Two-year, $6.5 million expansion of Outdoor Campus complete
After more than two years of construction, the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls has completed a roughly $6.5 million expansion to provide more classes, year-round archery and hands-on lessons for the expanding Sioux Falls population and beyond. The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department facility, at 4500 S. Oxbow Ave., recently celebrated the moment with a public open house and a ribbon-cutting last week, including the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce , Gov. Larry Rhoden and Sioux Falls Mayor Christine Erickson. What does the expansion include? The expansion includes an indoor archery range, three new classrooms, a game-processing room and a teaching kitchen created from two former classrooms. The project also updated restrooms, added a family restroom and a nursing mother's room and expanded the wildlife-viewing area overlooking the oxbow. For Outdoor Campus Director David Parker, the reason for expanding was relatively straightforward. "It was just naturally time to grow since the city was growing," Parker said. The Outdoor Campus building dates to 1997, and although smaller improvements had been made, including a museum update in 2011, Parker said the building's footprint had remained largely unchanged. Space had become particularly tight for educational programs. The campus previously had
