Beginning in 1873, for four consecutive summers great swarms of grasshoppers riding prevailing winds reached the Midwestern states and territories where they landed and destroyed farmers' field crops. Although several huge clouds of grasshoppers passed over Sioux Falls the first year, damage was minimal in this area.
In both 1874 and 1876, however, an incalculable number of grasshoppers arrived, darkening the sky and making sounds similar to "thousands of scissors cutting and snipping." After landing, the large insects piled in some places to depths of five inches.
They devoured everything edible in their paths, including crops, door sashes, window sills, shovel handles, leather boots, and fence posts. The 'hoppers feasted on family vegetable gardens and stripped buildings of their paint. Without crops to sell to provide for future living and farm expenses and to pay for seed for next year's spring planting, thousands of rural families were destitute.
Immigration into Dakota Territory slowed to a trickle. After the second summer of devastation, a number of penniless settlers sold their farms, including the first owner of the land which today is Spellerberg Park