Our Work

Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Confluence was selected to update an existing master plan and begin implementation of a series of phases to construct the arboretum. Located on the east side of Sioux Falls, the park site mainly consists of floodplain and farmland today, but once housed the town site of now abandoned East Sioux Falls. Rich with quarrying history and the adjacent Perry Nature Native Plant Community Area, the site is abundant in interpretive opportunities.

Phase One, completed in the summer of 2011, included construction of a parking lot with pervious pavement, the stonecutter’s garden and ornamental tree collection, the tree education circle with tree growth markers and a comparison of tree growth rates across planting type and species, and a monument entrance sign with site lighting and trail improvements throughout. Interpretive signage is dispersed throughout, split into historical and plant themes, to educate the visitor and interpret the unique history of the site. In place of a future visitor’s center, site specific history panels and a re-creation of train depot shipping pallets and crates, all fully moveable to accommodate a future building, remind visitors of the quarry history of the region.

Phase Two, to be constructed in the spring and summer of 2012, will consist of a schoolhouse building with indoor classrooms and rentable gathering spaces and the construction of a fenced area of formal gardens, tree collection plantings, a wedding lawn, and children’s garden. Future phases will include an additional large open lawn, and the addition of interpretive elements and signage as well as diverse plantings throughout the site.

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