How Dairy Queen expanded into Sioux Falls and the rest of South Dakota: Looking back
When I was a kid, we would sometimes visit my mom’s side of the family in Omaha. My aunt Rita was the epitome of cool because: No. 1, she had been to more concerts than anyone my sisters and I knew, and No. 2, she worked at Dairy Queen and would score us the much-loved Dilly Bars when she got off work.
The Dilly Bar was introduced in 1955, 15 years after the first Dairy Queen location was opened in Moline, Illinois in 1940.
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Dairy Queen came about as a result of the advent of soft-serve ice cream. Before this time, in the 1930s, all ice cream shops served hard-pack ice cream, which was scooped into cones, dishes, and malt glasses. Dairyman John Fremont McCullough encountered a soft serve machine in 1936, while on vacation near Hammond, Indiana. He visited a shop run by Harry Oltz, which had a machine that produced soft ice cream on demand. McCullough consulted with his son and business partner, Alex McCullough, before arranging with Oltz to purchase the machine. He brought it back home to Moline to continue to perfect it. In 1938, he arranged with Mildred and Cecil Medd to try out the machine in one of their ice cream shops.
On Sept. 14, 1938, the Moline Dispatch advertised all-you-can-eat ice cream for 10¢ at Mildred’s Ice Cream Shop. The shop was bombarded by 880 ice cream lovers, where workers dispensed over 1600 servings.
It was clear that the McCulloughs were onto something. All that was needed was a name. John recalled his father, a dairyman himself, saying, “The cow is the queen of the dairy industry.” Kankakee Illinois businessman Serb Noble opened the first Dairy Queen shop in 1940 in Joliet, Illinois. The first drive-in location was opened the following year. Original soft serve machine owner Harry Oltz was in on the ground floor and owned franchise locations.
In 1948, Chester “Chet” Cooke moved from Moline, Illinois, to Sioux Falls with his wife, Alice, and two sons. The goal was to open up the Sioux Falls market to the wonders of the ice cream cone with the curl on top. Chet’s first store opened on the corner of 12th and Western. By 1950, Dairy Queen locations were booming country-wide and there were several in the state.
The South Dakota Dairy Queen Association was formed, and Rapid City owner Loyal F. Huffman was named president. It was around the same time that Terrace Park dairy expanded its operation to produce more Dairy Queen Mix for all DQ locations in the state. The following year would show even more growth.
In March of 1951, Cooke opened a second location at 31st and Minnesota. The same year, a third location was opened at 10th and Fairfax, just in time for the Fourth of July.
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By 1955, the Minnesota Avenue location had moved to 29th and Minnesota. By 1960, the 12th Street location had moved to 12th and Lake. At this point, the Dairy Queens were selling pizzas and hot dogs as well as the usual ice cold drinks, malts and sundaes.
In 1963, the 10th Street Dairy Queen location at 10th and Fairfax had been replaced with a location at 10th and Omaha in the old Cutler’s Drive-In location. On a national level, Dairy Queen had been rolling out a Queen’s Kitchen concept, which was a dine-in area that served the same great summer treats, but with an expanded lunch and dinner menu. This would make Dairy Queen a year-round concept rather than a March to September operation - a welcome change because the winter months were tough on store owners.
The locations on 10th Street and Minnesota Avenue were Queens Kitchen locations, as was the brand new Dairy Queen at 4137 N. Cliff Ave. when it opened that year. By that time, Chet Cooke was no longer the only franchise owner in town.
For years, Dairy Queen has been a staple in towns large and small. It enjoyed a post-war boom and is still doing a brisk business. The menu has expanded to include Buster Bars, Blizzards, ice cream cakes, and my favorite, the Peanut Buster Parfait. What is your DQ go-to?
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: How Dairy Queen expanded into Sioux Falls and the rest of South Dakota: Looking back
