Sioux Quartzite and A Geological History of Minnehaha County
Minnehaha County has been in the making since the waves of an ancient lake lapped against its pink sandy shores. The stone that was built for millennia, also built the largest city of South Dakota, nurtured by the river that flows through it.
Over one and a half billion years ago, the last layer of pink quartz sands settled from the shore of an ancient great lake. These sands compressed and were cemented by silica particles over geological time into the Sioux quartzite that outcrops across the plains of Minnehaha County today. Under the surface, a 3,000-foot deep layer of Sioux quartzite stretches from New Ulm, Minnesota, to Mitchell, South Dakota. Sioux quartzite can range in color from white or gray to the most common pink to a deep, rich red produced by varying levels of iron oxide.
Between the layers of heavy concreted quartz sands, red clay was compressed into red Pipestone, also known as “Catlinite,” named after artist George Catlin, who painted Dakota tribal members at the quarry site in 1836, just 50 miles northeast of Sioux Falls. This stone has been sought after and traded for 3,000 years to be carved into ceremonial pipes called C’anunpa by the Lakota Sioux, as well as for jewelry and tablets. Pipestone from this vein has been found in archaeological contexts as far away as New York State. Pipestone has a few qualities that make it so well-suited to its use as a pipe. It can be carved with stone tools almost as easily as wood, thanks to the fine particle structure of the metamorphosed clay. It is also very heat-resistant; most stones would crack when exposed to the heat of burning tobacco, whereas pipestone disperses that heat and expands and contracts uniformly.
As European fur trappers made their way through the northern plains along the Missouri River Basin, they used the Mnihaha as a place to meet, talk, and trade with the Native Americans who lived in the area. “Minnehaha” is the Anglicized version of Dakota words meaning “waterfall,” combining “Mni” (water) and “Yuhaha” (“Curly”) to describe the way water curls as it falls. The word has been mistranslated as "laughing water," most famously in Longfellow’s Poem “The Song of Hiawatha,” though the words for laughter and curling do share an etymological root. This Minnehaha, after which the county is named, is one of the few recognizable and enduring landmarks along the Big Sioux River, which runs through the plains of South Dakota. Around this landmark, the city of Sioux Falls began, with Falls Park at the center.
In the historic structures of Sioux Falls, such as the Old Courthouse building and Old Main building on the Augustana University's campus, Sioux quartzite was used as construction material. The Queen Bee Mill, whose Sioux quartzite foundation can still be seen at Falls Park, was constructed in 1881 next to the Falls under the guidance of Richard F. Pettigrew, a prominent Sioux Fallsian and U.S. Senator. The Mill closed less than two years due to the Pettigrew’s overexaggerated claims of “Wonderful Water Power In Sioux Falls.”
In 1887, the Sioux Falls Granite Company opened four quarries east of Sioux Falls, and the workers settled a community called Ives, which was later renamed East Sioux Falls after a railroad was laid to connect the quarries to Sioux Falls and other large cities. It was later acquired by George H. Perry, who owned the East Sioux Falls Quarry Company. In the early 1900s, concrete replaced quarried stone as the preferred building material. In 1999, a large portion of the land was donated to the county and was converted into the Perry Nature Area for recreation by the public.
From its days as a common meeting place, Minnehaha County has grown around the concept of community and is home to the largest city in South Dakota. The Minnehaha County Historical Society preserves, records, and interprets over 200 historical markers and promotes the work of eleven other historical organizations, such as the Siouxland Heritage Museums which operates two museums free to the public.
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