“The Village of Renner”

Leonard Renner, a German immigrant and a Union Army Civil War veteran, came to Dakota Territory in 1878. He acquired farm land in Mapleton Township. Years later, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad built a track across his property. In 1898 the unincorporated village of Renner was founded along the railroad right-of-way.

While Renner was one of the last towns to be established in Minnehaha County, the first homesteaders in the area arrived in 1866. Jonas and Anne Nelson traveled here from Minnesota by oxen-drawn covered wagons with friends John and Kirsti Thompson. They stopped at Fort Dakota, located in what is now downtown Sioux Falls, and were informed that civilians could not settle within the military reservation. The northern boundary of the 70-square-mile federal reservation was the same as the east-west County Highway 130 which bisects Renner today.

Pushing on, the Nelsons claimed their homestead about two miles northwest of present day Renner. The area’s first post office was established in the Nelson home with Jonas Nelson as postmaster. The site was named Republican on early maps of Dakota Territory.

Renner quickly became the general trade center for inhabitants of Mapleton Township. A general store, Renner Mercantile, was located in a large two-story building which also included a barber shop, a pool hall, a post office, and a dance hall on the second floor. A grain elevator, a stockyard and a small passenger and freight depot were located near the railroad tracks. Later businesses included a café, several trucking companies, a garage, a lumber yard, and the First State Bank of Renner. A mother and daughter bandit team held up the bank at gun point on November 27, 1925, and made off with several hundred dollars in bills and coins. Although the robbers made a getaway, they were later arrested and prosecuted.

Since 1899, baseball has been a major recreational activity in Renner. The local team was first called the Flyers and later the Monarchs. The village has hosted the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Tournament four times, and Renner teams have won seven state championships. The Renner Band was organized in 1921 and played concerts at the band shell in Renner Park and at the fairgrounds located northwest of this spot. The fairgrounds featured a grandstand and a one- half mile dirt track. Competing race car drivers attracted crowds of several thousand patrons.

From 1927 through 1935, the Minnehaha County Fair was held here.

Overcoming adversity through the years, including occasional flooding by the nearby Big Sioux River, the village of Renner has steadily evolved into a vital and progressive community.

Dedicated in 1996 by the Minnehaha and South Dakota State Historical Societies, Mary Chilton DAR and Sioux Falls Area Foundations

Minnehaha County, Renner City park (Highway 130, Renner, SD) (2006)