Sioux City Museum - What is unique about the area?

Located at 607 4th Street it is open 6 days a week Tuesday to Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 1-5; admission free.  It shares the uniqueness of Sioux City.

The Corn Palaces from 1887 to 1891, the Peirce Mansion, the Peltier Fire of 1904, the Floyd River Flood of 1953, and the Crash Landing of flight 232, July 19, 1989 were some of the key places and points in history that were a focus of the museum.


Window from the Corn Palace

Corn Palaces built to celebrate the agriculture of the area for five years until disaster hit.
 

Peirce Mansion

The Peirce Mansion was built by a rich real-estate agent that was a significant part of building up the Sioux City area.  After 30 years of success, he planned to move on. With the economy in a recession, he planned a nation wide raffle to sell his house.  The winner turned out to be a "millionaire" and the house legally changed ownership 19 days before the official raffle drawing.

Special Effects give you a front row seat to the fire

The Peltier Fire was just before Christmas. The decorations were toilet paper, paper towel, tissues and other highly combustible materials.  A man was demonstrating a gas powered toy train. A spark flew and started a fire that leveled nearly four blocks of stores and businesses.



Antique Fire truck and gear

The Floyd River Flood after a heavy but not excessive rainfall, everyone went about their day.  Up river, the rain had been significantly heavier.  Mid-day with very little notice a wall of water came down the Floyd River destroying the stock yards and downtown.

The Crash Landing of 232. At the beginning of a time when fire, rescue, and police were working together in preparedness drills, the Sioux City Airport had gone one step further and had a drill that crossed multiple communities and states.  An airport at the corner of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota was the focus of the drill. While the drill was still fresh in people's minds, a plane diverted for an emergency landing and it crashed landed in a nearby cornfield. Many survived because the area was ready for the disaster.