SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Augustana University has been a staple in Sioux Falls for over 100 years, but what you may not know is that southeast South Dakota was not its first home.

Augustana went through multiple moves, which included five other locations and multiple name changes.

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Right now, Augustana University’s campus sits in central Sioux Falls, but that hasn’t always been the case.

“I describe it as ping ponging. We ping pong our way across,” Augustana Center for Western Studies collections associate Liz Cisar said.

Cisar says Augustana was originally founded in 1860 in Chicago, but it wasn’t there for long.

“The first move in 1863 was because they had decided that their school would be better served being in a rural setting, particularly in a community that was predominantly Scandinavian, because that’s the student body they were anticipating serving. So, they moved 100 miles away to Paxton, Illinois,” Cisar said.

Following that was a move to Marshall, Wisconsin in 1869 before making the decision to move to northwest Iowa in 1881.

“Basically, they were following the people westward. They were following the immigration patterns, so they moved to Beloit, Iowa and operated there,” Cisar said.

Then, Augustana finally made its way across the border into what was then the Dakota Territory in 1884.

“The school was actually expanding beyond the facilities that they were using in Beloit, and across the river, the citizens of Canton offered this big, beautiful space if the school would pick up and move across the river and operate in Canton instead,” Cisar said.

Augustana was originally housed downtown until it moved operations to the eastern edge of Canton.

“They wanted to have a location where they could expand the college and put up other buildings as they were needed,” Bill Peterson said.

Peterson studies Canton history.

“Some of it was financial. It was bringing students here, and the employees who worked here had to buy goods from the businesses and that kind of thing. Plus, there was a lot of cultural things going on. When the school was open here, they would actually have concerts and a lot of different things sponsored on campus, in the chapel, in the auditorium and different things like that,” Peterson said.

However, changes in the Lutheran church sparked yet another move.

“There was a merger of three synods, and this merger was something that had been desired for a long time. When it was all said and done, it brought 90% of the Norwegian Lutherans all together in the same church for the first time, so it was a big deal. The problem, though, was that these three synods that had joined together, one of them had been operating Augustana in Canton and another one of them had been operating Lutheran Normal School on this property where we are now in Sioux Falls,” Cisar said.

Decision-makers didn’t want two schools that are so close together competing with one another.

“The decision was, ‘We’re done doing this. Let’s merge the two together,’ which set off a very heated debate about is that going to be located in Sioux Falls, or is it going to be in Canton? Ultimately, the decision was made to move the institution to Sioux Falls,” Cisar said.

That happened in 1918. Over the years, many things at Augustana have changed, and the college has grown. Augustana’s five moves helped it earn monikers like “The School on Wheels” or “The College on Wheels.”

“I would think at some point you’re just sick of moving,” Cisar said.

That might be one of the reasons why Augustana has put itself in park in Sioux Falls for over a century.

After the college moved out of Canton, a school called Augustana Academy operated there. It offered high school level courses until it closed in 1971.