We had a few days to fill before we went to Bismark, ND, so the first place we went to was Sioux Falls, SD, to check out the falls there. An RV couple we watch on YouTube went there and showed us some pictures and told the audience we had to go there if at all possible. So here we are.
The Sioux Falls were created about 14,000 years ago when the last glacial ice sheet redirected the flow of the Big Sioux River, exposing the underlying Sioux quartzite bedrock. This geological process formed the cascades that the city is named after. The quotes I’ll be including are from the Falls brochure.
“The Sioux Quartzite is among the oldest exposed rocks in South Dakota. It consists of thick beds of silica-cemented quartz sandstone, the grains of which were deposited and rounded by wave action on the floor of an ancient continental sea. The “pink rock” is one of the hardest naturally forming rocks after Diamond, Corundum, and Topaz.
“The density of Sioux Quartzite, resulting from millions of years of compaction under the immense pressure of this ancient sea, makes it highly resistant to erosion. The Big Sioux River and the Falls have been flowing in their present state for over 10,000 years!”
“During the era of the American pioneer, this rock was the principal building and paving material in the region. Today, its use as an aggregate in concrete construction makes Sioux Quartzite an important natural resource in eastern South Dakota.”
Now to Chamberlain, SD, and another interpretative center with some more information that we haven’t seen before.
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