Prison Quarry

Congress appropriated $30,000 in 1881 for the construction of a prison in Sioux Falls to serve Dakota Territory. In order to finance a building large enough to house up to 150 inmates, the territorial legislature authorized a bond issue for a like amount. By November 1882 the first wing was finished. Prisoners were returned from Detroit, Michigan, where they had been sent to serve their sentences while Dakota was without a penitentiary.

This location was obtained as a quarry for the prison.

Armed guards marched gangs of prisoners down the bluff to quarry Sioux quartzite. The prisoners then used horse drawn wagons to haul dressed blocks of quartzite up the 100 feet north bluff to build additional buildings in the prison compound. In two years the facility was nearly completed, including residence for the warden and his family.

Prisoners also used stone from this quarry to build a wall to enclose the prison yard. It replaced the wooden stockade that first surrounded the prison.