Sioux City Times

Learn more about how Sioux City became a regional economic powerhouse at History at High Noon: Steel Rails & Mighty Tales in 20th Century Sioux City on Thursday, June 15 at 12:05 p.m. at the Sioux City Public Museum. Attendees are invited to bring their own lunches to the free presentation.

Presenter Russ Gifford will trace Sioux City’s rail connections and their part in the industrial development that drove the city to lead the state in industry and commerce for decades. Six major railroads bought people and products to and from Sioux City in the early years of the 20th century. These trains, with their terminals and all the necessary storage space, made Sioux City a major market and manufacturing center in that era. In fact, Sioux City, the second largest city in Iowa at the time, was Iowa’s biggest manufacturing center and largest wholesaling center in 1910. But it wasn’t stopping there. Sioux City’s generated revenue would quadruple by 1920.

“Much is made of Sioux City as the ‘Steamboat Capital of America in the 1870s’ and how it dominated the northern markets to the mountains,” says Gifford. “But Sioux City continued to prosper after the Steamboat market dwindled. Within 40 years, Sioux City was dominating Iowa in manufacturing, and had more rail connections than any city in Iowa.”

Russ Gifford, Senior Lecturer with Western Iowa Tech’s Institute for Lifelong Learning, delivers tales of American history to audiences in the Siouxland region. His two decades of programs include over 300 unique talks, numerous articles, and historical papers. Gifford’s work garnered two teaching awards and his lectures have been supported by grants from Humanities Iowa, the Kind World Foundation, and others. He also delivers the Dr. Robert E. Dunker Leadership Lectures at Western Iowa Tech each term, using actions of historical figures to demonstrate good leadership. For more information about Gifford, visit www.russgifford.net.

The Sioux City Public Museum is located at 607 4th Street in downtown Sioux City. For more information, call 712-279-6174 or visit SiouxCityMuseum.org.

Original source can be found here.