The exhibit explores rise and fall of the town of East Sioux Falls, from its inception at the quarries to its future as a joint City/County park. Explore the quarrying industry through a recreated quarry and try your hand at paving an even surface, just as was done with stone from East Sioux Falls quarries. See how the many uses of quartzite made it a booming industry, and find out how the local stone is still used today.

Like many towns that sprang up across the west, East Sioux Falls banked its future on one material. In the Black Hills it was gold, in Texas it was oil, and in East Sioux Falls it was quartzite stone.

 

 

Early settlers to the area found uses for this native rock. Stone buildings appeared in the new town of Sioux Falls as early as the late1850s. As the industry in the region grew, the methods for constructing stone buildings changed from rough rubble construction to precisely-cut block structures. The stone industry brought people, money, and prestige to this developing area of the country. By the late 1880s, the industry was expanding throughout the county.

 

 

 

 

 

An area to the east of Sioux Falls, near the Iverson Farm, would become caught up in this boom-time venture. Originally known to locals as Ives, the incorporated town of East Sioux Falls would bet its fortune on the quartzite stone business, feel the joy of boom times, and suffer the harsh realities of economic decline.

 

 

 

Stonecutters pause in the "motion" (the area where blocks were cut) at the Perry Quarry in East Sioux Falls. Stonecutters could earn 1-2 cents per block, a very good wage seeing as many could cut 300 blocks in a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stonecutters used tools such as these to shape large chunks of quartzite into blocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids and adults can learn to pave a surface, similar to the technique used to lay paving blocks down for streets. Many paving blocks from East Sioux Falls quarries were used to pave the streets of Sioux Falls and other cities in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Realize the power of the pulley as you try to raise these different quartzite samples.