The Floyd River Valley has a long history as the industrial heart of Sioux City, ever since the Exchange Mill was built on the riverbank in 1867. For most of the city’s history this area served as the home of the Sioux City stockyards and major meatpacking plants that were the lifeblood of the city’s economy. Many different working class neighborhoods popped up in this area as well, due to the large scale employment by the meat industry and the manufacturing plants that abounded in the river valley. Stockyard employees lived mainly in neighborhoods surrounding packing plants south and east of Downtown in an area known as the “Bottoms.” People employed in the brick and manufacturing industries settled in the neighborhoods of Greenville and Springdale. But the area often suffered damage with the Floyd River floods, and when the new channel was constructed in the 1960s Springdale and both the South and East Bottoms were destroyed. Today the meat industry is mostly gone, and the valley is no longer a major residential area, though it remains an important industrial center for Sioux City.