The Jack Rabbit Bus Lines

[psanderson]

My Camp Teepeetonka experience reminded me of the Lowell Hansen family. My father was in a serious accident and was unable to work for almost a year in 1950. I went to South Sioux Grade School with Lowell Hansen Jr and Lowell Hansen Sr. paid for my trip to camp.

The Jack Rabbit Bus Lines was owned by Lowell Hansen and when he died in 1970, my friend Lowell C Hansen II took over the management. The company was based out of Sioux Falls and if you took a bus trip anywhere in South Dakota, you rode on a Jack Rabbit bus.

The buses looked exactly the same as a Greyhound bus, but instead of a running dog on the side there was a bunny rabbit.

The bus depot was located between Main & Dakota on (I think)7th street.

The Hansen family was deeply entrenched in the transportation industry because they owned or had an interest in the local cab company, the city bus company and Wilson Trucking.

[gfsfadmin]

Well this is serendipitous. I was just getting ready to post a small feature on the bus depot downtown. I've got a 3-page article that was in Architecture FORUM magazine. I'll post that in the next couple of days and add a link in this thread. If you have any more info on the station or the family, it could help pad this article out a bit.

[psanderson]

Well this is serendipitous. I was just getting ready to post a small feature on the bus depot downtown. I've got a 3-page article that was in Architecture FORUM magazine. I'll post that in the next couple of days and add a link in this thread. If you have any more info on the station or the family, it could help pad this article out a bit.

While my friend Lowell was running his transportation industry, he was also involved in state politics. He was Speaker of the House and Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota.

[gfsfadmin]

I just put the feature up on the Bus depot last night. If anyone has any more info on it, please contribute. Additional pictures during its life would be great as well.

Click here: The Old Bus Depot

[crosscouriers]

I for one am happy the downtown bus depot has gone. In its latter days it was an embarrassment to Sioux Falls. For most bus passengers, the bus station is the first and usually only impression they have of a city. Nobody left Sioux Falls wanting to come back after being in that place. It was dirty, musty, full of infested stuffed animals and frequented by more than the odd drunk or vagrant person who more than likely contributed to the decline in bus passengers. The new depot on W Russell St is great. Not an attractive building from the outside perhaps but the inside is clean, modern and efficient. They even have full time baggage handlers...the downtown depot you had to lug your own bags. There's a carpeted tv waiting lounge, an internet cafe, a small snack bar and souvenir shop. If there is a nicer bus station anywhere in the country for the size of Sioux Falls I'd love to see it.