The land was there. The land was free. Some came to live on the land. Some came to speculate. The first South Dakota settlers came spilling westward from Minnesota into the Sioux River Valley in 1857. Others came north from Iowa to join them. They established three townsites, the principal one at Sioux Falls. These settlers, members of the Dakota Land Company, were interested in organizing a new territory for speculative purposes, not in developing the country.
