By 1896, as the national economy began to rebound, George Perry founded the East Sioux Falls Quarry Company to restore full-scale quarry operations, bringing new optimism after the dissolution of the Sioux Falls Granite Company and the Panic of 1893. Planned improvements included steam power, hoisting derricks, tram cars, railway side tracks, and a stone crusher, with costs estimated at $8,000 to $10,000, and the Illinois Central Railroad pledged more side trackage. Yet Perry's revival was only partly realized. By 1910 East Sioux Falls had only 268 inhabitants, and the next year only 45 families remained as demand for quartzite declined and newer building materials replaced labor-intensive stone blocks. Sioux Falls also began to question quartzite street pavers because steel wagon wheels and settling made them uneven and noisy, leading some streets to be relaid and others to be replaced with concrete or creosote-soaked pine blocks after the first concrete street was laid in 1912. In 1913 the Argus Leader declared that East Sioux Falls quits, and in 1914 the town hall burned to the ground with too few people present to fight the fire. The town then faded away, though the quarries briefly revived in the 1930s when Works Progress Administration projects reopened them to supply matching stone for additions to major buildings. With the onset of World War II, quarrying stopped again permanently. By 1950 only a bar still stood in East Sioux Falls, the last structure was torn down in 1991, and in 1997 Perry family land became Arrowhead Park and the Perry Nature Area, bringing people back to a place that had once drawn thousands for July 4 celebrations.