To my mom’s sister, Marsha Carl.
When I was younger, I used to think you were the coolest aunt in the world. I loved all the crazy clearance sales at Michael’s in Watertown, and appreciate that you let two teenage girls do the gift wrapping—three pieces of tape only! I hope this story does your home city proud. (P.S. You’re still pretty cool.)
A Special Thanks
To Fish at Joe’s in Monroe, Louisiana, for sharing their experiences (good and bad) in starting a new business.
To Angela Breidenbach, Jennifer AlLee, and Susanne Dietze for joining me in the Daily Word Count Challenge. Best fun I ever had finishing a manuscript. The chatting during the breaks: priceless.
To my gluten-free boxer-Lab, Kansas, for protecting me from all the UPS, FedEx, and USPS delivery guys and gals who come to our front door. I feel safe.
“Land speculation was the mania of nineteenth-century America. The way to make money was to buy land cheap (or to get it for nothing) and sell it at a higher price. It was the falls of the Big Sioux River that made this location a prime townsite…. [Railroads] not only distributed goods to the smaller cities and towns of the region, they brought agricultural produce and people to Sioux Falls. By 1920 its population was two and one-half times larger than in 1900.”
—GARY D. OLSON AND ERIK L. OLSON, Sioux Falls, South Dakota: A Pictorial History
“I am more than ever pleased with Sioux Falls after seeing it. I confidently believe from what experience teaches me that Sioux Falls is certainly destined to be the Minneapolis and St. Paul of this country, if not its Chicago.”
—A VISITOR FROM MAINE, The Argus Leader, June 15, 1889
“We ford the Sioux, climb a big hill beyond and there lies at a little distance the prettiest of towns, Sioux Falls. We see it through the fading day—too late to visit the ‘Niagara of the Northwest,’ so we stop at a good hotel for the night.”
—MISS CARRIE PEABODY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA, November 7, 1877, upon visiting Sioux Falls
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
ROMANS 8:5