Sioux Falls is a 50-foot tiered waterfall on the Big Sioux River in South Dakota, the centerpiece of Falls Park near downtown Sioux Falls in Minnehaha County. The founding of the city in 1856 is tied to the falls, and the surrounding park is free and open daily.
The falls
The river descends across four tiered steps spread over roughly 630 feet of river. The main section features a pair of back-to-back drops of 5 and 15 feet with rapids around them, bracketed by smaller 5- to 6-foot drops at the top and bottom. An old hydroelectric turbine house stands beside the central section. The total height measures 50 feet; earlier surveys listed 164 feet, and 2024 visitor guides note about 100 feet of descent through the falls area.
The river pours over Sioux quartzite dated to about 1.5 billion years old. Glacial ice pushed the Big Sioux into its present course about 14,000 years ago, exposing the rock the falls now cross.
Getting there
Falls Park is located at 131 E. Falls Park Dr. and is open daily from 5 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Park admission is free. The grounds also serve as an access point for the city Recreation Trail.
When to go
Falls Park is promoted as a year-round destination.
On site
Accessible paths lead along the falls, and the park has an observation tower, a visitor center, the Overlook Cafe, a playground, picnic shelters and restrooms. The historic Queen Bee Mill stands on the grounds with informational displays.
The river through the park is a no-swimming zone under city rules. The water churns into thick foam below the drops: on March 14, 2013, a 6-year-old boy fell from the rock bank, and his 16-year-old sister and a 28-year-old bystander who tried to reach him both drowned; the boy was pulled out alive. Visitors should keep children back from the edges of the quartzite.
History and name
Lakota and Dakota people used the falls as a trading place with French fur trappers. Philander Prescott left the first documented account of a visit in December 1832. In 1856 the Dakota Land Company of St. Paul and the Western Town Company of Dubuque, Iowa, organized the townsite here; Sioux Falls became a village in 1876 and a city in 1883.
Nearby
Devils Falls is about 16 miles away, and Winnewissa Falls, across the state line in Minnesota, about 37.5 miles.
Distances are straight-line.