Vermillion has an unusual history for a small Missouri River town: the original townsite was largely destroyed by a catastrophic flood in 1881, and rather than rebuild in the same low-lying spot, the community relocated to higher ground on the bluffs above the river - which is where the Vermillion of today sits. The University of South Dakota, founded in 1862 as the state's oldest university, anchors the town both economically and culturally, and the campus is also home to the National Music Museum, a collection of historic instruments that draws visitors from well outside the region.
We run routes through the residential streets close to campus, where century-old homes sit under mature elm and cottonwood canopy that drops hard every October, as well as the newer neighborhoods further from downtown with wider, more modern gutter systems. Vermillion's position on the bluffs above the Missouri River floodplain means it avoids some of the flood exposure of its own 19th-century history, but it doesn't avoid the same freeze-thaw winter pattern that affects the whole Siouxland region - sharp swings between warm afternoons and hard overnight freezes that turn a leaf-packed gutter into an ice dam.
At about 30 miles from Sioux City, Vermillion is the farthest stop on our regular route, but we service it every week just like the rest of our area - same scheduling, same pricing, same crew that handles the Iowa and Nebraska sides of the river.
