Sioux Falls

Largest city in southeast South Dakota, USA, on the Big Sioux River; population (2000) 124,000. Hydroelectricity is generated at the falls, a 30 m/100 ft drop on the river. Founded in 1856, it is the distribution and processing centre of an extensive cattle-rearing and wheat-growing area. Industries include meat-preparation and packing, and the manufacture of electrical goods and agricultural machinery. It is also the location of EROS (Earth Resources Observation Systems), an international agency for the photography of Earth from space and the air.

The early settlement was abandoned during the Sioux uprising of 1862, but reinhabited in 1865 with the establishment of Fort Dakota.