of Sioux City, less than a mile east of the Sioux City airport.

Parks, recreation, and locations of interest

• Stone State Park is in the northwest corner of the city, overlooking the South Dakota/Iowa border. Stone Park marks the northernmost extent of the Loess Hills, and is at the transition from clay bluffs and prairie to sedimentary rock hills and bur oak forest along the Iowa side of the Big Sioux River. Popular for decades with picnickers and day hikers, it has become a local hot spot for mountain biking since the late 1980's.

• [Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center] is a destination nature preserve for Woodbury County, and is located within the boundaries of Stone State Park. The butterfly garden is unique to the area; wild turkeys and white-tail deer are commonly sighted from the well-marked trails.

For many years from the 1920s through at least the mid-1930s, a deranged prowler occupied Stone Park. He dressed and acted like "Tarzan," moving cross-country through the expansive park, crying out at times with a high blood-curdling Tarzan-type scream. For more than 50 years, the local Boy Scout Council operated a large summer camp, Camp Kellogg, in the center of Stone Park (near Turtle Lake). Many an ex-Scout from the 1920s and 1930s testified to having seen and heard this character, who was fond of charging through the campground in the middile of the night, beating his chest like Tarzan and screaming at the top of his lungs.  He was the subject of more than one police foot chase through the rugged park, but his fate remains unknown.

• [Grandview Park] is located north of the downtown area, up from Rose Hill, between The Northside and The Heights. The [Municipal Bandshell] is located in the park. In summer, Sunday evening municipal band concerts are a longstanding Sioux City tradition. The Saturday in the Park music festival is held there annually. Behind the bandshell is an extensive rose garden with an elaborate arbor and trellises which has long been a popular site for outdoor weddings, prom and other special occasion photographs, and for children to play during the Sunday evening band concerts and other events.

• Pulaski Park is named for the Polish General Kazimierz Pułaski, who fought in the American Revolution. This park features baseball diamond facilities, and is located in western Morningside along old U.S. Highway 75 (South Lewis Blvd.). It is largely built on the filled lakebed of an old oxbow of the Missouri called Half Moon Lake, near the Stockyards. The neighborhood on the bluff overlooking the park was historically settled by Lithuanian and Polish immigrants, many of whom worked in the meatpacking industry during the early 20th century.

• [Latham Park] is located in an old residential area of Morningside, and is the only privately owned and maintained public park within the city limits. It was left in trust in 1937 under the terms of Clara Latham's will; her family had built the house on one acre of ground in 1915. The house and grounds are currently being restored by the Friends of Latham Park.

• The [Sergeant Floyd Monument] commemorates the burial site of U.S. Army Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only man to die on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It is a National Historic Landmark, with its prominent 100-foot obelisk situated on 23 acres of parkland, high on a river bluff with a splendid view of the Missouri River valley.
• [First Bride's Grave] is near the Sergeant Floyd monument, and located in Morningside's South Ravine Park. A short hike brings one to the stone monument which marks the final resting place of Rosalie Menard Leonais (d. 1865), the bride of Joseph Leonais in the first Christian wedding to take place in Sioux City.
• [War Eagle Park] is named for the Yankton Sioux chief Wambdi Okicize (d. 1851) who befriended early settlers. An impressive monument overlooks the confluence of the Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers; the sculpture represents the chief in his role as a leader and peacemaker, wearing the eagle feather bonnet and holding the peace pipe.
• [Riverside Park] is located on the banks of the Big Sioux River. One of the oldest recreational areas of the city, it is home to the Sioux City Boat Club and Sioux City Community Theater. The park is on land that once belonged to the first white settler in the area, Theophile Bruguier; his original [cabin] is preserved in the park.
• Bacon Creek Park is located northeast of Morningside and features fishing, paddleboats, and canoe rentals.
• Chris Larsen Park, informally known as "The Riverfront", is the launching point for the riverboat casino and includes the Anderson Dance Pavilion, the [Sergeant Floyd Riverboat Museum] and the [Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center], opened in 2004. Massive Missouri River development began in 2005 with the opening of the MLR Tyme Marina area, which includes Beverly's, an upscale restaurant.
• Golf courses, city parks, and aquatics: Sioux City is also home to several municipal public golf courses, including Floyd Park in Morningside, Green Valley near the Southern Hills, Sun Valley on the northern West Side, and Hidden Acres in nearby Plymouth County. Sioux City also has a number of private golf clubs, including Sioux City Country Club, Southern Hills Country Club, and Whispering Creek Golf Club. The city has over 1,132 acres of public parkland located at 53 locations, including the beautiful riverfront and many miles of recreation trails. Five quality public swimming pools/aquatics centers are located within Sioux City neighborhoods.
• The [Sioux City Public Museum] is located in a Northside neighborhood of fine Victorian mansions. The portico-and-gabled stone building was originally the home of the banker, [John Peirce], and was built in 1890. The museum features Native American, pioneer, early Sioux City, and natural history exhibits.
• The [Sioux City Art Center] was formed in 1938 as part of the WPA’s support of the arts. The Art Center is committed to supporting artists from Iowa and the greater Midwest. Also, the Center has a general program of acquisition of work by national and international artists, including important works by Thomas Hart Benton, Salvador Dalí, Käthe Kollwitz, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, James McNeil Whistler, and Grant Wood. It is located Downtown.
• The Sioux City Symphony Orchestra and The Sioux City Municipal Band were each formed in the early 1930s under the guidance and direction of Maestro [Leo Kucinski]. Under Kucinski's baton for most of its early history, the orchestra gradually developed into a highly respected, paid-professional Class B civic orchestra with a regular performing season. The orchestra's home is the beautiful Orpheum Theater, located downtown. The Municipal Band, with close kinship to the Orchestra, is also a paid-professional group that traces its origins to The Monahan Post 64 Band of the American Legion, in the 1920s. The Monahan Post Band became world-famous when it was selected as the "official" band of the American Legion in the mid-1920s. From its founding until the early 1930s, The Monahan Post Band made several tours that included concert appearances in New York, New Orleans and Paris. The home of the Municipal Band is the city band shell in Grandview Park on the city's north side. There, it performs a very popular Sunday afternoon "pops"-style concert series during the summer months, and it also performs other engagemens throughout the year. Sioux City's ability to produce highly gifted musicians for fine music of all styles can be attributed to its citizens' very strong and longstanding commitment to and financial investment in music education within both the public and private school systems. In the 1930s, Maestro Kucinski worked closely with Superindendent of Schools [M.G. Clark] to create the foundation for this nationally recognized public school music program. Additionally, Morningside College has long been home to a vital and energetic music department, which has served to contribute to the pool of fine musicians and music educators in Sioux City. Sioux City has an All-City Orchestra whose members are elementary grade students who participate by audition, and the Siouxland Youth Symphony, whose players are selected by competitive auditions from the junior schools and high schools in the area.

Transportation

Highways

• Interstate 29 runs north-south, connecting Sioux City to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Council Bluffs, Iowa. The interstate has a very short spur across the Missouri, Interstate 129. This spur connects with U.S. Highway 20 in South Sioux City.
• U.S. Highway 20 runs east-west, connecting Sioux City to O'Neill, Nebraska and Fort Dodge, Iowa.
• U.S. Highway 75 runs north-south, connecting Sioux City to Le Mars, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska.
• U.S. Highway 77 begins (or ends, depending on your perspective) in Sioux City, running south to Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Iowa Highway 12 runs north from the Riverside area of Sioux City, ending at Hawarden, Iowa.
• Woodbury D-25, formerly Iowa Highway 982, also called "old Highway 141" runs southeast from the "East End" Morningside area of Sioux City, ending at Smithland, Iowa.

Public transit

The Sioux City Transit System operates 11 bus routes throughout Sioux City and parts of South Sioux City and North Sioux City. It also provides para-transit service to the elderly, handicapped, and others with special transportation needs.

Aviation

Commercial air service is available via Sioux Gateway Airport/Colonel Bud Day Field (SUX). A smaller general-aviation airport, Martin Field (7K8), is located just west of South Sioux City.

The Sioux City city council has made several requests to the FAA to change its airport designation from SUX.

The airport was notably in the news for the July 19, 1989 United Airlines Flight 232 plane crash.

Railroads

Sioux City is a major railroad junction with Union Pacific lines coming from the north and south along with lines of the Canadian National and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroads. The small Dakota and Iowa Railroad also has a line into Sioux City.

From 1891 until 1899, Sioux City had an elevated railroad called the [Sioux City Elevated Railway] that operated between the Morningside area to the east and the central part of the city, spanning the low lying swamps and railyards that made travel difficult in that era.

An urban legend has it that for many years at the turn of the 20th century, an unidentified railroad brakeman working in the Sioux City yards and dressed as a clown danced and juggled atop moving freight cars as they passed beneath the Floyd Boulevard viaduct. People, especially children, gathered along the viaduct every evening to watch the clown. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Media

Television stations

• KCAU, Channel 9, ABC affiliate (formerly KVTV)
• KMEG, Channel 14, CBS affiliate; Hometown News Leader
• KPTH, Channel 44, Fox affiliate; signed on in the late 1990s; Fox programming had aired on KMEG prior to KPTH's arrival
• KSIN, Channel 27, PBS member station
• KTIV, Channel 4, NBC affiliate

Radio stations

''(Note: Not an all-inclusive list. Some low-power stations and stations audible from adjacent markets are excluded. Due to extremely high soil conductivity in the Midwest, many AM stations from other cities are audible in Sioux City.)

FM stations

• KMSC, 88.3, operated by Morningside College
• KWIT, 90.3, public radio, operated by Western Iowa Technical Community College
• KGLI, 95.5, "KG95" -- adult contemporary; previously played top 40; signed on in 1983
• KSEZ, 97.9, "Z98" -- plays rock music (classic and new rock); previously top 40 station "Rock 98" in the 1980s
• KKMA, 99.5, "Kool 99.5" -- plays oldies; formerly adult contemporary "Magic 99"; call letters were KZZL in the early 1980s as an easy listening format
• KKYY, 101.3, "Y101.3" -- country music; the newest FM signal in the market
• KZSR, 102.3, "102.3 Bob-FM" -- a "adult hits" station; signed on as Bob-FM on March 13, 2006
• KTFC, 103.3, religious radio station ("Midwest Bible Radio")
• WNAX-FM, 104.1, country; broadcasts from Yankton, South Dakota; low-power translator K283AG broadcasts at 104.5 FM in Sioux City, but both frequencies are audible in Sioux City. Previously oldies/classic hits KCLH; was top 40 KQHU "Q104" in 1990.
• KSUX, 105.7, "The SuperPig, K-Sioux 105.7"; has played country music since the signal went on-air in the fall of 1990; reportedly the station's first owners named the station after the airport abbreviation (SUX) and did not recognize the latent humor in the KSUX calls until it was too late.
• KSFT, 107.1, "Kiss 107FM" -- top 40 station as of March 13, 2006; previously played adult contemporary; signed on in the mid-1990s.
• Klove, 88.9, "Positive and Encouraging" Plays commercial free Christian music. Also can be picked up on 107.5 out of castana, IA.

AM stations

• [WNAX], 570, talk radio and farm news from Yankton, South Dakota; massive signal covering much of the upper Midwest
• KMNS, 620, sports talk radio; for a long time, was "62 Country"
• KSCJ, 1360, talk radio; call letters derive from the Sioux City Journal, which once owned the station
• KWSL, 1470, spanish language music; previously sports talk; was a top 40 station long long ago

Print

• Sioux City Journal, daily newspaper serving entire Siouxland region
• Dakota County Star, weekly newspaper serving northeast Nebraska
• Sioux City Hispanos Unidos, bi-weekly Spanish readers paper
• The Weekender, weekly arts and entertainment magazine serving the entire Siouxland region

Notable Residents

• James Gable ("Jim") Aton, jazz bassist, pianist, composer and singer best known for his performances with Billie Holiday, Anita O'Day, "Earl Hines" and as composer of Debbie Reynolds's hit "Love Is A Thing."
• Richard Birnie ("Dick") Aton, jazz pianist with Harold Land, Zoot Sims.
• Dave Bancroft, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop.
• Patricia Barber, internationally famous jazz singer-diva, pianist, bandleader, recording artist. Although born in Chicago, she was raised and educated in South Sioux City, Nebraska, where she completed high school.
• Ben Bernstein, bassist with New Monsoon].
• Tommy Bolin, guitarist who had a solo career and was also a member of Deep Purple and The James Gang.
• Johnnie Bolin, drummer with Black Oak Arkansas.
• Macdonald Carey, actor. The longtime patriarch on Days of Our Lives.
• Eric Carter, member of Kansas House of Representatives.]
• Matt Chatham, NFL player (New England Patriots)
• [Colonel George E. "Bud" Day] U.S. Air Force, Vietnam POW, recipient of the Medal of Honor is the United States' most highly decorated officer since General Douglas MacArthur. The Sioux City Airport is named Colonel Bud Day Field in his honor as is 6th Street (Honorable Bud Day Street).
• J. Hyatt Downing, author[link].
• Sharon Farrell, actress.
• Zeron Flemister, NFL player, Oakland Raiders.
• Esther and Paulline Friedman, better known as Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren.
• Gerald Gibbs (aka "Gabby Gibber"), widely respected longtime KMNS radio jockey, and community icon.
• Fred Grandy, actor, congressman, former CEO of Goodwill; currently morning drive-time color jock for WMAL Radio, Washington, D.C.
• John Hardy, NFL player, San Francisco 49ers.
• Jules Harlow, conservative Jewish rabbi and liturgist.
• Scott Hesse, jazz guitarist, recording artist.
• Henry Hey, jazz pianist & composer, best know as Rod Stewart's accompanist.
• Kirk Hinrich, Chicago Bulls guard.
• Harry Hopkins, Secretary of Commerce, advisor to FDR during World War II.
• Kelly Horsted, renowned classical pianist and operatic vocal instructor in New York City.
• Ryan Kisor, trumpeter with the Lincoln Center jazz Orchestra in New York, protege of Wynton Marsallis.
• Neil Lambert, jazz trumpeter, singer, TV personality & orchestra leader in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.
• Robert Lowry, Classical clarinetist.
• Jerry Mathers, Beaver Cleaver on TV's "Leave It To Beaver".
• Daniel ("Danny") Matousek, lead singer and guitarist for The Velaires.
• Clarence "Big" Miller, Jazz & blues singer.
• John Mosher, jazz bassist, classical violinist, recording artist with Brew Moore, Jackie Cain & Roy Kral, and Earl "Father" Hines.
• Roger Neumann, jazz saxophonist, sideman and recording artist with Woody Herman, Benny Carter, and many others.
• Amy Hillgren Peterson, author of "The Swedish Lie", "Elusive Butterfly."
• Rex Peer, jazz trombonist with Benny Goodman Orchestra and many other jazz icons.
• Lori Petty, actress best known for her starring role opposite Geena Davis and Tom Hanks on "A League of Their Own".
• Frances Rafferty, MGM actress of the 1940's & early TV star best known for playing opposite Spring Byington on the sitcom "December Bride."
• David "Tiny" Rice, jazz pianist with Clyde McCoy.
• Adam Schroeder, jazz saxophonist with Ray Charles Band and graduate of East High School. Currently touring with Gilbert Castellanos.
• Gary Slechta, jazz trumpeter, studio musician, recording artist, composer, arranger, jazz educator. Recording credits with Marcia Ball, Long John Hunter, many others. Principal trumpet, Austin Symphony Orchestra.
• Harold Slaughter, jazz Guitarist with early jazz-R&B crossover recording artists The Scamps.
• Edward J. Sperling, Jewish writer and humorist.
• Vince St. Cyr, Native American actor.
• Thomas Twetton, one-time Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) of the CIA, the third highest executive behind the Director and Deputy Director.
• Ted Waitt and Norman Waitt, co-founders of the Gateway computer firm.
• Pierre Watkin, talented and prolific character actor in radio, films and TV from 1930s-1950s, most famously portrayed Daily Planet Editor Perry White in the original Superman serials and the Banker in the 1940 W.C. Fields film, "The Bank Dick."

Sister City

• Sioux City is the proud sister city of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

External links

• [Sioux City History]
• [Sioux City 1848-1923]
• [Sioux City and Woodbury County 1890] (fascinating natural and early civic history, including interviews with original settlers)
• [City of Sioux City]
• [Attractions and Recreation]
• [Sioux City Public Museum]
• [Sioux City Art Center]
• [Sioux City Journal] (local newspaper)
• [Saturday in the Park] (annual music festival)
• [Siouxland.net] (local arts and entertainment paper)
• [Mary Treglia Community Center]
• [History of the Stockyards]

	State of Iowa
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Counties
Adair | Adams | Allamakee | Appanoose | Audubon | Benton | Black Hawk | Boone | Bremer | Buchanan | Buena Vista | Butler | Calhoun | Carroll | Cass | Cedar | Cerro Gordo | Cherokee | Chickasaw | Clarke | Clay | Clayton | Clinton | Crawford | Dallas | Davis | Decatur | Delaware | Des Moines | Dickinson | Dubuque | Emmet | Fayette | Floyd | Franklin | Fremont | Greene | Grundy | Guthrie | Hamilton | Hancock | Hardin | Harrison | Henry | Howard | Humboldt | Ida | Iowa | Jackson | Jasper | Jefferson | Johnson | Jones | Keokuk | Kossuth | Lee | Linn | Louisa | Lucas | Lyon | Madison | Mahaska | Marion | Marshall | Mills | Mitchell | Monona | Monroe | Montgomery | Muscatine | O'Brien | Osceola | Page | Palo Alto | Plymouth | Pocahontas | Polk | Pottawattamie | Poweshiek | Ringgold | Sac | Scott | Shelby | Sioux | Story | Tama | Taylor | Union | Van Buren | Wapello | Warren | Washington | Wayne | Webster | Winnebago | Winneshiek | Woodbury | Worth | Wright

 

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