'Good ride' ends at stockyards: Final cattle sale marks passing of 92-year run

On a recent Sunday, Jim Woster felt the need to visit the Sioux Falls Stockyards and stand atop the rickety wooden catwalk that overlooks the mostly empty cattle pens. There were no cattle sales that day, he recalled, and the yards were quiet. "I just stood up there," said Woster, 68, who began working at the stockyards in 1962 and stayed for the next four decades. "If you ask me why I went down there on Sunday, I couldn't even tell you," he said. "But for 40 years, that's what I did. It was a way of life." Woster, now retired, was among the many stockyard workers, farmers and ranchers - and their children and grandchildren - who made final trips this month across the catwalk with the white peeling paint. The last cattle sale was Thursday, bringing to an end an era that began when the Sioux Falls Stockyards opened in 1917 and grew to become the focal point for livestock in this part of the country. Thursday's final cattle sale silenced the rumbling of trucks heading to market down East Rice Street and the sound of the auctioneer's rapid-fire salesmanship in the Cattle Arena. "Everything has its time," Woster said, pausing for a moment, "but it's a pretty special place."...ArgusLeader