Blood Run National Historic Landmark, including Good Earth State Park and part of the landscape in Iowa, was once home to about 6,000 villagers. During the peak years of 1500 to 1714 A.D., a bustling village stretched for nearly five miles along the Big Sioux River, with most residents living on the east side of the river and another cluster of homes standing just south of this location. The modern-day Omaha, Ponca, Ioway, and Otoe nations know their ancestors lived here until early in the 1700s, when the Sioux nation expanded its influence in the region. Residents thrived by hunting bison, elk, and other game, by gathering the fruits of the forest, and by cultivating small plots of corn, beans, and squash in the rich soils created by periodic flooding along the river.