For a while, it seemed like there was no end to the great prosperity that marked the 1880s. Towns like Sioux City were booming everywhere. Then, a world wide financial panic, the Panic of 1893, brought everything to a screeching halt.

Fires have destroyed many Sioux City buildings over the years. In the years before electricity, candles and gas lights were a source of flame. The early fire departments were not equipped to stop a large blaze and many historic structures burned to the ground.

About 6:00 a.m. on May 18, 1892, a huge wave of muddy water rolled through the city. The citizens were not prepared. People were climbing trees, climbing on their house roofs and up onto the elevated railroad line to avoid being swept away by the swirling waters. At its high point the river swept from the base of Floyd's Bluff to Court Street by way of Fourth Street.

While not as serious as the 1892 flood, the 1926 flood showed how susceptible the Floyd River was to sudden rain storms.

June 8, a Monday morning, seemed to be shaping up to be a pleasant sunny spring day. Sunday had been a day of heavy rain, but the sky had cleared. The Floyd River was running high that morning, but no one suspected the disaster that would arrive in the middle of the morning.

The Pelletier Fire was Sioux City's worst fire in terms of property damage. Sometimes called "the great fire", the inferno gutted more than two entire blocks of downtown Sioux City. The fire started in the Pelletier Department Store, located where the Badgerow Building now stands, on the evening of December 23, 1904.

The land directly north of Sioux City is quite hilly and all drains into Perry Creek. In early July of 1909 very heavy rains fell into this area. The creek began to rise. By July 9 the creek was out of its banks.

The "Ruff Disaster" was one of the worst catastrophes in Sioux City history. Thirty-nine lives were lost and countless others were injured when the Hedges Block collapsed and fire started in the ruins on June 29, 1918.

The clocks in the Swift and Company building froze at 11:33 a.m., marking the moment a mighty explosion ripped through the structure. It was right before Christmas, December 14, 1949. The blast blew out parts of the west wall of the building and shattered all the windows. Floors and walls collapsed.