Just across the Missouri River, where the Floyd River joins, is a town first settled in long-ago Native American days and first recorded as a geographic note by Lewis & Clark in 1804.  Earlier exploration by Spanish and French trappers was probable but there is no record.  Today, Sioux City is an unusual oasis in the heart of the American High Plains.  Essentially it’s a very small city which, because of its location on the two rivers and very far from any nearby larger city, is much more sophisticated and cosmopolitan than ought to be believable.

The three-county metropolitan area has fewer than 200,000 people and yet the town has two major and well-respected medical centers and a complete line-up of television, radio and publishing firms.  It developed right about when the railroads were crossing the country and very soon afterwards became a major meat-packing, agriculture-processing shipping center.  It’s now and was then at the navigable head of the Missouri River. World War II provided the need to build an air training base (Iowa’s pretty flat and airfields need flat land and Iowa’s pretty dependable and clear weather which the Air Force usually sets as a criteria for locating a base) and so modern Sioux City now has a well-built, albeit, hand-me-down municipal facility.  Originally built as a training facility for B-17 pilots, the air strip is now the area’s link to the rest of the airborne world.  Although, only Northwest actually flies out of Sioux City and only goes to Minneapolis-St. Paul, but, still, it’s five flights a day to an international air gateway.

This view on the left shows the general terrain.  Because of the Missouri and Floyd Rivers, there are three states which geographically come together at Sioux City - Nebraska to the west (left side of river on the map), South Dakota to the northwest because of a geographic quark in the delineation of the states near these rivers, and Iowa east of the city.  

This is also the home turf for the Sioux nation and as the modern capital of the area, Sioux City calls itself and the surrounding area “Siouxland.”

Because Sioux City was a meat and agriculture products processing and packing town, the railroads had the need for classification yards.  Today, Sioux City is still a major classification yard for the Union Pacific and the Canadian National Railroad maintains a liaison office in the city.  The main old road into town takes a rise over the railroad yards on an elevated viaduct structure very familiar to anyone driving around Seattle’s South Fourth Street - for the same reasons.  Although in Sioux City the rail yard is more likely to be filled with empty hopper and cattle cars than empty container flats.

Because the city developed at the height of the American industrial age, the architecture of the downtown area is an incredible display of craftsmanship in ceramic, in brick, in terra cotta, in glass, and even in wood.  The multiple scenes in the image below show several 360-degree panoramas taken from in and around the downtown area.  The city has turned the riverbank area of both the Missouri and Floyd Rivers into a bike and hiking trail complete with underpasses beneath bridges crossing the rivers and with occasional parks and monuments scattered along the 5-or-so mile trail.  The trail keeps getting extended on both the north and west sides of downtown so it’s likely the next time I’m there trail will be closer to 8 or 10 miles.  The city’s two large convention facilities are near the Missouri Riverbank and adjacent to the trail.

Again, the thing to remember is that this is a city and metropolitan area of fewer than a quarter million folks.  What is it that makes this town special?  For one, on cross-country trips, it’s in an excellent spot for being a “way,” as in waypoint.  The Missouri, like the Mississippi, is one of those rivers, the Columbia, too, which is so wide and has been eating away at the land for so long that crossing it is nearly a major milestone in its own right.

I like Iowa for many reasons.  Iowans are sensible individuals and act as sensible communities.  The state was a strong backer of the Union during the Civil War and has been relatively evenly split politically since.  Perhaps because the early settlers and explorers were French, many of the towns and cities show a real regard for the human scale and for integration of the human into the environment.  Perhaps it’s also because the state sits between two great rivers and is awash in fertile soil and plentiful rainfall.  Perhaps it’s because in researching and buying a refrigerator I choose Amana, a company founded by the Amana Colonies of central Iowa and one of those Christian sects which mirrors the Lutheran “hard work, honest work, socially-conscious work” ethic and which is similar in spirit and conduct to the Mennonites and Amish - a cultural component of America I grew up with in Pennsylvania.  Again, I think the key concept here is “sensible.”  In their outreach to the rest of America, Iowans presented a very moderate and reasoned view - via the Des Moines Register, a locally-owned business, still.

Notice the sandwiching of downtown between three rivers and also notice the smaller trail which follows along the Missouri River, not shown is the fact that it loops under the freeway ramps and continues along the western edge of downtown.  The downtown is also sandwiched between hills giving the immediate neighborhoods a pleasant, hundred-foot-or-so view up and over downtown and its attractive skyline to the vast Plains west.  I was fortunate to capture the sunset from one of those neighborhoods when last there and felt very much like the city was mine.

Perhaps that’s the best summation of why I like Sioux City, as well as Rapid City, Cody, and Boise, is that each of these cities has evolved with enough concern and care about the built environment and how it relates to the citizen that each of these cities, small and remote though they are, imparts a feeling of belonging - even, maybe most importantly, to strangers.

I’ll have some final comments in yet another posting of the “This land is your land.  This land is my land.” series.  I’ll summarize what’s become rather obvious to anyone who travels at ground level around this country and anyone who visit and stays in the thousands of small towns spread throughout the country’s diverse and splendid geographic and historic regions.  

On the towns mentioned - they are all well worth visiting on their own terms.  They are all welcoming, walkable and very liveable communities filled with warm and giving individuals.