Then & Now: Winter fun through the years

Our Then & Now series brings you a nostalgic look at the places and people who have built the community we love. Have some throwback photos to share? We’d love to see them! Email info@pigeon605.com.

Life in the “605” means living with winter, and for more than a century Sioux Falls has found ways to have fun in the frost.

Circa 1915, ice skaters used the Big Sioux River as their rink.

Courtesy of Siouxland Heritage Museums

All Saints School at 18th Street and Main Avenue had its own rink on the southeast side of the building.

Courtesy of Siouxland Heritage Museums

Now, the Parks and Recreation Department maintains six outdoor ice skating rinks and two hockey rinks. The Scheels IcePlex, which is operated by the nonprofit Ice Sports Association, offers skaters a chance to escape the elements. With three sheets of ice, it it offers room for open skate times, hockey leagues and figure skating. Here, members of the Sioux Falls Figure Skating Club give lessons to beginners in December 2020.

Courtesy of Sioux Falls Figure Skating Club

Sledding has always been a favorite pastime. These three kids were captured getting ready to take on a hill, circa 1880. The house in the background was the home of Andrew C. Phillips and was built in 1872. Part of it is still standing at 623 W. Eighth St.

Courtesy of Siouxland Heritage Museums

Nowadays, sledders flock to hills at parks such as Tuthill and Spellerberg, where they can have fun for free, or they buy a pass and fly down the tubing hill at the city-operated Great Bear Ski Valley. Here’s a photo from when it opened in December 2016.

Courtesy of Great Bear Ski Valley

Have a suggestion for a Then & Now feature? Want to share photographs of favorite childhood places from the Sioux Falls area? Send them along to info@pigeon605.com.