Thousands of years. In the 1850s, two rival town companies, one from dubuque, iowa and one from st. Paul, minnesota, both set their sights on the falls as a townsite. Interestingly, both companies had parties who arrived here within a few weeks of each other. Established a townsite, it was really speculation, land. Lotsplatted it out into and waited for settlers headed west to buy lots in the town that did not quite exist yet. 1857, and really in the 1850s they got along well with the indians who happened by here on their way to other places. There were 42 People Living in sioux falls. In the summer of 1862, there was some conflict with the sioux indians and what was called the startedrising by some in august of 1862. And the territorial governor ordered that the Big Sioux River valley be evacuated. 27th of august, 1860 two, all the people who lived here were evacuated and abandoned the site of the falls. The site of sioux falls remained abandoned until may of 1865 when the u. S. Army located a fort here on the site of the falls. Falls wast sioux called fort dakota, was really one of many forts established throughout the region and it was bylly, i think, established a sense of safety and security for those settlers in dakota and also provide a perception of protection for the state of minnesota, which is just a few miles east of us. In putting together this exhibit, we were really lucky in many regards. We have a number of original accounts of the fort, probably one of the best is an account by the post surgeon, an actual official report that was written by him about the Living Conditions at the fort. What the structures were, their sizes, how they were built. It talks about the different kinds of trees that are along the Big Sioux River and the kinds of animals and fish that are available and around. This is all important because it really impacted how these men lived here on the frontier. Washer great account ehrhardt flights. A man who had served three years at fort dakota in the company as ais reminiscent longtime sioux falls resident about what life was like at the fort, really provided insight. He talks about being able to go down to the falls of the Big Sioux River and catch enough fish to feed the whole company in an hour. Companys about the commander allowed them to go buffalo hunting or elk hunting. So you get the sense of the great bounty that the prairie in the area have. Accounts, there is a lot of photographs. The army actually sent photographers here to take pictures of the fort in 1866, again in 1868, and we know another photographer was here in 1869. You get a sense of how that fort evolved over time. Fortthe army abandoned the in the summer of 1869, it left behind about 18 different structures of various sizes. As the army left, settlers started moving in, people like Richard Franklin pettigrew spent his first winter living in one of the rooms of the old barracks of fort dakota. But as the new town developed, some of those Old Buildings from the fort were torn down and materials reused. Left, a logsample that was secured in 1873 by one of the soldiers who had served at the fort, a gentleman named ehrhardt flight. He had been a german immigrant who worked in the brewing industry before serving in the army. When he was mustered out at fort dakota, he remained here in the homesteading and later working as a brewer and malter for a Brewing Company in sioux falls. He is the one that saved this blog from the barracks building this log from the barracks building and donated it to the Pettigrew Museum in sioux falls. The army actually abandoned the post in late june of 1869. The soldiers from the fort moved west of the Missouri River to fort randall immediately. What they left behind was what became the basis of the new community of sioux our cities to her staff recently traveled to sue. The coder learn about its registry learn more about sioux falls and other stops in the two tour cspan. Org cities youre watching American History tv, a weekend every weekend on cspan3. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas cable television