01 SC COMM 11-20 4C

Heritage Village offers
an historical setting
in Open Space Park.
The grounds, which include
gardens and 65 varieties of
trees, are open year round.
Buildings are open during
the Sioux County Youth Fair
in July, the two-day Harvest
Festival in September, a
one-day holiday event in
December and by appointment.
Buildings also are available
to rent for reunions, weddings
and other events.
The village began in the
late 1980s to create a historical
display for 1992 Sioux
Center Centennial Celebration.
The Sioux Center Heritage
Board and Heritage
Threshers and Collectors
are involved in the activities,
planning, additions and
maintenance of the village.
Heritage Village is home
to several historical buildings
and attractions. A couple
popular ones are the:
Blacksmith Shop — The
Braaks brothers used this
building for their welding
shop in Ireton until the late
1980s. Now it’s a fully-functioning
blacksmith shop.
Sod Hut — Sioux Center
is one of the few areas
in Iowa where the original
settlers lived in sod huts.
The sod hut is a highlight for
hundreds of school children
that attend the Harvest Festival
every year.
One-Room Country
School House — This
school house was built in
1928 in the Middleburg
area. The building was used
as a school until 1959 and
later was used as the township
hall. It represents the
numerous one-room country
schools that existed in
the county until the 1950s.
Church — The Heritage
Village Church is a replica of
the original church built in
Sioux Center in 1877. People
pulled their wagons up
to the building and, if they
went inside, used their wagon
seats to sit in the church.
Find the complete list of
Heritage Village attractions
online at www.siouxcenter.
org/233/Heritage-Village-Attractions.
Call the city office at 712-
722-0761 for more information
or to make an appointment.
Sioux Center was
once divided into
two locations — Old
Town Sioux Center and
North Sioux Center — in the
1880s before the community
was incorporated.
The original site of Sioux
Center was plotted in 1881,
near what is now the stoplight
intersection of South
Main Avenue and Ninth
Street Southeast by First
Reformed Church.
According to a Dec. 10,
1891, issue of the Hawarden
Independent newspaper,
up until 1889 Sioux Center
“had no railroad or shipping
facilities and consequently
did not prosper to
any great extent.”
The Great Northern Railway
Company brought
change.
In 1889, the Great Northern
Land Company bought
land and built a road north
and south through Sioux
County, platting a town on
its line about three-fourths
of a mile north of Old Town
Sioux Center near what is
now Farmers Cooperative
Society, three blocks west
of the intersection of Main
Avenue and Third Street NE.
The railroad called its town
North Sioux Center.
The rail company had
purchased land from Jacob
Kosters before he moved
to Michigan and before
Kosters or Sioux Center
realized what the railroad
had in mind.
The Hawarden Independent
described the scene:
“In a few weeks, nearly
every business man in
the old town had moved
to the railroad point and
with the businessmen who
came looking for just such
a bonanza as this field
presented, the town had a
veritable boom.”
Business prospects were
too good for anyone to
spend time disputing
whether they should move
to North Sioux Center or
not. Soon, a road connected
the two towns and the mile
gap filled in with about 500
residential homes, noted
the Hawarden Independent.
The location incorporated
as one town under the
name Sioux Center on June
29, 1891.
Compiled by Sioux Center
News staff writer Renee
Wielenga, including information
from “A Pocket of
Civility: A History of Sioux
Center” by the late Mike Vanden
Bosch.
2021 SIOUX CENTER COMMUNITY GUIDE 31