Today's Minnehaha Country Club

Over a Century of Sioux Falls History and Counting...

It was a pleasant summer afternoon in Sioux Falls in 1905. A business executive looked out his window on Phillips Avenue and decided this was no afternoon to be shackled to the chains of commerce. He called a friend down the street. “Let’s play golf,” he said. The friend was willing, as were two others. He hitched up his rig - two horses and a two-seated carriage - picked up the others and they jolted along the cobblestone pavement to what were the outskirts of the city, just east of today's McKennan Park.

A small shack served as the clubhouse and the golfers changed their clothing for the required costume of the links, knickers and knee-length wool hose. To play without such attire was an unpardonable lapse from good taste. It was not much of a golf course, primarily a weed patch kept “mowed” by sheep. The greens, so-called, were of simple dirt, and conveniently at hand was rug attached to a stick so that the surface could be made smooth before putting. The golfers of that day were intrepid adventurers in the world of sport. “Imagine,” sneered the numerous critics, “grown men chasing that little white ball with a stick!” The game was derisively described as “cow pasture pool”, and that was the era was when Minnehaha Country Club was born. Today almost everything but the name has changed. Optimistic though the founders were, they would be amazed to see the plush Minnehaha Country Club of today with its superb 18-hole golf course, splendid clubhouse, large swimming pool, virtual golf simulator, fitness center, locker rooms, and the many other services and amenities.

It was not long after the club’s formation, though, there came a desire to create something better. In 1914, the club acquired land south of West 22nd Street and west of Kiwanis Avenue, which is still a part of the present site. The directors were now thinking big, and included in their plans was a clubhouse, that was considered sumptuous for its day. This first clubhouse served the Club well, and was the center of our community's social life for half a century before it was torn down in 1964. The course continued as a nine-hole layout until 1921 when additional ground was acquired and what is now described as the lower nine in the Sioux River Valley was added. This was a picturesque course, but the golfers had to cross the river eight times on the nine holes, and the bed of the stream became a graveyard for thousands of golf balls. The river control program of a decade ago, however, changed a bit, and the golfers now crossed the river only four times on the lower nine. The existing clubhouse opened in 1964 and was may well have been considered one of the finest in the nation. Today Minnehaha Country Club continues to enjoy a rich tradition as the hub of Sioux Falls' social life, just as it has for well over a century.