KD Stockyards Station was the brainchild of Sioux City investor Kermit Lohry. Originally built as the Swift and Co. meat packing plant in 1917, this large building was renovated into a high class specialty mall in the 1970s. The mall filled 4 floors of the 6 storey main building, including a large bowling alley, two miniature golf courses, an arcade, resturants, a disco club, and a variety of stores. Plans called for a rail and industrial theme, incorporating decorations and architectural trimmings from the former meat packing plant. Stores included outdoor and model shops, electronics stores, appliance and hardware stores, a record store, an antique store, and storefronts for some health food schemes and other businesses. After Lohry's death the facility suffered from neglect and mismanagement, and also suffered some damage from lack of maintenance. The mall finally closed in 2004, much to the surprise of businesses who had little time to prepare or move inventory. As a result, much of the malls furnishings are still on-site, and bulky or low-value store inventory (such as cheap antiques and broken computers) is still left. One room appears to contain the remnants of Kermit Lohry's estate sale, with artifacts from his hobbies.
Abandoned stores and leftover trash. Anything portable of value has
been looted or broken by local kids or salvagers.
The entertainment areas are mostly intact, the greatest damage being
from debris falling from the cieling. After a brief cleanup and some manual
pin-setting, both the bowling alley and mini-golf course were available
for hours of fun and Australian-style dodgy crashouts.
Mall decor included industrial leftovers, Kermit's garage sale room,
the land of signs, and the very popular Mobile ClownSaw 2000.
A lounge area make for a great base camp, decorated with signs and
models found around the building. Some dry ice we found by the side of
the road helped keep our tasty beverages cool unitl it was time to camp
out for the night.
A brief snafu on the way to the site.