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LOCATION
Sisseton, South Dakota, established in 1892, is 90 miles south of Fargo, North
Dakota, and 50 miles north of Watertown, South Dakota, on Interstate 29, Exit
232 at Highway 10. It is located in the Northeast region of South Dakota, just
12 miles from the Minnesota border.
Located seven miles south of Sisseton is Agency Village, the site of the
headquarters of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate.
POPULATION - 2,572
The 2000 Census indicates a population of 2,572 for the City of Sisseton and a
total of 10,016 for Roberts County in which the community is located. The retail
trade area for the city of Sisseton is a 20-mile radius and includes 12,000
people. More than 3,000 Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal members live within the
historic boundaries of the Lake Traverse Reservation.
TOPOGRAPHY
The topography of the region is divided into three distinct physical
environments. These regions can be described as: (1) the lowland region of the
Minnesota and Bois De Sioux River Valley in the east, an area of crop and dairy
farming. (2) the hills, or Coteau des Prairies area to the west, which is
characterized by parkland vegetation with lakes, grasslands, and wooded areas.
It is also characterized by beef cattle production and recreational areas; and
(3) the high plains area further west, characterized by grain and beef cattle
production.
On the western side, the Coteau (or hills), rise some 600 feet from the James
River Lowland at 200 feet per mile. The eastern side of the Coteau rises 800
feet from the Minnesota River-Red River Lowlands at a rate of 300 feet per mile.
The area contains three major watersheds. The series of hills named the Coteau
des Prairies roughly bisects the area, separating the James and Big Sioux Rivers
in the west (which drain into the Missouri River) from the Minnesota River to
the east (which flows into Big Stone Lake and later flows into the Mississippi).
The Continental Divide separates Big Stone Lake form Lake Traverse. The Big
Stone Lake flows south, and Lake Traverse water flows north to the Red River.
The maximum daily temperatures average 25 to 31 degrees Centigrade (75 to 85
Fahrenheit). Usually from June through August. Minimum temperatures are usually
from December through February and are often less than 0 (32 degrees Fahrenheit)
during January. The mean maximum daily temperature is 12.8 degrees Centigrade
(55 degrees Fahrenheit); the mean minimum is -0.6 degrees Centigrade (32 degrees
Fahrenheit).
Most often, wind direction is from the south and southeast during the summer,
and from the north and northeast during the winter.
GEOLOGY
About 20,000 years ago, the last in a series of glaciers moved across North
America like a pancake spreading on a hot griddle. As more and more snow fell at
its center, the glacier squeezed outward in all directions and its edges crept
farther and farther over the land.
Eventually, the ice entered form the northeast what is today South Dakota and
split in two around a highland. The larger slice moved southeastward, while the
smaller segment went south and west through what is now the James River Valley.
Gradually the eastern slice climbed the dividing highland to join the western
segment in a continuous frozen expanse that buried the land.
Geologists believe that, near Aberdeen, the glacier piled 1,600 feet of ice.
Since one cubic foot of ice weighs about 57 pounds, a glacier 1,600 feet thick
would exert 45 tons of pressure on every square foot of ground it covers. When
it moves, it acts like a scraper scouring and scraping the land, leveling of
high places and filling in low ones, smoothing some surfaces, while gouging
others.
The glacier came through Northeastern South Dakota at an uneven pace, moving and
stopping and retreating, then moving again. When it moved, it marked the ground
with rocks and gravel frozen in the base. Sharp-edged rocks cut long grooves in
the bedrock, and fine silt and clay polished surfaces smooth.
When it stalled or retreated, the glacier dropped piles of sediment called
moraines. All of the hills, ridges, and hummocks of the region are these
moraines, smaller where the glacier simply stalled, larger where it actually
retreated.
The entire Coteau des Prairies or “hills of the prairies”, is a glacial moraine
formation. This wedge shaped plateau, with its point of head just above the
political boundary between North and South Dakota, grew from the ancient
highland that divided the glacier. When the eastern slice of the glacier rolled
up the highland, it carried a great burden of eroded rock debris frozen in its
icy bottom. The more the glacier advanced, the more ice and frozen sediment it
piled into the highland. For as long as the glacier crept forward, the
highlands, with its growing pile, was like a wall being built layer upon layer.
When the glacier retreated entirely, when its ice finally melted, all of its
sediments were left behind in long gravelly ridges.
The lakes, the waters of the region, were also formed when the glacier
retreated, but not from chunks of ice. As the glacier melted, it sent torrents
of water southward. This water, dammed behind a barrier of glacial debris,
pooled into a lake larger than all of the Great Lakes combined. Eventually, the
lake rose high enough to carve a channel through the barrier and created what
has been called Glacial River Warren. As the glacier melt water found other
outlets, the current in River Warren began to slow and the formation of Lake
Traverse and Big Stone Lake began. Where Whetstone Creek entered River Warren,
its delta became the southern barrier that formed Big Stone Lake. Further into
the valley, the Minnesota River delta packed the River Warren channel to form
Lake Traverse. Today, the barrier between these two lakes forms the Continental
Divide. Lake Traverse flows northward to Hudson Bay and Big Stone Lake flows
southward to the Gulf of Mexico.
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