Ruskin Park became a center of excitement, entertainment, and romance after the first pioneers settled along the James River near here in 1873. The Santee and Rodee families homesteaded south of here near a large grove called Rodee's Grove, where picnics, political rallies, and community gatherings were held. In 1902 Hiram A. Rodee Jr. cleared part of the grove and built a two story hotel, a lunchroom, stables, and other buildings, erected a large canvas auditorium, and named the park after poet and naturalist John Ruskin. Special trains brought thousands of people to the park entrance depot, and people built or rented cottages and tents for summer camping. Chautauquas, plays, programs, meetings, and picnics soon made Ruskin Park the cultural and entertainment center of Sanborn County. In 1910 Robert E. Dowdell and Ben H. Millard purchased the park and made further improvements, adding a theater, forty cabins, and one of the fastest one mile race tracks around, still visible on satellite images. Over the years, many local and nationally famous bands played to hundreds in the glass dance pavilion. Later proprietors were Marion C. Dowdell from 1930 to 1949, Don Shaw from 1949 to 1954, and Walter and Dagmar Siegenthaler from 1954 to 1968.