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Seney Island BY WAYNE FANEBUST
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alls Park in Sioux Falls gets a lot of attention because of the commanding sight of water rushing over the ancient quartzite rocks. The park never lacks for visitors who sometimes seem transfixed by sound and power of the falls, but something is missing. That something is — or was — Seney Island, a small land mass that was made to disappear early in the 20th century after having graced the Big Sioux River and the surrounding terrain for centuries. The island was first named “Brookings Island” after Wilmot W. Brookings, one of the first white men to call the falls home. Brookings was a member of the Western Town Company from Dubuque, Iowa, who arrived at the falls in the spring of 1857 with a party of men. They claimed 320 acres of land under federal law for
the purpose of founding a town. The company folded rather quickly, but men like Brookings were not about to give up. And on September 10, 1863, a patent was issued to Brookings by the United States land office in Vermillion, the very first in Dakota Territory. The quarter section of land included the falls and its island. In 1865, a military installation called Fort Dakota was established at the Sioux Falls town site, thus for a time, ending the growth of what seemed to be a promising city. When the fort closed down and the soldiers departed, a group of squatters on the property decided to pick up the citybuilding challenge, with a view of harnessing the tremendous power of the falls. From time to time, visitors would show up and stand amazed at nature’s show. In the summer of 1870, a man from St.
Louis described the falls and the island in graphic and somewhat clumsy terms. “Coming down from the north, blithesome and bright, it [the Big Sioux River] flows through sweet sunny vales, decked with many little gay sylvan scenes.” The enchanted visitor wrote “there is a beautiful little isle of oval shape, thickly covered with a growth of timber…an acre of loveliness.” Another stunned visitor predicted that the island would be adorned by “grottos, arbors etc,” and would become a “trysting place for lovers where they will renew the talks of constancy and affection while the waters below are laughing in glee…” Whew! The people of Sioux Falls did appreciate the island as a gem, a special place that was marked by a heavy growth of trees, something that was lacking in
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