Sioux Falls's new flag, adopted in 2018 after a community contest, has a striking graphic clarity: a midnight-blue band for the sky, a turquoise curve that falls like the falls of the Big Sioux River, a green triangle for the prairies, and a golden disc for the sun rising over the plain.
It all starts with water. The falls that give the city its name – 100 feet of drop over slabs of pink quartzite – are still at the heart of Falls Park. The Lakota called this place Inyan Ochan Ku, "path of the rocks," and used the quartzite for their tools long before the settlers arrived.
Sanford Health, Avera Health and Monument Health employ tens of thousands of healthcare workers. Citibank and a whole constellation of banks set up their credit-card centers here in the 1980s, taking advantage of a state with no income tax and no cap on interest rates. The downtown glass towers literally rise thanks to these financial laws.
Growth is explosive: the airport is doubling in size, craft breweries line Phillips Avenue, and newcomers fill subdivisions reaching into the prairie. Yet the flag recalls the primary geography – a turquoise waterfall cutting through the green. Even in the middle of a boomtown, it all begins with water on pink quartzite.