| Minnesota (Aitkin County), McGregor — Glacial Lake Aitkin / Peat |
| | (side 1)
Glacial Lake Aitkin
Two million years ago the first of four glaciers covered the surface of Minnesota. They were named for the limit of their southward expansion. The first was the Nebraskan, followed by the Kansan and the Illionian. The last was the Wisconsin. These large masses of snow and ice, thousands of feet thick, advanced and retreated across the face of Minnesota. About 10,000 years ago, the Wisconsin glacier melted and left behind the topography we see . . . — Map (db m43932) HM |
| Minnesota (Becker County), Audubon — Cook Homestead |
| | This plot marks the site of the home of John Cook, pioneer settler, who with his wife Diantha J., and children Freddie W., Mary E., and John W., were murdered by Indians April 26, 1872. — Map (db m60270) HM |
| Minnesota (Becker County), Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge — Old Government Road |
| | This marker locates a part of the original trail which was cut out of the forest by the U.S. Army in 1868 to facilitate travel from Leech Lake to White Earth. Soldiers accompanied the paymasters along this road in the early days to provide protection when periodic payments were made to Chippewa tribal members. All these lands were included in the White Earth Indian Reservation in 1867. In 1889 Congress passed the Rice Treaty which assigned allotments of land within the reservation to individual . . . — Map (db m8537) HM |
| Minnesota (Blue Earth County), Mankato — Amos Owen Garden of American Indian Horticulture |
| | Philosophy.
Amos Owen was a Dakota elder and spiritual leader who wanted to preserve and restore traditional Dakota beliefs and practices. He believed that the suppression of Indian peoples had led to many parts of the culture being almost forgotten, and that this was a loss not only to Native Americans, but also to all people. This garden honors Amos’ commitment to cultural and spiritual renewal, cross-cultural understanding and Native people’s contributions to world food systems.
. . . — Map (db m21588) HM |
| Minnesota (Blue Earth County), Mankato — Dakota (Sioux) Memorial – 1862 |
| | The last act of the Minnesota Dakota (Sioux) War took place here in Mankato on December 26, 1862 when thirty-eight Dakota Indians died in a mass execution on this site.
The Dakota War was a culmination of years of friction between Dakota and whites as settlement pushed into Indian hunting grounds. Government agents and missionaries hoped the Dakota could be taught to live as farmers and worship as Christians but Chief Big Eagle said many years later, “It seemed too sudden to make a . . . — Map (db m14195) HM |
| Minnesota (Blue Earth County), Mankato — Ho-Chunk / Winnebago |
| | Through treaty negotiations, the Ho-Chunk or Winnebago moved their homes to Blue Earth County in 1855, and by 1863 they were gone. Parts of what would become Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois had been their homeland for centuries. European explorers first contacted the Ho-Chunk near Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1614.
More than 2,000 Ho-Chunk resettled on a reservation located in present-day townships McPherson, Medo, Beauford, Decoria, Lyra, Rapidan and parts of South Bend, Mankato and LeRay. . . . — Map (db m14053) HM |
| Minnesota (Blue Earth County), Mankato — The First Mahkato Memorial Wacipi |
| | This memorial is to honor those Dakota who created the First Mahkato Wacipi in 1972.
The Wacipi is to remember the thirty-eight Dakota executed in Mankato in 1862 and to create a spirit of reconciliation between the people of Mankato and the Dakota people.
The following Dakota people with members of the Mankato YMCA planned the first Wacipi:
Amos & Ione Owen • Wallace & Gertrude Wells, Sr. • David Larsen, Sr. • Norman & Edith Crooks • Amos & Rosemma Crooks • Hereditary Chief . . . — Map (db m17506) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Brown County Veterans Memorial |
| | Dedicated to All Brown County Veterans
This memorial is a lasting tribute to past, present and future veterans who served during peacetime and the following conflicts: Indian Wars 1817 - 1898 ·
Mexican War 1846 - 1848 ·
American Civil War 1861 - 1865 ·
Spanish American War 1898 - 1902 ·
World War I 1917 - 1918 ·
World War II 1940 - 1947 ·
Korean Conflict Jun 27 1950 - Jan 31 1955 ·
Vietnam Era Aug 5 1964 - May 7 1975 ·
Gulf War Era Aug 2 1990 -
American . . . — Map (db m65526) WM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Gänseviertel (Goosetown) |
| | Goosetown began forming around the flour mills, brewery, and railroad tracks circa 1870. Settlers were largely German-Bohemian Catholics of peasant stock who farmed and worked in nearby industries. Inhabitants kept geese which were free to roam, thus the name "Goosetown." Two room houses were common. Cottage industries including gathering clam shells for buttons from the river, and handmaking Klöppel lace developed. Water was secured from a spring-house near the corner of 8th South and Front . . . — Map (db m58435) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Hermann Monument — (Hermann Denkmal) |
| | Hermann (Arminius) of the Cherusci tribe led several German tribes in battle against their Roman conquerors in 9 A.D., and defeated them in the hills of Teutoburg Forest near present Detmold. To later unified Germany, Hermann symbolized liberty and unity. In 1874 Ernst Von Bandel completed a colossal German Monument dedicated to Hermann near the Teutoburg site.
As a project of the National Sons of Hermann Lodges in the United States, Julius Berndt, New Ulm architect and . . . — Map (db m65467) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Jacob Nix Platz — To a Patriot, Solider, Public Servant |
| | Jacob Nix from Bingen Am Rhein in Germany was a key figure in the defense of New Ulm in 1862. Born in 1822, Nix early joined the push for a united Germany under a republican form of government. During the ill-fated 1848 Revolution, Nix served as Captain in the revolutionary "Free Corps." Captured, charged with high treason, and sentenced to be shot as a revolutionary, Nix escaped. Like many German "48ers", he emigrated to America.
In 1855, at a national convention of German-American . . . — Map (db m65455) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — John Lind Home |
| | This home was built by John Lind in 1887 and was a significant cultural, social and political center built on a prominence above early New Ulm. Swedish born Lind came to America and Minnesota in 1867 at age thirteen. While very young he was a rural teacher in the area until 1874 when he came to read law with a lawyer in New Ulm. He was admitted to the bar here in 1877 and resided here almost continuously until 1901 when he moved to Minneapolis.
During his residence in New Ulm Lind was a . . . — Map (db m65399) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Junior Pioneers of New Ulm and Vicinity |
| | In the early 1870's, fourteen settlers purchased this beautiful spot located on the north bank of the Big Cottonwood River and named it Jägers Ruhe (Hunters' Rest). The objectives of this group of hunters was to preserve this property for their children and their children's children, to preserved the natural beauty for posterity, and to accommodate people who wanted to enjoy a day or an afternoon in the open away from the humdrum of everyday life.
The owners of Hunters' Rest had maintained . . . — Map (db m66087) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Kiesling House — (1861) |
| | The Kiesling House is one of the three downtown buildings in New Ulm to survive the Dakota War of 1862. Frederick W. Kiesling, blacksmith and ferrier, had built the modest frame house ($125) the year before the outbreak of the war. In August of 1862 New Ulm defenders marked the Kiesling House for torching in the event that the Dakota attack broke through the downtown barriers. The downtown defenses held even though the city lost about 75% of the buildings to fire.
In 1970 the family-owned . . . — Map (db m65497) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Leavenworth Rescue Expedition |
| | During the Minnesota Sioux Uprising of 1862, eighteen men left New Ulm early on the morning of August 19, and travelled westward about 20 miles along the Big Cottonwood River to the area of Leavenworth. Searching for relatives and friends, they found dead settlers and wounded children. Two men took the wounded by wagon to New Ulm, and during the day another man left and two more joined the group.
Part of the expedition returned to New Ulm about 3:00 P.M., during the first attack on the . . . — Map (db m65486) HM WM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — New Ulm |
| | In 1851, leaders of the Dakota Nation signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux with the United States Government. This treaty opened new lands in Minnesota Territory for settlement. Two years later, German immigrants in Chicago, led by Frederick Beinhorn, formed the Chicago Land Society. They sent Athanasius Henle, Frank Massopust, Christian Ludwig Meyer, and Alois Palmer to search for a suitable site for a town. On Oct. 7, 1854, the scouting party selected an ideal location near the confluence . . . — Map (db m65452) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — New Ulm's Glockenspiel |
| | Schonlau Park, named in honor of Theodore H. and Clara K. Schonlau, is the setting for the City of New Ulm’s unique Glockenspiel. Local contributors were joined by donors from three foreign countries, 31 States, and 51 other Minnesota cities, in matching a magnanimous gift from Clara Schonlau to provide the funds necessary to construct the first free-standing carillon tower in North America. New Ulm’s 45 feet tall musical clock tower was dedicated on May 25, 1980, with over 1500 people in . . . — Map (db m65492) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Pioneer Founders of New Ulm |
| | Frederick Beinhorn and Wilhelm Pfaender, pioneer founders of the prairie colony of New Ulm, were cut of the same cloth. Both came to America from Germany after the 1848 Revolution in Central Europe failed to unite German peoples under a new frame of government. Both sought New World frontiers to realize unfulfilled dreams of freedom and a more ideal social life.
Beinhorn (1821-1900), a visionary from the North German province of Braunschweig, founded the Chicago Land Association and . . . — Map (db m65694) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Roebbecke Mill |
| | On this site in 1859 Frederick Roebbecke built a seventy foot high wooden windmill for grinding corn and grain. Situated on a prominent ridge, it commanded an excellent view of the scattered settlement. Barricaded with sacks of flour and grain, the mill was an important defense outpost in New Ulm during the 1862 Sioux uprising. On Saturday, August 23, intense fighting occurred about the mill, held by a small group of defenders. That evening it was fired and abandoned. Two days later New Ulm was . . . — Map (db m65400) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — The Wallachei |
| | This neighborhood dates back to the early days of New Ulm. Oral history suggests the borders shown above. The origin of the name “The Wallachei” is obscure. The most likely translation is “low land horse pasture.” Or, legend has it, Mr. Kraus had a horse named Walla. Each morning he would send his son out to the barn with the instruction: “Gibs” du Walla heu” (Give Walla hay). There were a few large families, large gardens, numerous farm animals, flocks . . . — Map (db m65396) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Turner Hall |
| | The Turner concept of developing a sound mind and body through discussion of common problems and physical exercise was conceived by Frederick Jahn of Berlin in 1811. It was an effort to strengthen German resolve against the French conqueror, Napoleon.
After the German Social Revolution of 1848, the "Forty-eighters" sought refuge in America and established Turner Societies. The Turner Colonization Society of Cincinnati arrived in New Ulm in 1856 and merged with members of the Chicago Land . . . — Map (db m65426) HM |
| Minnesota (Brown County), New Ulm — Two Battles of New Ulm |
| | The first news of the Sioux Uprising was brought to New Ulm at noon on August 18, 1862, by survivors of a Civil War recruiting party that had been ambushed in Milford Township. Barricades were hastily erected in a three-block area on Minnesota Street under Captain Jacob Nix’s command, and Henry Behnke was sent to St. Peter to ask for help.
The first attack on Tuesday, August 19, by about one hundred Indians was repulsed. By the time of the major attack on August 23, some three hundred . . . — Map (db m65402) HM |
| Minnesota (Carlton County), Carlton — Geology of Minnesota — Jay Cooke State Park |
| | This point overlooks the St. Louis River Valley. The steeply inclined rocks in the river channel upstream are alternating beds of slates and graywackers of the Thompson Formation thousands of feet thick.
Slates are rocks formed from original deposits of mud which are first compacted into shale and subsequently converted into slate by heat, pressure, and movement in the Earth's crust. Graywackers originate as beds of sand with enough gray and black grains to produce the dark color.
. . . — Map (db m44627) HM |
| Minnesota (Carlton County), Carlton — Henry C. Hornby |
| | 540 acres of land southwest of this point, embracing Silver Creek in Jay Cooke State Park are dedicated to the memory of this pioneer civic leader who made great contributions to the establishment and development of this park.
Lands donated by Mr. Hornby's daughters in January 1953 in memory of their father.
– 1957 – — Map (db m53599) HM |
| Minnesota (Carlton County), Carlton — Josiah B. Scovell |
| | One half mile south of this point lie three islands, known as numbers 1, 2, & 3, in the St. Louis River, which were settled by Josiah Boardman Scovell, original U.S. patentee in 1881, who retained ownership for the balance of his life.
Islands donated as part of Jay Cooke State Park by Edith Scovell on Nov. 18, 1944 in memory of her father.
–1957– — Map (db m53857) HM |
| Minnesota (Carlton County), Kettle River — 1872 |
| | In memory
of the Finnish pioneers who arrived here in the western part of Carlton County in 1872 and thereafter, and made their homes with courage and perseverance.
Erected 1952 by Minnesota Finnish American Historical Society Chapter No. 3.
Muistoksi
Suomalaisille esiraivaajille jotka saapuivat tanne lansi osaan Carlton Kauntia vuonna 1872 ja sen jalkeen rohkeasti, sitkeydella kotinsa.
Perustivat pystyttanyt 1952 Minnesotan Suomalainen Amerikan Historiallinen Seura Osasto No. 3. — Map (db m3266) HM |
| Minnesota (Carlton County), Kettle River — The 1918 Fire |
| | On October 12, 1918, a massive forest fire raced through northeastern Minnesota from Sturgeon Lake to the shores of Lake Superior north of Duluth. When it was over, this region had suffered through one of Minnesota’s worst disasters.
Weather conditions on October l2, 1918, were right for the tragedy which ensued. Hot, dry weather had prevailed for several months. Railroads were determined to have started the fires as sparks from the engines ignited dry brush along the tracks. On this day, . . . — Map (db m3031) HM |
| Minnesota (Carlton County), Mahtowa — The Iron Range |
| | One hundred miles north and west of Duluth lies the Iron Range. North America's largest iron ore region consists of three major iron ranges: the Vermillion, the Mesabi, and the Cuyuna. The Vermillion was the first to ship iron ore from Minnesota beginning in 1884 at Tower-Soudan. Extending from Tower to Ely, the Vermillion ore was found in vertical deposits requiring the use of underground mining techniques. The great Mesabi Range, extending for nearly one hundred miles from Grand Rapids to . . . — Map (db m44038) HM |
| Minnesota (Carver County), Chaska — Brinkhaus Livery Stable |
| | This property
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
Brinkhaus Livery Stable
1890 — Map (db m59555) HM |
| Minnesota (Carver County), Chaska — City Square Park |
| |
City Square Park
City Square in Chaska has always been a gathering place and the heart of this community. The land was set aside for public purpose in 1852 in the original plat. Early settlers in Chaska found six earthen mounds on this site built by persons known as the Mound Builders, who preceded the Dakota Indians. Originally there were six circular mounds variously thought to be for protection, burial, or worship. Some were removed in creating streets, but the remainder of these . . . — Map (db m63707) HM |
| Minnesota (Carver County), Chaska — Jonathan in Chaska |
| | This silo marks the site of the Christian Bender farm, homesteaded in 1854. George Bender, grandson of Christian, sold the farm to Henry McKnight in 1963. This was the first farm to become part of Jonathan.
Dedicated October 13, 2001 — Map (db m60394) HM |
| Minnesota (Carver County), Chaska — CR-CKC-057 — Little Rapids Fur Post |
| | By 1804 Jean B. Faribault was trading in furs for the Northwest Company near the "Little Rapids" of the Minnesota River, 5 miles south of this point, and in this vicinity. His fur post of 1824 on the site of Chaska became the nucleus for the first Catholic mission in Carver County under Father Ravous.
[Seals of the Minnesota Department of Highways and the Minnesota Historical Society] — Map (db m41051) HM |
| Minnesota (Cass County), Whipholt — Sugar Point Battle |
| | When a federal marshal with about 100 troops of the 3rd Infantry tried to arrest the Chippewa Chief Bugonaygeshig at Sugar Point opposite here on the northeast shore of the lake, a sharp fight occurred October 5, 1898. The whites lost 7 killed and 16 wounded and the arrest was never accomplished. — Map (db m59807) HM |
| Minnesota (Chisago County), Harris — Minnesota's Arrowhead Region: A Tourist Mecca |
| | "The North Country is a siren Who can resist her song of intricate and rich counterpoint?"
(Grace Lee Nute, The Voyageur's Highway, 1941)
Lured by America's premier wilderness canoe region, Lake Superior's rugged shoreline and cascading streams, and Duluth's reputation as America's great inland seaport, tourists have been coming to the northeastern Minnesota since the 1890s. In recognition of this great natural treasure, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Superior . . . — Map (db m4948) HM |
| Minnesota (Chisago County), Taylors Falls — Folsom House |
| | William Henry Carmen Folsom, St. Croix River Valley lumberman and land speculator, chose this imposing site for his home in 1854. He, his wife Mary Jane, and their two small sons lived in an open barn on this property to prove up the claim while the five-bedroom home, reflecting both Federal and Greek Revival styles, was constructed. In 1855, after the family moved in, Mary Jane wrote to relatives in Maine, "We shall have plenty of room for as many as will come."
W.H.C. Folsom arrived in . . . — Map (db m44027) HM |
| Minnesota (Chisago County), Taylors Falls — Geology of the Taylors Falls Region |
| | About 1.1 billion years ago, a great rift valley formed across the North American continent from the Lake Superior region southwest to Kansas. As this rift valley opened, basaltic lavas erupted into it, accumulating to a thickness of up to 20 kilometers in the Lake Superior region. The dark-grey basalt rock that form the St. Croix River gorge are made from these rift lava flows. Continental rifting with volcanism is common in the geological record and often leads to the breakup of continents . . . — Map (db m45814) HM |
| Minnesota (Chisago County), Taylors Falls — Glacial Potholes |
| | The potholes at the St. Croix Dalles have their origins in a tale of fire and ice. They are carved in a dark volcanic rock called basalt, which erupted as lava 1.1 billion years ago. This basalt is related to lava flows that line the North Shore of Lake Superior. About 500 million years ago, when shallow tropical seas covered this area, the basalt was buried beneath a thick blanket of sand, which later became sandstone.
During the last two million years, glaciers have advanced from the . . . — Map (db m46434) HM |
| Minnesota (Chisago County), Taylors Falls — Taylors Falls United Methodist Church |
| | This is the oldest Methodist Church building in continuous use in Minnesota. Methodist circuit riders of the Sunrise Mission served the Taylors Falls area 1852-59. On March 27, 1859, the Rev. Sias Bolles organized the Taylors Falls Methodist Episcopal Church with 35 members. Services were held in the Town House School as the church was erected 1860-61. It was dedicated January 1, 1862 by the Rev. Cyrus Brooks, Presiding Elder. The church served as an enlisting site for those who went . . . — Map (db m44571) HM |
| Minnesota (Clay County), Moorhead — Douglas House |
| | Built by James and Wilhelmina Douglas in 1873 and occupied until 1887, James Douglas ran a steam ship line along the Red River and served as Moorhead's first Post Master. — Map (db m43831) HM |
| Minnesota (Clay County), Moorhead — Red River Transportation / A Busy Port |
| | Red River Transportation The Red River Trails were a set of overland routes linking the cities of Winnipeg and St. Paul and the small forts and settlements between them. From 1820 to the 1870s, the trails were used by Metis freight drivers who hauled cargo in wooded ox-drawn carts. The Metis were people of native American and European descent, many of whom lived along the Red River near the U.S.-Canadian border. Metis carts left Canada each spring laden with furs, buffalo skins, beaded . . . — Map (db m43832) HM |
| Minnesota (Clay County), Moorhead — St, John's Episcopal Church |
| | St. John's Episcopal Church was designed on an Elizabethan model by the noted architect, Cass Gilbert, among whose other significant buildings is the present Minnesota State Capitol. Construction of St. John's began on August 1, 1898.On February 12, 1899 the church was consecrated and the first confirmation held. Episcopal church services in Moorhead date from 1872 when the Reverend James A. Gilfillan conducted a service in a Northern Pacific Railroad passenger coach. With the arrival of . . . — Map (db m43829) HM |
| Minnesota (Clay County), Moorhead — Veterans Memorial Bridge — Moorhead, MN and Fargo, ND |
| | Red River of the North — Map (db m43835) HM |
| Minnesota (Cook County), Grand Portage — The Grand Portage |
| | The Grand Portage, or Great Carrying Place, was a key 18th century link between the Pigeon River and Lake Superior, making it also a vital connection between Montreal and the rich fur-bearing lands far to the northwest. Traveled for centuries before by Native peoples, the 8.5 mile portage bypassed the unnavigable rapids and waterfalls on the lower 21 miles of the Pigeon River. Beginning about 1731, thousands of tons of furs and traded goods were carried across the Grand Portage on the backs of . . . — Map (db m62049) HM |
| Minnesota (Crow Wing County), Deerwood — The Cuyuna Range |
| | Named for entrepreneur Cuyler Adams and his faithful dog Una, the Cuyuna Ranges lies at the westernmost edge of a ring of iron ore that circles Lake Superior. The smallest of Minnesota’s three northern iron ranges, the Cuyuna was also the last to be opened. By the time ore was shipped from the first Cuyuna mine to Duluth in 1911, Minnesota had already become the leading iron ore producer in the country.
In many ways, this range differs from Minnesota’s other two great ranges. Here the ore . . . — Map (db m43934) HM |
| Minnesota (Crow Wing County), Fort Ripley — Fort Ripley |
| | The establishment of Fort Ripley in 1848 represents the U.S. government’s effort to establish control on the northern frontier. Construction began on the west bank of the Mississippi River across from this point a year before Minnesota became a territory. The government intended it to be a buffer between lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe and to protect the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) who had been unwillingly moved from their land in Wisconsin Territory as part of the buffer.
Originally known as . . . — Map (db m43935) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Downtown Develops |
| | As Hastings quickly grew and settlement in the area increased, this port city soon became the commercial center for Dakota County farmers.
Farmers brought wagons full of crops to the Hastings market, and then returned home driving wagons full of goods purchased from the city's growing number of merchants. The thriving community soon attracted numerous industries and skilled workers.
A Landmark Remembered
In 1895, the city erected the Spiral Bridge which deposited traffic at the . . . — Map (db m47843) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Enjoying the River |
| | The Mississippi River has been a source of recreation for many generations. People have long enjoyed its beauty and marveled at its power.
This is more true than ever today. Boating, hiking, and bird watching all draw people to the river. In 1988, the federal government recognized the importance of the river's recreational appeal by designating a 72-mile stretch of the river as the Mississippi River and Recreational Area.
Safety and Stewardship
The Mississippi is a large and . . . — Map (db m48510) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Geology of the Dakota County Region |
| | Hasting lies just south and East of the last glaciation. About 20,000 years ago a lobe of ice, called the Superior lobe, advanced from the Lake Superior basin and crossed the ancient bedrock valley of the Mississippi River between St. Paul and Hastings. There it filled the valley with ice and sediment (silt, sand, gravel and boulders). Glacial ice trapped in the valley was then covered by more sediment as the ice lobe slowly receded. The melting lobe then deposited a large amount of sediment . . . — Map (db m42199) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Going with the Flow |
| | A dynamic force, the Mississippi River changes constantly. Humans have also changed the river, dramatically altering its flow and levels — sometimes with unintended results.
In its natural state, the river once flowed freely across a large floodplain — which included the trail that you are standing on now. The river habitat relied on this seasonal flooding, a key feature of a river's natural system.
Shaping the Land
Much of the Upper Mississippi River Valley was . . . — Map (db m48570) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Hastings Grows |
| | From 1856 to 1865, in its first decade of existence, the city of Hastings grew by 2,500 people, enjoying a boom of settlement also experienced by other cities along the Mississippi.
A steady flow of settlers, including many immigrants, contributed to a rapid growth of farming and industry in the region — and Hastings became a hub of commercial activity.
The Arrival of Immigrants
The treaties of 1851 relocated the Dakota to reservations, opening abundant land west of the . . . — Map (db m48361) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Hastings Spiral Bridge — Erected 1895 • Demolished 1951 |
| | Hastings Spiral Bridge Only One of Its Kind in America
April 27 1895 eight thousand people commemorated the opening of the new "High Wagon Bridge" across the Mississippi River.
It was built in seven months at a cost of $39,050 by the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Works of Milwaukee, replacing the inadequate rope ferry which served the city of 3,848 people and its trade area.
Four men claim credit for its design. The traditional straight approach by-passed the business area, thus . . . — Map (db m49690) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Ignatius Donnelly's Nininger City Home |
| |
Just northwest of here, at the bottom of the hill, stood the home of Ignatius Donnelly, author, orator, politician, reformer, and prophet who was easily the best known Minnesotan of his time, both in the state and throughout the world.
Donnelly, a lawyer from Philadelphia, moved west to Minnesota and launched a national campaign to attract settlers to Nininger City, a promising village of more than 500 residents when it was laid out around 1856. After the town melted away during the . . . — Map (db m65584) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Living in the Water |
| | The Mississippi River has provided a habitat for many species of fish and other aquatic creatures for millions of years. Human modifications of the river have had both positive and negative effects on fish populations here. Many types of fish thrive in the oxygen-rich waters just below the dam, but backwater areas, which used to provide important breeding grounds, have disappeared.
Early Fishing Practices
For the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples who lived in the vicinity of the Mississippi, . . . — Map (db m49277) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Mississippi |
| | The Father of Waters
The Mighty Miss
The Great River
Source: Lake Itasca MN 552 River Miles
Mouth: Gulf of Mexico 1788 River Miles
This natural water highway made possible many of man's experiences on the North American continent. The Hastings Levee served as a port when people and commerce relied on water transport. This mooring ring is a reminder of the River's golden era.
Gift from
Hazel Jacobsen Theel
1999 — Map (db m47809) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Native Cultures |
| | For more than 10,000 years, people have lived near the Mississippi River. The first cultures relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering for survival. As early as 1,000 years ago, however, Indian peoples were farming portions of the river valley near here, growing corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers.
Many early cultures used the river as a major transportation route. The river enabled the development of extensive trade networks between groups for items such as copper, lead ore, and shells . . . — Map (db m49801) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Nininger Historic Site |
| | On this historic site, the SW corner of Block 67 of the Nininger City plat, was located a building that served the citizens for a century and a half. Construction began in March, 1858, when the Nininger Chapter of the Independent Order of Good Templars, founded in New York to promote total abstinence of intoxicating liquors, established a two story Good Templars' Hall here. However, membership faltered and the first floor became a school in 1859.
Decay destroyed the first floor of the 20' . . . — Map (db m65618) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — River Habitats |
| | The Mississippi River and its backwaters are home to a vast and diverse array of fish and wildlife. The river's natural fluctuations help create an environment rich in vegetation — providing food and habitat for nesting birds, fish, and numerous other creatures.
But modifications such as dams and levees, while helpful to navigation and agriculture, threaten the river's ability to sustain this critical habitat. Water level management is one tool for restoring river habitat.
. . . — Map (db m50358) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Roadside Park Veterans Memorial |
| |
In Honor and Memory
of All Men and Women
Who Served Our Country
During War and Peace in
the Armed Forces of the
United States of America
Duty · Honor · Country — Map (db m42213) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Shaping the River |
| | The natural river above Hastings was treacherous for steamboats, with a depth that reached only three and one-half feet in some places. The first efforts of the federal government to improve navigation of the river were wing dams (piles of rock and brush) to direct the river's flow, and closing dams that constricted alternate water channels, thereby scouring a deeper river bottom.
Finally, in the late 1920s, in order to create a nine-foot navigable channel, the federal . . . — Map (db m48475) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Spiral Bridge — 1895 – 1951 |
| |
This footing is all that
remains of the unique
bridge that once spanned
this river.
Historical Preservation Commission
1982 — Map (db m49747) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Steamboats, Trains, and Barges |
| | The Mississippi River has long been a major artery for trade and transportation.
For thousands of years, Indians traveled on the river by canoe. By the 1850s, rivertowns like Hastings boomed as steamboats brought settlers into the region. The steamboat era was colorful but short, coming to an end with the expansion of railroads.
With the construction of the lock and dam system in the 1930s, the Mississippi again became an important shipping thoroughfare — and it remains so . . . — Map (db m48589) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Hastings — Veterans Memorial Levee |
| | This levee honors all who served in our nation's armed forces and is dedicated to the eternal memory of those who gave their lives.
Hastings, Minnesota
25 July 1981 — Map (db m47790) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Inver Grove Heights — B-52 Crash Site — Cold War Veterans Memorial |
| | On this spot on September 16, 1958, a U.S. Air force B-52D bomber crashed while on a Cold War training mission originating from Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine. Seven crewmen gave their lives for their country. They were:
Captain Wm. C. Horstman, pilot, Kansas City, MO
Captain Richard J. Cantwell, navigator, Phoenix, AZ
Major S. O. Gillespie, Jr., radar observer, Atlanta, GA
1st Lt. Wm. F. Huskey, engineer, Norman, OK
T/Sgt. Leon R. Lew, tail gunner, . . . — Map (db m45193) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — "Where the Waters Meet" |
| | Called M'Dote or "the place where waters meet" by the Dakota, this area is central to many Dakota creation stories and is significant to Dakota people today. Just west of this site is Pilot Knob, which was used extensively for burials by the Dakota up to the 1850s.
Archaeological research has uncovered evidence of habitation at this location going back at least 9,000 years. Artifacts such as French gunflints and other trade goods clearly show this was one of the earliest fur-trading . . . — Map (db m37659) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — Faribault House |
| | In front of you stands the Faribault House, built by long-time fur trader Jean-Baptiste in 1839. Faribault was originally from the Montreal area, and had been associated with the British and American fur traders since the late 1790s. He built this spacious home for his wife, Pelagie, and their children. In 1853, after Pelagie died, he and his son Alexander moved to what is now the town of Faribault
After Jean-Baptiste left, a series of owners tried to make a living as hoteliers. By the . . . — Map (db m37618) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — General Henry Hastings Sibley |
| |
[symbol of the Daughters of the American Revolution; image of the Sibley House]
To the glory of God and in memory of General Henry Hastings Sibley. Born February 20, 1811, died February 18, 1891. A great patriot - soldier - statesman. This historic marker is built
of the only remaining stone from the pioneer church erected by General Sibley in 1847 as a place of worship; "for Christians of all denominations." The church stood upon a high hill opposite this site.
. . . — Map (db m37573) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — Henry Sibley and Old Mendota |
| | The Sibley House was built in 1836 for Henry Hastings Sibley, regional manager for the American Fur Company. The first floor was designed for business operations, and the second floor was his bachelor's residence. Two additions were made to the house after 1843, when Sibley married Sarah Jane Steele. The rear addition expanded the living space and added a kitchen and dining area, while the office on the left served as his business headquarters. Sibley also lived here when he served as the first . . . — Map (db m41358) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — Mendota / Sibley House |
| | [symbol of the Daughters of the American Revolution]
Mendota
In the language of the Sioux means the mouth of a river. Was the earliest
permanent white settlement in southern Minnesota. A pioneer center of the fur trade. Near
here were signed treaties with the Indians in 1805 · 1837 · 1851, ceding to the whites most
of the land in Minnesota. Fort Snelling was established on this side of the river in 1819.
This region was long known as Saint Peters.
Sibley House . . . — Map (db m37534) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — Mendota / Sibley House Association |
| |
Mendota
This wide valley intersection between the two rivers known today as the Minnesota and Mississippi has been a meeting place for people for thousands of years.
The Dakota people lived on these prairielands by the 1700s. They knew this place as Mdo'-te or "the junction of one river with another." French explorers and traders who were here in the late 1600s named the Minnesota river Sans Pierres because the river was silty but had few rocks. British . . . — Map (db m38269) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — Sibley House Historic Site |
| | Welcome to the Sibley House Historic Site! This area had long been the center of travel and trade for the Dakota when it became the center for American Fur Company operations on the Upper Mississippi. It was also home to Minnesota's first governor, Henry Sibley.
The stone houses you see below are the remnants of the vibrant operation of the fur trade centered here from the late 1700s to the 1850s. When 23-year-old Henry Sibley arrived to take over operations in 1834, he came roughly to . . . — Map (db m41238) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — St. Peter's Church |
| | Here at Mendota (where the rivers meet) missionaries ministered to both Indians and settlers, enduring the hardships of a sprawling wilderness that was the Minnesota country. In 1842, Father Lucien Galtier built a small, log chapel with only two windows, where the Catholics of St. Peter's Parish worshipped for nearly eleven years.
In 1844 Father Augustin Ravoux, who had already spent three years in the area, arrived at Mendota to assist Father Galtier. When Father Galtier left to serve . . . — Map (db m37714) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota — The First Stone House |
| | 1835 • 1916
[symbol of the D.A.R.]
The first stone house erected in the State
of Minnesota by its first Governor,
Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley.
Secured in 1910 for the St. Paul Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution
from St. Peter's Parish of Mendota
— by —
Mrs. Lucy Shepard MacCourt.
Presented to the State Society D.A.R.
April 19, 1910. — Map (db m37594) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota Heights — Mendota Work Camp No. 1 |
| |
The "New Deal"
During the Great Depression of the early 1930's, more than 25 percent of the nations' workforce was unemployed. One of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA employed 8.5 million people during its eight years of existence. Projects completed by the WPA included the construction of 650,000 miles of roadways, 125,000 public buildings, 13,000 playgrounds and 8,000 . . . — Map (db m40481) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota Heights — Pilot Knob |
| |
1851 • 1922
[symbol of the D.A.R.]
To Commemorate The Treaty at Mendota
Negotiated on
Pilot Knob
Whereby the Sioux Indians ceded their lands
in the Territory of Minnesota and State of Iowa
to the United States Government.
Placed by
Mendota Chapter, Daughters American Revolution
St. Paul, Minn. — Map (db m37430) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), Mendota Heights — United States War Veterans Memorial |
| |
Dedicated
to the memory of all
United States War Veterans
June 25, 1939
Dedicatory Committee
United Spanish War Veterans
Veterans of Foreign Wars
American Legion — Map (db m37739) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), South Saint Paul — Armour & Company — 1919 – 1979 |
| | With the establishment of the stockyards, meat buyers were quick to congregate in South St. Paul. In 1897, Armour had buyers here. Cattle, hogs and sheep were purchased and then shipped to Chicago for processing. Nearby the Swift & Company plant was already operational. The St. Paul Union Stockyards offered Armour land and financing to build a plant but Armour declined. In 1915, after the start of World War I, subsidies, free land and the lure of an established public livestock market provided . . . — Map (db m31247) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), South Saint Paul — Kaposia Village |
| | Here on the Mendota Trail from 1839 to 1852 stood the Sioux village of the Little Crow family. An attempted Chippewa attack in 1842 precipitated the Battle of Kaposia across the river. After the Treaty of Mendota in 1851 the band moved up the Minnesota River to the Lower Sioux Agency region near Redwood.
[seal of the Minnesota Historical Society] [seal of the State of Minnesota, Department of Highways] — Map (db m31186) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), South Saint Paul — Swift & Company — 1897 – 1969 |
| | On this site stood Swift & Company’s slaughterhouse and meat packing plant. It eventually became the company’s largest plant in the United States. The area covered 28 acres, with 30.5 acres of floor space in multi-storied buildings.
Swift & Company, founded in Chicago in 1869, came to this location in 1897 when Alpheus B. Stickney, a prominent businessman and President of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, negotiated a 999 year lease with Gustavus Swift of Chicago to take over a small . . . — Map (db m40768) HM |
| Minnesota (Dakota County), South Saint Paul — The Stockyards |
| | The idea to create a livestock market and meat packing center at South St. Paul was conceived by Alpheus B. Stickney, a prominent railroad businessman. After meetings with western livestock ranchers and producers, the need to locally slaughter and process the cattle, hogs, and sheep passing through the area en route to Chicago became apparent. Stickney discussed the situation with livestock organizations and business leaders of St. Paul. The St. Paul Union Stockyards was organized June 30, . . . — Map (db m31274) HM |
| Minnesota (Faribault County), Blue Earth — A Golden Dedication for I-90 |
| | The nation celebrated completion of Interstate 90 after contractors paved the last four-miles of freeway near Blue Earth in 1978. Reminiscent of the "Golden Spike" that symbolized completion of the nation's first transcontinental railroad in 1869, officials arranged to tint a small section of I-90's pavement gold. Also, like the two locomotives that met at the juncture of the transcontinental railroad to represent east meeting west, two Minnesota National Guard trucks met at the union of I-90, . . . — Map (db m34405) HM |
| Minnesota (Fillmore County), Lanesboro — Minnesota's Norwegian Americans |
| | Like immigrants from many European nations in the mid-19th century, Norwegians left their homeland to escape overpopulation, food shortages, and farm foreclosures. They began arriving in Minnesota in the 1850s, drawn by rich farmland and job opportunities. Eventually they grew to become the state's third largest ethnic group, and Minnesota became a national cultural center for Norwegian Americans. Among the first to arrive were immigrants who had first settled in Wisconsin and then migrated . . . — Map (db m31323) HM |
| Minnesota (Freeborn County), Albert Lea — Minnesota’s Roads / Welcome to Minnesota |
| | Minnesota's Roads. "A perfect highway is a thing of beauty and joy forever," enthused a speaker at Minnesota's first "Good Roads" convention in 1893. "It blesses every home by which it passes."
Early in the 1890s, even before the automobile age, bicycling Minnesotans and those interested in improved mail delivery and farm marketing were clamoring for better roads. But Minnesota's constitution, adopted with statehood in 1858, expressly prohibited the state from engaging in "works of . . . — Map (db m9911) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Cannon Falls — "We Must Have a Gun" |
| | The Grand Army of the Republic (the GAR) was organized by Civil War veterans. The Cannon Falls George McKinley GAR Post #92 closed its minutes on February 1, 1897, with this note: "We Must Have a Gun." Its members were determined to acquire a Civil War cannon for Cannon Falls as a symbol of their shared sacrifice and to honor Colonel William Colvill, hero at the battle of Gettysburg. It took more than 10 years, but in 1910, a Civil War cannon was shipped from the . . . — Map (db m46821) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Cannon Falls — 1888 Cannon Falls Fire Hall |
| | This property has been
placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior — Map (db m46837) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Cannon Falls — Colonel William Colvill Monument |
| |
William Colvill,
Col. 1st Regt. Minn. Vols.
Born April 5, 1830.
Died June 12, 1905.
In Memory Of
Colonel William Colvill and the 1st Reg. Minn. Vols. which he commanded at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863.
This was the first regiment tendered to President Lincoln at the outbreak of the Civil War; and it served three years in the Army of the Potomac, during which time it engaged in the following battles and operations:
. . . — Map (db m46813) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Frontenac — Christ Episcopal Church |
| | Built to the Glory of God
1868
by Gen. Nathaniel C. McLean
and Consecrated October 27th
by Bishop Henry Whipple.
This church has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior. — Map (db m45602) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Frontenac — GD-FLC-056 — Fort Beauharnois |
| | On the shore of Lake Pepin just north of here a French expedition commanded by LaPerriere and accompanied by two Jesuits in September 1727 built a substantial log fort and the mission of St. Michael the Archangel. The post was occupied periodically until about 1756.
[seals of the Minnesota Department of Highways and Minnesota Historical Society]
2010 Replica of Original 1940 Plaque — Map (db m45242) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Frontenac — Frontenac |
| | This scenic Mississippi River site provided Native Americans food, shelter, and transportation for over 9,000 years. Count Frontenac, the Governor of New France, sponsored the first European explorers to this area in 1680. James (Bully) Wells established a fur trading post in 1840. In 1854, Evert Westervelt opened the first store in “Western Landing.” Israel and Lewis Garrard brought resources and craftsmen to build an aristocratic frontier city and, in 1857 platted the town . . . — Map (db m47158) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Frontenac — GD-FLC-054 — Lake Pepin's Shell Game / In Search of Summer — Great River Road Minnesota |
| | Lake Pepin's Shell Game
Celebrated today as a resort area, Lake Pepin had an earlier fame as a clamming center. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, more than 500 clammers worked the lake from their flat-bottomed johnboats, using giant combs called crowfoot bars to rake the abundant mussel beds. In this way, they gathered mussel shells to sell to the button factories at Lake City.
With thirty-two species in its waters, Lake Pepin
was unusually rich in mussels. Many bore colorful . . . — Map (db m51948) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Frontenac — Wakondiota Park |
| | In the 1857 town plat of Frontenac (then called Westervelt), Wakondiota Park was designated as two blocks long, one block wide, and located at what is now the Christ Episcopal Church site. When the town was renamed in 1859, the park was moved one block east, quadrupled in length, and merged with Delta Park.
[Frontenac street map]
The Dakota Native American word "Wakondiota" means "a sacred space created by the cutting of many trees". The park's name befits the spirit and intent . . . — Map (db m47877) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Barn Bluff |
| | "The most beautiful prospect that imagination can form," wrote 18th century explorer Jonathan Carver about the view from Barn Bluff. "Verdant plains, fruitful meadows, and numerous islands abound with the most varied trees.... But above all, reaching as far as the eye can extend, is the majestic, softly flowing river.”
Composed of various Paleozoic rocks, including sandstone, siltstone, and dolomite, and capped by some 35 feet of sand, gravel, and loess deposited by glaciation, Barn . . . — Map (db m24816) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Depot — Completed: 1905 |
| | The construction of this building began in 1904 following an agreement in which the city of Red Wing provided trackage concessions and the railroad agreed to construct this depot and donate money toward construction of Levee Park. This building was designed by the railroad company architect, J.M. Nettenstrom, in a style influenced by the neoclassical revival of the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition.
Located in the Red Wing Historic Mall District and listed in the National Register of . . . — Map (db m49097) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Civil War Memorial |
| | Erected
to the
Memory
of the
Volunteer
Soldiers
of
Goodhue County
1861–1865 — Map (db m45492) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Geology of Minnesota — Red Wing Region |
| | During the great ice ages the landscape of Minnesota was profoundly altered by continental glaciers in four major epochs of glaciation. In this area, as elsewhere, the closing stage of each epoch was characterized by the release of floods of meltwater which eroded the broad valley of the Mississippi River 200 feet deeper than the present channel. Because the tributary streams carried less water than the main river they were unable to cut down so rapidly, and consequently their valley floors had . . . — Map (db m45869) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Goodhue County Veterans Memorial |
| | Dedicated to those who gave their lives in service to their country.
[outline of Goodhue County]
Goodhue County Veterans Memorial · May 21, 1988 — Map (db m52985) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Kiwanis Stairway |
| | Citizens of Red Wing have long sought convenient access to the summit of Mt. La Grange (Barn Bluff) to enjoy the impressive view of the Mississippi valley.
In 1889 local civic leader C.C. Webster promoted the construction of a path up the west face of the bluff. Built with volunteer labor, it became known as Webster's Way.
In 1908 members of the Civic League under the leadership of A.W. Pratt, organized a community group to rebuild the then long-neglected pathway. For several years . . . — Map (db m24890) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Mt. La Grange – Barn Bluff |
| | This bold bluff was a landmark for French explorers who named it Mt. La Grange for its resemblance to a large barn.
Some 10,000 years ago meltwater from the glaciers carved a deep channel in this area. Barn Bluff became an island in the five-mile wide river that then filled the valley.
The rock layers are shown at the left. The nearly vertical fault line visible at the bluff's southwest edge indicates a crack which developed millions of years ago. As a result the greater part of the . . . — Map (db m24982) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — National Newspaper Association |
| | Launched from Red Wing, the National Newspaper Association has been the voice and vehicle of grassroots American journalism for 100 years.
NNA was founded as the National Editorial Assn. but was renamed in 1965. Today it embraces approximately 5,000 community weeklies and 700 dailies going into 45 million U. S. homes. NNA nurtures press freedom, upholds journalistic standards, and defends First Amendment rights.
Benjamin Briggs Herbert, then editing the . . . — Map (db m46972) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — Remember the Maine — 1898 • 1902 |
| |
In Memory of the Soldiers, Sailors and Marines
of the
Spanish American War, who Volunteered in the Cause of
Freedom, Patriotism, and Humanity.
Dedicated by the
Department of Minnesota Auxiliary
United Spanish War Veterans
June 19, 1943 — Map (db m52401) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — T.B. Sheldon Memorial Auditorium |
| | Theodore B. Sheldon, prominent local grain merchant and business leader, bequeathed to the City of Red Wing half of his estate to be used for a public purpose. After his death in 1900, his trustees chose to construct the T.B. Sheldon Memorial Auditorium.
Built in 1904, it is believed to be the first municipally owned playhouse in the United States.
The gray brick building of Renaissance style, designed by Lowell Lamoreaux, originally had a triple doorway at the entrance and . . . — Map (db m47739) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — The G.A. Carlson Lime Kiln |
| | The G.A. Carlson Lime Kiln, built in 1882 on the northeast end of Barn Bluff (Mt. LaGrange), is typical of approximately thirty such kilns in use in the Red Wing area during the period from 1870 to 1908. Gustavus Adolphus Carlson at one time operated 12 lime kilns in Red Wing.
Limestone taken from the many quarries in and around Red Wing provided a significant source of building materials for the city and surrounding areas as far as St. Paul and Minneapolis. Quarry products included cut . . . — Map (db m39722) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — The Sea Wing Disaster / Victims of the Sea Wing Disaster |
| | On July 13, 1890 the steamer Sea Wing, heavily loaded with 215 passengers and crew, left the steamboat landing here for a Sunday excursion down the Mississippi River to Lake City.
The Sea Wing, based in Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin, was usually employed as a log-rafter, but for this trip captain and co-owner David Wethern had lashed a barge to his ship to increase its passenger capacity. Citizens of Red Wing were interested in the excursion since Lake City was the site of the . . . — Map (db m49445) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Red Wing — William Colvill |
| | William Colvill was born in New York state on April 5, 1830. As a young lawyer he moved to Red Wing in 1854, becoming the town's first city attorney.
On April 19, 1861 — one week after the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter — a citizens' meeting was held at the courthouse in Red Wing in response to a call for Union soldiers. Colvill and 49 others eagerly enlisted as members of the "Goodhue Volunteers." Colvill is said to have leaped over the backs of others attending the . . . — Map (db m48890) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Vasa — Vasa: Mattson's Settlement |
| | Founded in 1853 and called “Mattson’s Settlement” after its first resident, Hans Mattson, the community was renamed Vasa in 1856 in honor of Swedish King Gustav Vasa. Once called “the most Swedish colony in America,” the town prospered as an agricultural community until its two general stores, creamery, and post office were closed in the 1950s. It has continued to serve as a religious center, and its ethnic heritage has been carefully preserved.
Two men . . . — Map (db m45380) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Zumbrota — First Congregational Church |
| | [cross]
This property has been placed on the
National Register
of
Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
In memory of Laura Schlasner — Map (db m49215) HM |
| Minnesota (Goodhue County), Zumbrota — Zumbrota Covered Bridge |
| | Constructed over Zumbro River in 1869 · cost $5,800. Original site Highway 58 about 1,000 feet from present location.
120 feet long town lattice truss design plans by A.J. Thatcher · construction supervised by E.L. Kingsbury.
Served as stagecoach route between St. Paul and Dubuque.
Transported by horses to fairgrounds in 1932 · moved to present site in 1970.
Placed on National Register of Historic Places.
Plaque by Zumbrota Covered Bridge Society. — Map (db m49209) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Bloomington — Bloomington Town Hall |
| | The Bloomington Town Hall was built twenty feet from this site in 1892 on land given to the Township by the Baillif family. The building was moved to the current location in the 1930's in the first of a number of remodelings the building has experienced.
The Town Hall served as a meeting place, church, school, and municipal building until 1964, when it became the Town Hall Museum and headquarters of the Bloomington Historical Society.
The 2008 restoration returned the exterior . . . — Map (db m15357) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Bloomington — Civil War Monument |
| |
[south side]
Erected by the Citizens of Bloomington,
Memorial Day, 1890,
In honor and memory of our country's defenders
1861, - 1865.
Monument Committee.
Sever Ellingson, Chairman. •
Wm. Oxborough, Jr. •
H.H. Pond, Treas. •
J.N. Kelly. •
E.B. Miller, Sec't'y.
Antietam
[east side]
Died In The Service.
John McClay, Co. B, 1st Minn. Vol. Inf. •
Orville Ames, Co. B, 1st Minn. Vol. Inf. •
Martin S. Whalen, Co. B, 1st Minn. Vol. Inf. • . . . — Map (db m56933) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Bloomington — Fallen Heroes Memorial |
| | Fallen Heroes
SPC Benjamin J. Slaven June 9, 2006 ·
SGT Brent W. Koch June 16, 2006 ·
SPC Kyle R. Miller June 29, 2006 ·
SSG Jeffery J. Hansen Aug. 21, 2006 ·
SSG Joshua R. Hanson Aug. 30, 2006 ·
SGT Germaine L. Debro Sept. 4, 2006 ·
SPC Kampha B. Sourivong Sept. 30, 2006 ·
SFC Scott E. Nisely Sept. 30, 2006 ·
SGT Bryan T. McDonough Dec. 2, . . . — Map (db m42804) WM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Bloomington — Rodney J. Putz — 1939 – 1994 |
| | In memory of
Rodney J. Putz
1939 – 1994
This living garden has been
planted in memory of
Rodney J. Putz.
Visionary, Entrepreneur,
Leader, Teacher, Mentor,
Friend, Brother, Father,
Husband, Great Human
Being, and key to the success
of
Mall of America. — Map (db m17287) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Bloomington — Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond |
| | 1834 – 1934
To honor Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond
Volunteer missionaries to the Dakotas who arrived at Ft. Snelling May 6, 1834.
This tablet is placed on the house built in 1856 by Gideon H. Pond. Near-by is the site of the old mission house built of logs in 1843.
Placed June 1934 by Keewaydin Chapter D. A. R. — Map (db m4894) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Edina — Minnehaha Grange Hall |
| | [west side]
Minnehaha Grange No. 398 was organized on December 12, 1873. Its members came from Edina Mills, Richfield Mills, St. Louis Park and the surrounding area.
At first, the Grange met in the homes of its members. Then in the summer of 1879, the Grangers started construction of a meeting hall near Edina Mills. The site was at the southeast corner of Wooddale Avenue and West 50th Street (now the site of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church).
The building was completed . . . — Map (db m55450) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Edina — Old Cahill School |
| | [east side]
The Cahill Settlement was one of the early communities in the western half of Richfield Township. It was established in the 1850s by Irish immigrants fleeing famine in their native Ireland.
During the years of 1846, 1847 and 1848, the entire potato crop failed in Ireland. An estimated 1.5 million people died of starvation during the famine years. The pioneer families of the Cahill Settlement were among the 750,000 Irish emigrants that came to the United States . . . — Map (db m55813) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Excelsior — Geology of Lake Minnetonka |
| | Like most lakes in Minnesota, Lake Minnetonka was formed during the Ice Age of the last two million years. During several separate glacial periods, ice advanced along different routes across the state. The glaciers, along with large volumes of sediment (clay, silt, sand, gravel, and boulders) trapped in the ice, altered the pre-existing terrain and created the landscape we see today.
Before glacial action, the surface of this region consisted of sandstones and limestones, which formed . . . — Map (db m59925) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Excelsior — In Honor of All Who Served and Those Who Died |
| | Army • Navy • Air Force
Marines • Coast Guard • Merchant Marines
World War I
Grant Lorenz US Army
Donald Gray US Army
Blanchard West US Army
Mervin Grover US Army
Guy R. Forbes US Army
J. Jay Vietz US Army
John W. Crabtree US Army
Roger Kennedy US Army
Korean War
Herbert L. Schmidt US Air Force
World War II
Alfred Bottke US Marines ·
Omer E. Huntington US Army Air Force ·
Paul B. Johnsen US Army ·
William R. Olson US Army ·
Donald . . . — Map (db m63784) WM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Excelsior — Peter M. Gideon |
| | This Tablet Commemorates
Peter M. Gideon
Who Grew The Original
Wealthy Apple Tree
From seed, on this his homestead
— in 1868 —
Erected by
The Native Sons of Minnesota
— June 1912 — — Map (db m59217) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Excelsior — Peter M. Gideon and the Wealthy Apple |
| | In 1853, Peter Miller Gideon and his wife, Wealthy, arrived in Minnesota from Ohio and settled on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. Long interested in fruitgrowing, Peter Gideon determined to satisfy the craving of pioneer families for apples and other fruits although all previous efforts to grow them had failed.
In 1854, he recorded that he planted one bushel of apple seed and a peck of peach seed. For fourteen years he planted, seeded, and grafted more than 10,000 apple, cherry, peach, . . . — Map (db m59213) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Excelsior — Soldiers Memorial |
| |
[The Grand Army of the Republic Badge]
In memory of our soldier dead. — Map (db m60849) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — 1 — 1–Main Entrance Minnehaha Lower Glen |
| | The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board welcomes you to Minnehaha Park. The park consists of two levels: The upper level is maintained as an open picnicking area. Many of the city's traditional festivals such as Svenskarnas Dag are held here. The lower level – Minnehaha Glen – is maintained in a natural state to preserve the natural and cultural history of the city. The combination and the contrast of the two provide you, the user, a variety of experience while in the park.
. . . — Map (db m40787) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — 3 — 3 – Master Map |
| |
1 Main Glen Entrance
2 Abandoned Falls Marker
3 Master Map
4 Ecological Marker
5 Spring-fed Wetland
6 Old Godfrey Mill Site
7 Lower Glen Geology
8 Camp Fire Area
9 Springs Marker
10 St. Peter Limestone Marker
11 Mississippi Confluence
12 Stone Quarry
13 Lower Glen Entrance
[map]
At this point you are near the original mouth of Minnehaha Creek where it formerly emptied into the Mississippi River at a level equal to the top of the falls. Close . . . — Map (db m43665) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Beneath the Surface — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | This 1893 map shows the system of tunnels that ran under the West Side Milling District–part of the complex waterworks that brought energy from the 50-foot drop of the falls into the mills. Water from the
river above the falls flowed through gates into a man-made canal. Next, the water streamed through headraces to turn the turbines that drove the machinery, eventually returning to the river through
tailraces to complete the circuit of energy without combustion.
marker . . . — Map (db m28081) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Bridging the Stream — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | People have long crossed the river at about this point. This was a natural fording place, used by Native Americans and also by soldiers from Fort Snelling. The first documented ferry service was provided by a Dakota Indian woman with her canoe in the 1840s. In 1850 John H. Stevens received permission to operate a ferry for the army and later that year built the first frame house on the west side. Danger lurked, however. Row boats and rafts were always at risk of being swept over the falls by . . . — Map (db m50228) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Changing the Shape of the Falls — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | When Europeans first saw the falls, the crest was well below Hennepin Island. Natural erosion caused the line of the falls to move steadily upriver at about four feet a year. By the 1850s, the cataract was approaching the upper limit of the limestone ledge that sustained it. In the course of time, without human intervention, the falls would soon have become a rapids.
The pace of erosion increased after lumbering and milling began. Logs floating downriver crashed against the limestone and . . . — Map (db m28025) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Christ Church Lutheran — National Register of Historic Places — June 20, 2001 |
| | Christ Church Lutheran was founded on 1911. This building, designed by world famous Finnish architect, Eliel Saarinen, was completed in 1949. Immediately the building received international acclaim as one of the earliest examples of modernist design of places of worship. The education wing designed by Saarinen’s son, Eero, was completed in 1962. In 1977 the American Institute of Architects awarded the worship space the Twenty-Five Year Award, an award recognizing buildings of enduring . . . — Map (db m50066) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Col. John H. Stevens |
| | Born June .13. 1820
Died May .28. 1900
First settler in the City of Minneapolis. — Map (db m17234) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Como–Harriet Streetcar Line |
| | For 74 years this transit railway carried passengers to downtown jobs, to University of Minnesota classes, and to picnics and concerts on the shores of Lake Harriet.
Steam passenger trains of the Minneapolis, Lyndale & Minnetonka Railway first reached this station from downtown Minneapolis in 1880. Called the "motor line," the railway was extended to Excelsior in 1882.
The Minneapolis Street Railway Company, organized by Thomas Lowry in 1875, purchased the line in 1887 and converted . . . — Map (db m38850) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Eliza Winston — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | By 1860 St. Anthony had become a favorite summer resort for wealthy southerners who traveled on steamboats up the Mississippi. Often they and their black slaves stayed at the Winslow House. One such slave was Eliza Winston. Slavery was illegal in Minnesota, and a local free black woman named Emily Grey persuaded her to leave her owner. A court sustained Winston's right to freedom, but a proslavery crowd threatened harm. Antislavery people in the town hid her, and she later made her way to Canada. — Map (db m42714) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Father Hennepin Bluffs |
| | This was the site from which Father Louis Hennepin, the Franciscan Priest, first viewed the Falls of St. Anthony in June of 1680. He named the falls after his patron saint St. Anthony of Padua.
The famous waterfall was responsible for the birth of Minneapolis. The cataract is the most abrupt drop in the 2,200 mile course of the Mississippi River.
This immediate ground, which commemorates St. Anthony Falls, was the former Lucy Wilder Morris Park. The original size of the area was . . . — Map (db m21030) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — First School House |
| | This tablet marks the
site of the
First School House
in Minneapolis
Built by
Revs. J. D. Stevens
and Gideon H. Pond
June 1835
Dedicated by
Native Sons
of Minnesota
July 5, 1911 — Map (db m65803) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Geology of Minnesota — Lake Harriet Region |
| | The continental glaciers spreading over Minnesota during the great ice ages brought vast quantities of rock material from the north to be dumped indiscriminately during the recession of the ice. Old river valleys were filled and belts of hills were formed as conditions changed. The Lake Harriet landscape has such an origin.
Leaving the present channel of the Mississippi River at the Plymouth Avenue Bridge, a preglacial valley runs almost directly south beneath Lake of the Isles, Lake . . . — Map (db m37863) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Geology of Minnesota — Minnehaha Falls |
| | Near Fort Snelling, 10,000 years ago, melt water from the Wisconsin glacier was discharged through the Mississippi River and plunged over a ledge of Platteville limestone into a gorge cut chiefly in the white St. Peter sandstone. The undercutting action in the soft sandstone caused the limestone ledge to break off with a vertical face, thus maintaining the falls, while causing them to retreat upstream. When the falls in the main channel passed the upper end of the island–where the . . . — Map (db m40765) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — George Washington Bi-Centennial Tree |
| | Planted April 27 1932
This tablet placed
Americanization Day
April 27 1934
By Halvarson-Bowers Aux' 187
Veterans of Foreign Wars — Map (db m17227) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Gunnar Wennerberg — Swedish Poet, Composer, Educator and Statesman — 1817 – 1901 |
| | [In Swedish and English, English version follows]:
Oh God, who rulest fate of nations,
Almighty thou in every land;
Who holdest life and death’s privations.
Within the hollow of thy hand,
Whatever punishment thou wieldest
For Svea’s sin of yore ‘gainst thee,
Endure she will, if thou but shieldest
Her immemorial liberty.
Statue presented to the City of Minneapolis
June 24, 1915 by
Wennerberg Memorial Association. — Map (db m17235) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Historic Milling District |
| | This aerial view shows the gatehouse, water power canal and adjacent mills as they appeared in 1945. They, together with similar structures on the east bank, made Minneapolis the milling capital of the nation from 1880-1930. Changes in marketing and technology led to its decline.
In the near future, the parkway and related park facilities will be developed in this area. The gatehouse will be uncovered, the canal reopened, and the mill ruins developed as an historic interpretive park. Plans . . . — Map (db m27169) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Indians at the Falls — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | For Native American people, the Falls of St. Anthony was a landmark and sacred place. The river was a major highway for trade and travel. Although no Indian villages have been recorded here, oral traditions suggest frequent visits for fishing and maple sugaring. When white settlers started arriving from the east in the 1840s, Dakota Indians still lived across the prairies to the west and along the Mississippi to the south. The Ojibway Indians lived by the rivers and lakes in the vast white pine forests to the north. — Map (db m43661) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — John Harrington Stevens House |
| | Built in 1850, this was the first house on the west bank of the Mississippi, located at Saint Anthony Falls near the present-day Minneapolis Post Office.
John H. Stevens received permission to occupy the site, a part of the Fort Snelling military reservation in exchange for providing ferry service at Saint Anthony Falls. Steven's house and claim were originally known as the "ferry farm."
In the years 1850 – 1855, this house became the civic and social hub of the west bank . . . — Map (db m17264) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Joseph N. Nicollet — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | Nicollet Island bears the name of a French scholar and scientist who explored the headwaters of the Mississippi for the US government in 1836. Accompanied by some Ojibway friends and two hired voyageurs, Joseph Nicollet camped by the falls for several days, then canoed up the river with his barometer, sextant, chronometer, charts, and notebooks. From his measurements he created the first reliable map of the region. — Map (db m38455) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Minnehaha Depot |
| | Milwaukee Road station agents affectionately referred to the quaint little Minnehaha Depot as "the Princess." Its delicate gingerbread architecture is reminiscent of the Victorian era when ladies in bustles and gentlemen in high collars traveled largely by train.
The first track connecting Minneapolis with Mendota was laid in 1865 by the Minnesota Central Railway, the predecessor of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway. The Princess was built in the mid-1870s to replace a smaller . . . — Map (db m17233) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — New Uses for Old Mills — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | The square seven-story building with a sloping mansard roof at First Street and Fifth Avenue was built in 1879 as the Crown Roller Mill. It was then one of the largest and most modern flour mills at the falls, although its daily capacity of 2,400 barrels was soon surpassed by others.
Because of the heavy machinery they held, flour mills had thick stone or brick walls and massive foundations, making them good candidates for remodeling and re-use. In 1988, with a combination of public and . . . — Map (db m43004) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Pettingill's Wonderful Water — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | A natural spring flows from the rock at the base of Hennepin Bluff below this spot. According to tradition the iron-red mud at the spring provided pigment for Native Americans. White settlers of the 1850s believed the water had medicinal qualities. In 1875 the enterprising M.P.Pettingill capitalized on the popularity of the falls as a tourist mecca and health resort by building a spa and selling the water. The business was abandoned in the early 1880s when the source of the spring was traced to a dirty swamp some distance away. — Map (db m21033) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Portaging Around the Falls — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | For untold generations of Indian people the Mississippi River was an important canoe route. To pass around the falls, the Dakota (Sioux) and Ojibway (Chippewa) used a well-established portage trail. Starting at a landing below the site now occupied by the steam plant, the trail climbed the bluff to this spot. From here it followed the east bank along what is now Main Street to a point well above the falls. — Map (db m21032) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — President Lyndon B. Johnson |
| | President Lyndon B. Johnson, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, and Governor Karl Rolvaag enjoy the spray from Minnehaha Falls. On that day in 1964, however, Minneapolis was experiencing a drought. In order to create the beautiful display of the falls pictured here, the city had to open many fire hydrants, upstream and out of sight, to feed water to the creek.
Photo by Minneapolis Tribune — Map (db m41153) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Richard Chute Square |
| | The University of Minnesota's first building, a preparatory school, was located on this site from 1851 until the University moved to its present location in 1855.
When the city of Minneapolis acquired the land for a park in 1903, it was named in honor of businessman Richard Chute, an early University of Minnesota regent and a director of the St. Anthony Waterpower Company.
The Ard Godfrey House, which was owned by the Chute family from 1880 until its purchase by the Hennepin . . . — Map (db m37825) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Stone Arch Bridge |
| | "This viaduct...is the only one of its kind that spans the Father of Waters, and is one of the largest and most noteworthy in the United States.
Firmer than the earth which supports it, it is constructed to stand the test of time."
—Daily Minnesota Tribune, November 23, 1883
St. Anthony Falls Historic District, National Historic Register of Historic Places, 1971
National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, 1975
Construction 1882-1883
The Stone Arch Bridge . . . — Map (db m27042) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Symbols on the Skyline — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | Several structures have dominated the crest of the hill above this spot. The first was a luxury hotel named the Winslow House, built in 1857 by James M. Winslow while St. Anthony was still a favorite resort and health spa. Its style of architecture according to a St. Paul newspaper had "a cupola and mortgage on top." During the Civil War, tourists from the South stopped spending summers at the falls, and the hotel closed.
The Winslow House was torn down in 1886 to make way for the . . . — Map (db m50208) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Ard Godfrey House |
| | Built in 1848, the Ard Godfrey House is the earliest frame house still standing in Minneapolis. An example of Greek Revival architecture, it originally occupied a site in the vicinity of Main and Second Streets Southeast.
Ard Godfrey, a millwright, moved here from Maine in 1847 to build a sawmill at St. Anthony Falls, the only major falls on the Mississippi River waterway. More than 125 years ago this house became a popular meeting place for citizens of the area and for visitors. Godfrey, . . . — Map (db m37774) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Barrel-Makers' Co-ops — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | The red brick building at the corner of Third Avenue and First Street was one of many factories that supplied the barrels used for flour. Called coopers, the skilled workers who made barrels pioneered a new role for labor in Minneapolis. When their wages were cut in 1874 and a strike was broken, some of them formed a co-op. The idea spread, and by 1886 two-thirds of the coopers at the falls belonged to shops owned and managed by the workers. They prospered until flour sacks replaced barrels after 1900. — Map (db m44523) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes |
| | Near this spot in 1630 Father Louis Hennepin first sighted and named the Falls of Saint Anthony.
This is the oldest standing church in the city of Minneapolis. The front rectangular nave, built of native limestone, was opened by the First Universalist Society in 1857.
In 1877 the French - Canadian Catholic community of Minneapolis purchased the original structure. Adding the transepts, sacristy, and bell tower, this community has worshipped here for 100 years.
The building was . . . — Map (db m51065) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Crash of Flight 307 — March 7, 1950 at 9:02 PM |
| | During its approach through a blinding snowstorm, NWA Flight 307 clipped its left wing on the flagpole at Ft. Snelling Cemetery. Captain Donald Jones struggled to maintain altitude as he circled around for another attempt. The wing detached completely above the Washburn Water Tower, causing the plane to crash into the Doughty family home directly across from this spot. The resulting explosion and fire destroyed the house and severely damaged two adjacent dwellings. Children Janet and Tommy . . . — Map (db m56011) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The House of John H. Stevens — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | The US Post Office stands on the site of the first permanent dwelling in what is now Minneapolis. The land was part of the Fort Snelling Military Reservation in 1849, but the army allowed John H. Stevens to build a house in return for operating a ferry above the falls.
For a time, John Stevens and his wife, Frances Helen, had no white neighbors, but they recalled often walking to find Indians camping nearby on their way to sell food and buy goods in the shops of St. Anthony across the . . . — Map (db m43036) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Pillsbury A Mill — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | The Pillsbury A Mill, built of Platteville limestone, was the world’s largest flour mill when it was completed in 1881. The design by LeRoy S. Buffington is considered a classic of industrial architecture, and the interior of the mill boasted state-of-art technology. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The mill originally produced 5,000 barrels of flour per day, a capacity that was later increased to more than 17,000 barrels. Pillsbury’s Best Flour is still sold around the . . . — Map (db m40687) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Stone Arch Bridge — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | In 1879 St. Paul railroad magnate James J. Hill opened his "Manitoba line" to the Canadian border, linking the wheat fields of the Red River Valley with the flour mills of Minneapolis. To improve railroad access at the falls he built this 2,100-foot bridge that stands as a monument to the railroad era and Hill's vision. Completed in 1883 with a sweeping curve at its west end, the bridge is a unique example of skilled masonry construction. In 1974 it was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. — Map (db m21031) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Washburn and Pillsbury Clans — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | Minneapolis flour milling magnate, Cadwallader C. Washburn, was a member of a Maine family that sent four brothers to Congress, all from different states. Cadwallader served Wisconsin as congressman (1854-61, 1867-71) and governor (1872-73). His younger brother, William D. Washburn, also a Minneapolis mill owner, became a Minnesota congressman in 1879 and US senator in 1889.
George A. and John S. Pillsbury, brothers from New Hampshire, became frontier businessmen and millers in . . . — Map (db m44409) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The West Side Milling District — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | Minneapolis on the west bank of the river quickly overtook St. Anthony on the east side. A major reason was more efficient use of water power. In 1857 the Minneapolis Mill Company started to build a canal along South First Street. Enlarged and extended several times, it provided waterpower to a total of 25
assorted factories and mills by 1871.
As flour production boomed in the 1870s, other industries were crowded out. From the 1880s through the 1920s, some two dozen flour mills lined the . . . — Map (db m27746) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — The Whirlpool — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | "The falls are going out!" cried the alarmed citizens of St. Anthony on October 5, 1869. A tunnel being dug under the river bed to bring waterpower to Nicollet Island had collapsed. A giant whirlpool formed
below the island as the river rushed into the hole. Efforts to plug it with log rafts, dams, and mud were all unsuccessful. New breaks opened up and swallowed the lower part of Nicollet Island. The problem was
finally fixed in 1876 when the US Army Corps of Engineers constructed a large dam underneath the entire river bed. — Map (db m42741) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — Westminster Presbyterian Church |
| |
The former site of
Westminster
Presbyterian Church
Dedicated March 11, 1883
Destroyed by fire
September 6, 1895.
— Map (db m3687) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Minneapolis — William de la Barre — Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Trail |
| | After the Washburn A Mill explosion in 1878, a young Vienna-born engineer called on owner Cadwallader C. Washburn with a dust-collecting device that he said would prevent such accidents. Washburn hired him to oversee rebuilding the A Mill. William de la Barre stayed as the engineer for the milling companies that controlled the use of the falls. By improving the water distribution system, he increased the over-all output of waterpower nearly six times. His work ushered in the era of . . . — Map (db m43664) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Mound — 9/11 Memorial |
| |
Dedicated to the victims
who lost their lives
in the terrorist attacks
on September 11, 2001
"Terrorist attacks can
shake the foundations
of our biggest buildings,
but they cannot touch
the foundation of America."
President George W. Bush
September 11, 2001
Donated By Chamberlain Goudy VFW Post 5113
— Map (db m59394) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Mound — Minnetonka -- Queen of the Inland Lakes |
| | In May, 1822, a Fort Snelling drummer boy named Joseph R. Brown and his friend, William Snelling, son of the fort's commander, canoed up what is now called Minnehaha Creek to "discover" a lake long sacred to the Indian people who built burial mounds along its shores. Thirty years later, the 23-square-mile natural lake with 110 miles of indented shoreline was named "Minnetonka" -- Dakota for "Great Piece of Water" -- by Governor Alexander Ramsey.
By the early 1880s Lake Minnetonka had . . . — Map (db m59258) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Mound — SurfSide Park — City of Mound |
| | Mound's "Surfside Park & Beach" was platted in 1881 and consists of two parcels. Little is known of its history until 1935, when the northerly parcel was purchased for $350. The southerly parcel consists of five lots. Four of the lots were purchased for a total of $2001 in 1940, and the remaining lot was purchased for $1000 in 1962.
The park's earliest neighbor to the east, the Chapman House Hotel, was homesteaded in 1881. The hotel was located where Chapman Place Condominiums are . . . — Map (db m60470) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Mound — Veterans Monument |
| | Army • Navy • Coast Guard • Marines • Air Force
[military service seals]
This monument is dedicated to all the men and women who served in times of peace and war. All gave some...
some gave all
Mound Post #5113
Minnetonka Post #398
City of Mound
Dedicated November 11, 2008
— Map (db m60833) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — Colonel Josiah Snelling — 1782 – 1828 — Soldier · Pioneer · Builder |
| | An Appreciation
He served with distinction in the Indian wars of the old northwest border and in the War of 1812. In August, 1820, he assumed command of the Fifth United States Infantry at Camp Coldwater on the site of Fort Snelling. Selecting the bluffs at the junction of the rivers for the construction of Fort St. Anthony, he laid the cornerstone September 10, 1820, and built the stone fort which for years was the Nation's strongest outpost on the Western Frontier. As a compliment to him . . . — Map (db m17240) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — Elizabeth R. Snelling |
| | Elizabeth R.
Snelling
The first white
child
born in Minnesota
September 1820
October 1821
Erected by the
children of
Fort Snelling, Minn.
May 30, 1926
Reinterred
1940 — Map (db m12652) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — Fort Snelling 1861–1946 |
| | This historical ground was a pivotal place in the development of the Northwest. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Fort Snelling expanded its limestone walls into this area, formerly a part of the U.S. Indian Agency and the location of the fort's gardens. As the frontier moved west following the war, the fort, as Headquarters of the Department of Dakota, administered and supplied dozens of western posts.
The military played an increasing world roll after 1898, and the fort . . . — Map (db m42180) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — Giacomo Constantino Beltrami — 1779 – 1855 |
| | From this point, Beltrami, Italian jurist, scholar and explorer, on July 7, 1823, started his journey into the wilderness of northern Minnesota resulting in his discovery of the source of the Mississippi River August 19, 1823. Through persistence, audacity, self-denial and steadfast courage he contributed a fresh chapter to the already brilliant record of important discoveries in this new land by such gallant Italian explorers as Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, the Cabots and others.
Presented . . . — Map (db m17239) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — Honoring All Veterans Memorial |
| | [tablet WI.a.]
Robert J Hoeppner · Navy •
Donald N Thorgaard · USMC •
John Kraemer · Army •
Joseph Troseth · Army •
George M Kenealey · USMC •
Wayne W Keep · USMC •
Chjarles C Myre · USMC •
Gregory P Myre · USMC •
Richard W Harms · Army •
William J Blanchard · USMC •
Frank A Klingberg · Navy •
Roger J Mcinerny Jr * · Army •
Robert D Scattarelli · Navy •
Fred L Wroge · Army . . . — Map (db m57566) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — Richfield Pioneer Homestead — General Riley Lucas Bartholomew — 30 May 1807 - 21 September 1894 |
| | Born the son of 1812 War Veteran, Benjamin Bartholomew, and a grandson of Revolutionary War heroes, Benjamin Bartholomew and Abigail Patchen Bartholomew, Riley was the oldest of 12 siblings living on a frontier farm in Harpersfield, Ashtabula County in The Western Reserve of Ohio. He joined the Ohio Militia, rose to the rank of General, later was elected County Sheriff.
In 1850 General Riley L. Bartholomew, his parents, his siblings and their families headed West to Wisconsin, then to new . . . — Map (db m37380) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — The Prairie |
| | A Sea of Grass
In its early days Fort Snelling was surrounded by a sea of head-high grass. The vast Minnesota prairie was broken only by small groves of trees—willows, cottonwoods, and oaks that grew near creeks, lakes, and marshes.
Early soldiers at Fort Snelling had limited success farming the prairie. Tools to break the soil and seeds adapted to the climate would not be available until the late 1840's. They did find the prairie hay to be excellent forage for livestock, . . . — Map (db m17259) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Richfield — Whiskey |
| |
A Great Horse
A Stout Heart
1911 – 1943 — Map (db m17237) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Saint Paul — Wokiksuye K'a Woyuonihan — Remembering and Honoring |
| | This memorial honors the sixteen hundred Dakota people, many of them women and children, who were imprisoned here at Fort Snelling in the aftermath of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota Conflict. Frightened, uprooted, and uncertain of the fate of their missing relatives, the interned Dakota suffered severe hardship. At least 130 died during the cold winter months of captivity.
In May, 1863, the survivors from the camp were crowded aboard steamboats and taken to Crow Creek in southeastern South Dakota. . . . — Map (db m50817) HM |
| Minnesota (Hennepin County), Shorewood — HE-SHC-022 — Christmas Lake |
| | Named for Charles W. Christmas, first county surveyor of Hennepin County, elected in 1852, who platted the original town site of Minneapolis for John H. Stevens and Franklin Steele. This lake and Lake Minnetonka now occupy what in pre-glacial times was part of the channel of the Mississippi River near its junction with the pre-glacial Minnesota River. — Map (db m31873) HM |
| Minnesota (Koochiching County), International Falls — Route of the Voyageurs |
| | From the late 1600s to about 1820 the chain of waterways of which Minnesota's border lakes form a segment was the thoroughfare of a vast fur trading empire. As its longest, this water route stretched from Montreal to Lake Athabasca, and over it a treasure in furs from the North American wilderness reached the markets of Europe and Asia. A mainstay of this commerce were the rollicking, indomitable men who paddled the trader's canoes and packed his goods on their backs over portages. Mainly . . . — Map (db m8363) HM |
| Minnesota (Lake County), Knife River — Buchanan |
| | This town site, named after President Buchanan, was laid out in October 1856. From September 1857 until May 1859 the place though little less than wilderness, was the seat of the U.S. Land Office for the Northeastern District of Minnesota. After the removal of the land office the settlement disappeared.
[Seals of the State of Minnesota Department of Highways and The Minnesota Historical Society] — Map (db m43806) HM |
| Minnesota (Lake County), Knife River — The Arthur V. Rohweder Memorial Highway |
| | So designated by the Minnesota State Legislature and enacted into State Law, April 20, 1961.
In recognition of the eminent leadership and outstanding contributions of Arthur V. Rohweder to the achievement by Minnesota of notable success and national prominence in all areas of accident prevention work.
Serving as Superintendent of Safety and Welfare for the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Company for forty-two years; as one of the founders, and President of the Minnesota Safety . . . — Map (db m43830) HM |
| Minnesota (Lake of the Woods County), Angle Inlet — NW Angle & Islands |
| | The Northwest Angle, the northernmost land of the 48 states, owes its existence to Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary. His negotiations at the Treaty of Paris of 1783 won British acceptance of the border extending from the "most northernwesternmost point" of Lake of the Woods to the Boundary Waters. Despite British opposition later, this original Minnesota northern border stood inviolate. In 1818 a due south line connected to the new 49° latitude western border. Thus the Northwest . . . — Map (db m57939) HM |
| Minnesota (Le Sueur County), Le Sueur — Dr. William W. Mayo House |
| | The accomplishments of the Mayo family in the field of medicine have brought fame to both its members and to Minnesota, for it was Dr. William W. Mayo and his two sons, William J. and Charles H., who founded the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1903.
This little house was built by William W. Mayo in 1859. It is intimately associated with the Mayo family's early years in Minnesota, for here on June 29, 1861, the Mayos' first son, William J., was born.
His father had emigrated . . . — Map (db m65417) HM |
| Minnesota (Le Sueur County), Le Sueur — Le Sueur |
| | Named for Pierre Charles Le Sueur, French explorer who passed the site in 1700. This town on the old Red River trail includes two towns, Le Sueur and Le Sueur City which were laid out in 1852-53 on Prairie Le Fleche about a mile apart. Consolidation and incorporation occurred by legislative act in 1867.
seal of State of Minnesota Department of Highways
seal of The Minnesota Historical Society, Instituted 1849 — Map (db m65509) HM |
| Minnesota (Le Sueur County), Le Sueur — Roster of the Le Sueur Tigers — Le Sueur Tigers · 150 Years • 1862 – 2012 |
| |
Le Sueur Tigers No. 1, William Dellaughter, commander
I. Allen,
E. Bacon,
A. Bangs,
H. Bridenthall,
B. Birdsall,
J. Birdsall,
P. Burch,
N. Burgers,
L. Butman,
F. Butteauz,
S. Carpenter,
W. Case, J. Coggswell, G. Cook, B. Cosly, N. Cottingham, H. Cramer,
O. Crary,
B. Crosby,
C. Dane,
E.R. Davis,
E.M. Davis,
H. Davis,
G. Davis,
T. Diescher,
A. Doescher,
W. Dunning,
M. Edwards,
C. Farrar,
B. Fischer,
E. Foland,
J. Foland,
J. Frank,
G. Freeman,
A. . . . — Map (db m65705) HM WM |
| Minnesota (Le Sueur County), Le Sueur — The Jolly Green Giant |
| | In 1903, fourteen of Le Sueur's leading businessmen met in the back of the Cosgrove Harness Shop to start a canning factory. They called it the Minnesota Valley Canning Company. Sixty-seven shares of stock at one hundred dollars per share were sold that evening. The sale provided enough money to buy one kettle, seed, sugar, salt and cans. Corn was brought in from the fields with horse-drawn wagons. Women husked the corn by hand for three cents per bushel.
Eleven thousand seven hundred . . . — Map (db m65416) HM |
| Minnesota (Le Sueur County), Le Sueur — The Minnesota River Valley |
| | Geologically young when compared with ancient rivers such as the Nile or the Amazon, the Minnesota River is only about 12,000 years old. It occupies a channel that was cut by the Glacial River Warren, when it drained Glacial Lake Agassiz, the largest lake to have ever existed. This all occurred at the end of the last glacial age, when the glaciers covering Minnesota, in some cases to a depth of over a mile, melted away.
Starting at the South Dakota border, at Browns Valley, the Minnesota . . . — Map (db m65411) HM |
| Minnesota (Mille Lacs County), Vineland — ML-KAN-006 — Izatys — Vineland Historical Marker |
| | In this vicinity stood the grand Sioux village of Izatys where Duluth planted the French arms on July 2, 1679.
The settlement was visited by Father Hennepin in 1680. About 1750 the Chippewa moving westward from Lake Superior, captured the village, and by this decisive battle drove the Sioux permanently into southern Minnesota. — Map (db m19760) HM |
| Minnesota (Mower County), Austin — Hormel — 1891 — 1991 — 100 Years |
| | Memorial Day · May 27, 1991
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Geo. A. Hormel & Company, employees and retirees join together to salute its visionary founder, George A. Hormel and his gifted son, Jay C. Hormel. Together they instilled quality, innovation and traditional values into one of America's most successful companies. Their continuing legacy forever lives on within the Austin community and in communities and nations worldwide where the Hormel name is widely recognized. — Map (db m9871) HM |
| Minnesota (Mower County), Austin — Oakwood Cemetery W.R.C. Memorial |
| | In memory of our
Soldiers and Sailors
1861 - 1865 — Map (db m22795) HM |
| Minnesota (Mower County), Austin — The Paramount Theatre |
| | The Paramount Theatre is listed on
the National Register of Historic Places.
It opened September 14th, 1929
as Austin's grand first run movie theatre.
It is owned by Austin Area Commission for the Arts, Inc. — Map (db m16839) HM |
| Minnesota (Mower County), Austin — William Baudler |
| |
This land and
the surrounding land
was settled by
William Baudler
on May 8, 1855 — Map (db m16874) HM |
| Minnesota (Nicollet County), Courtland — Courtland |
| |
1855 - First settlers were Jacob Harmon, Mr. Haresine, John Sidel, Jacob Gfeller, & Ole Nelson - Most of the early settlers came from Germany.
1856 - Village of Red Stone, near the ferry, was surveyed but never developed.
1856 - Hilo post office established in home of Wm. Duprey - Appointed postmaster.
1858 - Township and village surveyed - 7 years later was renamed Courtland.
1859 - Lutheran church was organized.
1862 - 9 people were murdered in the Sioux Uprising.
. . . — Map (db m66070) HM |
| Minnesota (Nicollet County), St. Peter — Nicollet County Veterans Memorial |
| | This memorial is dedicated
to all the men and women
from Nicollet County
who served their country
in the military service.
———————
Donated by
Mrs. Maurice (E. Luella) Anthony
———————
Nicollet County Post 1220
Veterans of Foreign Wars St. Peter
———————
American Legion Posts
37 St. Peter 510 Nicollet
300 Lafayette 518 North . . . — Map (db m65956) WM |
| Minnesota (Nicollet County), St. Peter — St. Peter Boat Landing |
| | About 150 feet North of this Park was the old boat landing.
Boat transportation from the earliest years of this area until the 1870's was the main source of commercial transportation.
The first steamboat to come up the Minnesota River was the "Anthony Wayne", July, 1850 and traveled as far as Mankato and returned.
One year over 400 boats made trips up the Minnesota River and returned.
53,600 bu. of small grain was shipped by steamboat from St. Peter in 1861.
In 1897, . . . — Map (db m65784) HM |
| Minnesota (Nicollet County), St. Peter — The Eugene St. Julien Cox House |
| | In 1871, Eugene St. Julien Cox, a man of eccentric tastes and "great vigor of mind" built this picturesque neo-Gothic Italianate house noted for its towered cupola, small balconies, and carved eaves.
Cox began his law career in 1857 and built a thriving practice in the frontier village of St. Peter. After brief service as a Union officer in the Civil War, Cox enrolled fifty men into the "Frontier Avengers" and led this unit in the defense of New Ulm during the Dakota War of 1862.
. . . — Map (db m65464) HM |
| Minnesota (Nicollet County), St. Peter — Traverse des Sioux |
| | This ancient fording place, the "Crossing of the Sioux," was on the heavily traveled trail from St. Paul and Fort Snelling to the upper Minnesota and Red River valleys.
Here, on June 30, 1851, Governor Alexander Ramsey, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Luke Lea, Delegate to Congress Henry H. Sibley, and other government officials established a camp on a height overlooking the small trading post and mission on the riverbank. They had gathered to negotiate an important treaty with . . . — Map (db m65557) HM |
| Minnesota (Nobles County), Adrian — Military Highways |
| | As the State was explored and settled by Euroamericans, it became necessary to connect one place of settlement to another. The Native Americans had numerous trails that they used, some of which had developed from animal paths. The Fur traders and the oxcarts that traveled between Winnepeg and St. Paul created other networks of trails, but as settlement increased there was a need for better maintained roadways.
Early roads established by the federal government were built to "facilitate the . . . — Map (db m34464) HM |
| Minnesota (Pine County), Hinckley — The Great Hinckley Fire |
| | This Monument is erected by The State of Minnesota under an Act of the Legislature Approved April 7th, A. D. 1899 To the Memory of Four Hundred and Eighteen Men Women and Children who perished in the Great Hinckley Forest Fire of September First A. D. 1894
September 1st, A.D. 1894
On the First Day of September, A.D. 1894, between the Hours of Three and Five O’Clock in the afternoon a forest fire swept over Central Pine County devastating Four Hundred square miles of Country, Consuming . . . — Map (db m2802) HM |
| Minnesota (Pine County), Pine City — Pine City |
| | Plotted in 1869, was named from the Chippewa word "Chengwatana" City of Pines. It was a rough lumberjack town in the early days. From here, logs were floated down the Snake River into the St. Croix River to Stillwater. A rich deposit of copper was discovered here and a $250,000 company was formed which sank some 150-foot shafts. Today, the site of the old copper mine is an interesting drive for visitors and a place for the bass fisherman to try his skill along the river. On Lake Pokegema, three . . . — Map (db m44032) HM |
| Minnesota (Pine County), Sandstone — Lumbering in Minnesota |
| | Lumbering first arrived in this area in the 1830s, logging the white and red pine stands along the St. Croix River. Sawmills were few and much of the pine lumber was floated down the St. Croix to the Mississippi River and on to other states. Logging camps, which supplied the timber, operated in the winter months with about 15 men and a few teams of oxen.
The industry grew quickly, however, and in 1840, lumbermen supplied the growing nation with 5 million board feet of lumber. Ten years . . . — Map (db m5105) HM |
| Minnesota (Pine County), Sandstone — Sandstone Area Veterans Memorial |
| | In honor and in memory of all men and women who served in the Armed Forces of the United States of America — Map (db m12826) HM |
| Minnesota (Pine County), Willow River — Christopher C. Andrews, Conservation Pioneer |
| | In the 1880's, when General Christopher C. Andrews began urging the state to consider the future of its forested lands, most Minnesotans could not believe that there might ever be a shortage of timber. But by the time of his death in 1922 the vast virgin pine forests were gone, lumber was being imported from the Pacific Northwest, and a series of devastating fires had claimed hundreds of lives and millions of acres.
Andrews served as captain, and colonel of the Third Minnesota Regiment of . . . — Map (db m5288) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Little Canada — Gervais Grist Mill |
| | Just across the road and creek from this marker was the site of the first commercial grist mill built in the region now named Minnesota. Constructed in 1844 – five years before the birth of Minnesota Territory – the water-powered, flour and meal mill was operating when present day Little Canada was an unmapped wilderness on the western frontier of Wisconsin Territory. Its builder was St. Paul's first carpenter, Charles Bazille (1812-78), a Montreal native who was remembered . . . — Map (db m45528) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Minneapolis — Big Water / Stairway of Water |
| | Big Water
The Mississippi River, paramount among North American rivers, along with its tributaries, forms the world's fifth largest drainage system in area – 1,244,000 square miles. The Indians called this river "Father of Waters", literally Misi 'big' and Sipi 'water'. The river has three distinct personalities. At its source, Lake Itasca, to the head of navigation here in the Twin Cities, the river is a clear running fresh stream. From the Twin Cities to the mouth of the Missouri . . . — Map (db m50080) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Minneapolis — The Lock and Dam No. 1 Story |
| | Navigation on this stretch of the river in its natural state upstream from St. Paul to Minneapolis was hazardous. During high flows, the current was swift, and during low flows, huge boulders made navigation almost impossible. It wasn't until after development of the locks and dams here that transport of flour and grain from Minneapolis to the Gulf of Mexico, and coal and bulk products from downriver to Minneapolis, became possible.
Development began when a group of Minneapolis businessmen . . . — Map (db m50877) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Minneapolis — Wing Dams |
| | Those piles of stone and brush in the river, known as wing dams, are both cursed and praised by many a recreation boater. Lurking beneath the water near propeller depth, thousands of these jetties are located along the mainstem of the river. They focus the flow of the water to develop a deeper, narrower main channel to aid commercial navigation.
The wing dams comprised the first large scale efforts to improve navigation on the Upper Mississippi River as early as the 1860's, along with . . . — Map (db m50122) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — De Dakod Makoce Unkitawapi E E — This is our Dakota Land |
| | Tatanka Oyate Makoce
Land of the Buffalo People
[river valley map]
The Minnesota and Mississippi River Valleys have been home to the Dakota for hundreds of years, and the existence of our ancestors was sustained by their relationship with the earth and their surroundings. For generations, Dakota families fished from the rivers, gathered rice from area lakes and hunted game on the prairies and in river valley woodlands. Along the riverbanks, leaders of the Eastern . . . — Map (db m46170) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — Fountain Cave |
| | Fountain Cave, a landmark known as early as 1811, was named for the sparkling creek that flowed from its mouth and continued some 375 feet through a ravine to join the Mississippi River about 140 feet downstream from this marker. The cave attracted such noted explorers as Stephen H. Long in 1817, Henry R. Schoolcraft in 1820, and Joseph N. Nicollet in 1837 - all of whom described it in their journals.
Before the land east of the Mississippi was opened to settlement, Pierre "Pig's Eye" . . . — Map (db m42305) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — Hydro Electric Turbine — 1924 – 1994 |
| | Cast Iron • Rotation Speed 100 RPM
Weight 15 Tons • 4,500 Horsepower
This is one of four turbines Ford Motor Company installed 1924 at the hydro electric plant located below this lookout. The turbines were replaced between 1992 and 1994 after 70 years of service. This one water driven turbine produced over 1,341,776,000 kilowatt hours (KWH) of electricity in its liftime. This offset the burning of 286,000 tons of coal and avoided 470,000 pounds of particulates, . . . — Map (db m46518) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — James J. Hill / The James J. Hill House |
| | James J. Hill
"Most men who have really lived here have had, in some shape, their great adventure. This railway is mine," wrote James J. Hill to the Great Northern Railway employees upon his retirement in 1912. Throughout his long working life Hill remained a titanic force in the economic transformation of the Northwest as his railroads encouraged immigrant settlements, agricultural development and commercial expansion.
Hill was born in southern Canada in 1838 and began his career . . . — Map (db m31496) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — Lambert's Landing — Port of Saint Paul |
| | Since the advent of steamboats in 1812, this landing has served as a tie-up location for countless numbers of commercial river vessels, from paddle-wheelers to tugs. From here, thousands of barges can be seen passing by each year, quietly ferrying tens-of-millions of tons of grain, lumber, rock and other commodities along St. Paul's riverfront to downstream ports of call and markets worldwide.
First named after a series of early local merchants, the site at the foot of the Jackson St. was . . . — Map (db m44376) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — Rice Park |
| | The scene of circuses, celebrations, and concerts, and seven years older than New York's famous Central Park, this land was designated a "public square" in 1849 by John R. Irvine, a territorial pioneer, and Henry M. Rice, territorial delegate and United States senator after statehood. Rice, for whom the park was named, was a native of Vermont who arrived at Fort Snelling in 1839. In addition to the offices he held, he was active in the fur trade and served as an intermediary in treaty . . . — Map (db m42269) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — Summit Lookout Park |
| | This park was originally the site of the Carpenter's Hotel, a towering wooden structure of the late 1850s, that sat on the east corner of the triangular lot defined by Summit Avenue, Ramsey Hill and the river bluff. The Victorian building featured a two story basement with windows cut into the stone retaining wall along Ramsey Hill. Projecting three stories above grade, the hotel was crowned with an open observation deck. It is believed that the hotel burned, and by the mid-1880s the Summit . . . — Map (db m41942) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — Summit–Selby Neighborhood |
| | This area has long been a meeting place of people and ideas. In the 1850s two major overland routes converged just a few blocks from here. By the 1880s the district was a bustling residential area for both the wealthy and the immigrant. Today the neighborhood is a mix of Victorian mansions and modest dwellings, shops, schools, and places of worship -- where people of many cultural and ethnic backgrounds dwell together. Famous names associated with the Historic Hill District include writers F. . . . — Map (db m35598) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — The James J. Hill Reference Library — James J. Hill · (1838-1916) |
| | The Hill Reference Library opened in 1921 as a living gift to the people of Saint Paul from railroad pioneer James J. Hill. By building the Great Northern Railway's transcontinental line to Seattle in 1893, Hill played a central role in the settling of towns and cities, the expansion of agriculture, the growth of industry, and the development of international trade.
Architect Electus D. Litchfield designed the pink Tennessee marble building to house both Hill's Library and the public . . . — Map (db m42267) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — The New York Life Eagle |
| | In 1890, architect Stanford White gave the commission for The New York Life Eagle to Augustus Saint-Gaudens on behalf of The New York Life Insurance Company. Augustus sketched its conceptual form and the sculpture was carved in marble by his brother Louis St. Gaudens to be cast in an edition of three for New York Life's frontier expansion buildings in Kansas City, Omaha, and Saint Paul.
In the heart of downtown Saint Paul, the beautiful building's three-story main entrance was capped by . . . — Map (db m41946) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), Saint Paul — The Saint Paul Public Library |
| | On September 7, 1882, the Saint Paul Common Council passed a resolution "to establish and maintain a free public library and reading room." As a result, Saint Paul's first public library opened on the second floor of Ingersoll Hall, Kellogg Boulevard near the Wabasha Bridge. Helen McCaine was the City's first librarian. Construction of Central Library at 90 West Fourth Street began in 1914. The building officially opened to the public in 1917. Electus Litchfield of New York was the . . . — Map (db m42268) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), St. Paul — F. Scott Fitzgerald House |
| | has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark under the provisions of the Historical Sites Act of August 21st 1935. This site possesses exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of United States.
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
1971 — Map (db m7144) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), St. Paul — St. Paul Civil War Memorial |
| | To perpetuate the memory of the Union Soldiers and Sailors of the War of 1861 — 1865 · Their patriotism inspired unquestioning devotion · Their valor was attested on hard-won battlefields · Their suffering and sacrifice exalted the glorious cause and ennobled the splendid triumph.
The victories they helped achieve preserved the Union of the States · Abolished slavery · Established the National Prestige · Opened new avenues for the development of man and the advancement of . . . — Map (db m32893) HM |
| Minnesota (Ramsey County), St. Paul — The Hamline Plaza — Bishop Leonidas L. Hamline — 1797 - 1865 |
| |
Bishop of the Methodist Church in Ohio who donated a substantial portion of his estate in 1854 for the establishment of Hamline University with the following prayer: O Lord, render me cheerful in giving, happy in the hopes of doing good, and sanctify the offering.
Dedicated October 13, 1995, to all who have provided to
Hamline University the means and facilities of education.
This Sculpture is a gift from
Annette Strand Scherer Robbins '36
Sculptor: Professor Michael . . . — Map (db m65933) HM |
| Minnesota (Redwood County), Walnut Grove — Laura's Dugout Home on the Banks of Plum Creek |
| | The Charles Ingalls Family's dugout home was located here in the 1870's. This depression is all that remains since the roof caved in years ago. The prairie grasses and flowers here grow much as they did in Laura's time, and the spring still flows nearby. — Map (db m7049) HM |
| Minnesota (Rice County), Nerstrand — Nerstrand City Hall |
| |
Nerstrand City Hall
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
1908 — Map (db m49072) HM |
| Minnesota (Rice County), Nerstrand — Thomas Anderson Veblen and Kari Bunde Veblen Farmstead / History of the Veblen Farmstead |
| | Thomas Anderson Veblen and
Kari Bunde Veblen Farmstead
From 1866 to 1893 this farmstead was the home of the Veblen family one of the most prominent Norwegian immigrant families of the nineteenth century.
The most distinguishing trait of the Veblen family was its emphasis on education. Of the nine children who lived to adulthood, all but one finished secondary school, several studied on the college level, and three graduated from Carleton College. Both Andrew and Thorstein completed . . . — Map (db m49376) HM |
| Minnesota (Rice County), Northfield — A Flour Milling Revolution |
| | In the 1870s and 1880s, important changes took place inside several small flour mills in southeastern Minnesota. Those changes laid the groundwork for a technological revolution that made Minnesota's milling industry the largest in the world.
The changes grew out of a desire by millers to improve the quality of their flour. Most Minnesota farmers raised hard spring wheat, which had a reputation for producing speckled flour. Drawing on European technology, Minnesota millers developed a . . . — Map (db m26200) HM |
| Minnesota (Rice County), Northfield — Civil War Monument |
| | Dedicated to
- the -
Soldiers
- and -
Sailors
who saved
the Union
1861—1865
Erected 1921 — Map (db m48434) HM |
| Minnesota (Rice County), Northfield — Sesquicentennial Legacy Plaza — 2008 |
| | This Sesquicentennial Legacy Plaza, with the sculpture "Harvest" as its centerpiece, commemorates with an enduring presence Northfield's sesquicentennial year 2005.
In 1855, John Wesley North founded the town of Northfield and built a dam and lumber mill on the Cannon River. Upon leaving Northfield he sold the mill to Charles A. Wheaton, who operated it until 1865 when it was purchased by Jesse Ames.
In 1869, Jesse Ames & Sons built a new mill on the west side of the river that . . . — Map (db m55167) HM |
| Minnesota (Roseau County), Warroad — Fort St. Charles |
| | Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Verendrye, established Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods in 1732. A daring soldier, fir trader, and explorer, La Verendrye had the ambitious dream of finding the fabled "Western Sea" and sought to establish French outposts along the way. On Magnuson's Island (then connected with the mainland) he built a palisaded fort which he named in honor of Charles de Beauharnois, governor of New France.
Fort St. Charles became the western capital of the . . . — Map (db m8375) HM |
| Minnesota (Roseau County), Warroad — Warroad |
| | The name Warroad bespeaks the Indian heritage of this town, once one of the largest Chippewa villages on Lake of the Woods. The Chippewa fought a long and fierce war against the Sioux for the lake's rice fields. Occupying the prairies of the Red River Valley, the Sioux would frequently invade the territory by way of the Red and Roseau rivers -- a route which ended at the mouth of the Warroad River. This was the old "war road" from which the river and village derive their name. — Map (db m8420) HM |
| Minnesota (Scott County), Belle Plaine — The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration |
| | In 1867 a New York architect sent the plans for a new church in Belle Plaine to Bishop Whipple. The church was built in 1868 on land contributed by Territorial Judge Andrew G. Chatfield, founder of Belle Plaine. The congregation organized in 1858 and peaked in 1871, when the Parochial Report to the Diocese showed 16 families with a total of 70 members.
In the 1860s and 1870s immigrants were coming to the Minnesota River Valley in large numbers from Germany, Ireland and Czechoslovakia. . . . — Map (db m65868) HM |
| Minnesota (Scott County), New Market — The Big Woods |
| | When the first explorers came to what became Minnesota, they found a land with three very different personalities. To the north were the great forests of white pine and other conifers that later attracted armies of lumberjacks and made Minnesota a leading producer of lumber. To the south and west was the beginning of the Great Plains, the flat, fertile prairie that was broken into successful farms. And in what is now south-central Minnesota was the dense broadleaf forest that settlers called . . . — Map (db m15380) HM |
| Minnesota (Scott County), Savage — Camp Savage |
| | During World War II, some 5,000-6,000 Japanese American soldiers, members of the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service, were given intensive and accelerated classes in the Japanese language at Camp Savage.
Their subsequent work translating captured documents, maps, battle plans, diaries, letters, and printed materials and interrogating Japanese prisoners made them "Our human secret weapons," according to President Harry Truman, who commended them following the war.
The Military . . . — Map (db m41673) HM |
| Minnesota (Scott County), Shakopee — SC-SPC-069 — Pond Mission |
| | These foundations mark the site of a two-story frame building erected by the Reverend Samuel W. Pond in 1847. It served as a Presbyterian mission to the Shakopee Sioux, and as Pond's home until his death in 1891. An eight-foot stockade enclosed the house and a half-acre garden. The building was wrecked about 1907. — Map (db m19789) HM |
| Minnesota (Scott County), Shakopee — Shakopee Soldiers Monument |
| | This monument is dedicated to those from Shakopee who died while in military service of our country.
[emblems of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Ladies Auxiliary V.F.W., American Legion Auxiliary]
W. Lincoln •
A. Strehlow •
A. Moriarty •
R.Scherkenbach •
S. Demers •
L. Hobbs •
J. Phillips •
S. Miller •
R. Schaefer •
H. Mather •
J. Bohls •
N. Bieren •
J. Coburn •
J. Sullivan •
J. Beck •
W. Scherer •
R. Schoeber • . . . — Map (db m49792) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Chisholm — The Emergence of Man Through Steel |
| | They toiled with purpose. These miners of ours... moving tons of iron ore for massive steel towers.
This devotion to a nation, they adopted as one, makes the heritage of the iron range foremost 'neath the sun.
The legend lives. They were the "Iron Men" who dug the mines and contributed to the building and expansion of this country, during an industrial age. They helped to provide the iron needed when freedom was threatened.
Today, as the industrial age ebbs, and the . . . — Map (db m6756) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Boat House and Pier |
| | Hesperia, the name given to the Congdon's yacht, was a family name. Registered as a yacht in Lloyd's Register of American Yachts, 1911, the Hesperia was constructed of wood with a raised deck design. The boat was powered by an internal combustion engine (gasoline) with a four stroke, six cycle operation. The yacht had an overall length of 53 feet, a water line length of 51 feet, and a breath of 12 feet. The yacht needed a 6 foot draft (water clearance). The Hesperia burned in a refueling . . . — Map (db m26552) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Canal |
| | Very early Duluth felt that future growth
would depend on having suitable harbor and
dockage. Winter storms wrecked breakwater and docks built outside Minnesota Point. St. Louis Bay offered a protected harbor, but access required a canal be dug through Minnesota Point. A contract was let. Dredging started the summer of 1870—cutting through two-thirds of the point—before being stopped by winter. Interests not favoring a canal used the delay to secure an injunction from the War . . . — Map (db m2913) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial |
| |
An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak and impossible to remain silent.
Elias Clayton • Elmer Jackson • Isaac McGhie
On June 15, 1920, following the alleged rape of a young woman, Duluth police locked up a number of men who worked for a travelling circus. That evening, thousands of Duluthians gathered outside the city jail. The police were under orders not to shoot, and they obeyed.
With timbers and rails as battering rams, the mob broke down the . . . — Map (db m46978) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — SL-DUT-002 — Clifton–French River |
| | Clifton, first townsite surveyed in the United States section of the North Shore, was platted
west of the mouth of the French River in 1855. The river was known to early explorers
as Riviere des Francais. Rumors of nearby copper deposits resulted in widespread prospecting
and townsite planning in the 1850s. Like many of the projected towns, Clifton never
developed. From 1864 to 1866, the French River Mining Company and the North Shore
Mining Company dug several exploratory shafts, but . . . — Map (db m43766) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Daniel De Gresolon, Sieur Du Lhut |
| | The near-by canal marks the site of Little Portage on Minnesota Point crossed on June 27, 1679 by Daniel De Gresolon, Sieur Du Lhut, a gentleman of the Royal Guard of Louis XIV on his way to explore the Upper Mississippi. — Map (db m2876) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Dedicated to Davis Helberg |
| | In recognition of his non-tiring commitment to the maritime community and service as Duluth Seaway Port Authority executive director for 24 years, 1979-2003.
A native of and lifelong resident of Northern Minnesota, Davis began his career as a 17-year-old Great Lakes deckhand in 1958, which stimulated his love of and interest in the maritime commerce of the Duluth-Superior Harbor. Coupled with his deep and abiding enthusiasm for our Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway and his global . . . — Map (db m5584) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Duluth–Superior Harbor |
| | Duluth-Superior harbor is the westernmost terminus of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the world's most inland seaport. Harbor commerce began when Daniel Greysolon Sieur Du Luht portaged across Minnesota Point in 1679 where the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge now stands, opening the area for fur trading. With the early French voyageurs or traders came the first explorers and missionaries. Permanent settlements of Central Duluth began after the Indians ceded their lands in 1854. The Duluth Ship Canal was . . . — Map (db m4827) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Edgar A. Culbertson — BM1 |
| | This plaque is dedicated by the people of Duluth to the memory of a fellow citizen, Coast Guard Boatswains Mate First Class, Edgar A. Culbertson, who on the night of April 30, 1967 gave his life attempting to rescue three teen-age brothers stranded on this pier during a severe storm. His great sacrifice is an enduring example of his devotion to duty and compassion for his fellow man. — Map (db m2758) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Enger Observation Tower |
| | To the memory of
Bert J. Enger
1864 – 1931
Native of Norway
Citizen of Duluth
From Common Laborer to Merchant Prince, he demonstrated in his own life that America is a land of opportunity for the immigrant, and that her civilization is enriched by his citizenship.
In his life time, by a very generous gift, he enabled the City of Duluth to acquire and develop the land adjacent to this tower as a park and golf course for the enjoyment of future generations, and . . . — Map (db m4807) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — SL-DUL-242 — Fond du Lac |
| | Fond du Lac was incorporated in 1857 and became a part of the City of Duluth in 1895. This is the site of a major Chippewa Indian settlement from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries and is situated on the early canoe route along the St. Louis River from Lake Superior to Lake Vermillion and the Upper Mississippi. Daniel Graysolon, Sieur du Lhut, visited the site in 1679. The American Fur Company established a trading post in 1817. Louis Cass camped here in 1820 while searching for the . . . — Map (db m43723) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Fond du Lac – Minnesota |
| | Site of Ojibway Village
from earliest known period
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Luth
was here in 1679
Astor's American Fur Company
established a trading post
on this spot about 1817
First Ojibway Treaty in Minnesota
made here in 1826
This monument was erected by
The Daughters of
the American Revolution
Duluth, Minnesota
September 21, 1922
[DAR insignia] — Map (db m43725) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Glensheen, A Family Legacy |
| |
Campus Heritage Marker
University of Minnesota Duluth
Glensheen, A Family Legacy
Glensheen estate was built between 1905 and 1908 for attorney Chester Adgate Congdon, his wife Clara Bannister Congdon and their children. The original 22 acre-plot featured rugged terrain with a stream that cut through dense woods to an underdeveloped, yet gently sloping shoreline. The Congdons recognized the promising beauty of the Lake Superior property, and measurements for . . . — Map (db m6603) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Illumination History of the Aerial Lift Bridge |
| | The first lighting was on November 20, 1970, made possible through the contributions of Duluth school children, citizens, business people and visitors.
The present dramatic lighting, first seen on July 4, 1987, is made possible through a generous gift from the Rotary Club of Duluth, Club # 25. It symbolizes the warm welcome extended by Duluth citizens to ships and visitors from around the world.
Both projects were coordinated by the City of Duluth, which owns and operates the Bridge. — Map (db m2883) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Jay Cooke |
| | Perhaps no individual in the history of Duluth had such a dramatic influence on the port's infant development than Jay Cooke, a Philadelphia financier. Cooke's reign at the Head-of-the-Lakes was brief, but all-encompassing for commercial development.
One of Cooke's earliest achievements was bringing the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad from St. Paul to Duluth. The L.S. & M. had been chartered by the state in 1857, but it wasn't until after Cooke visited the area in 1866 that . . . — Map (db m6379) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Leif Erikson |
| | Leif Erikson
Discoverer of America
1000 A. D.
sponsored and erected by the
Norwegian American League
of
Duluth, Minnesota
and
Popular Subscription
presented to the City of Duluth, Minnesota
August 25, 1956.
Designed and executed by
John Karl Daniels
sculptor. — Map (db m6323) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Lewis G. Castle |
| | Honoring Lewis G. Castle
in recognition of his part as a volunteer leader in gaining the seaway and as the administer of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.
The seaway, completed in 1959, represented decades of dreams, planning and work by men of the region. Prominent among these men was Lewis G. Castle of Duluth.
At this point, the Minnesota watershed flows into Lake Superior and the St. Lawrence Seaway begins. The first deep draft foreign flag vessel transited the . . . — Map (db m2910) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Minnesota's Oldest Concrete Pavement |
| | The streets of this Duluth neighborhood are the first concrete pavements constructed in Minnesota. They were built of portland cement concrete in 1909 and 1910 and ushered in the era of modern roads and streets in the state. A distinctive feature of these pioneer concrete pavements is the scored surface pattern of rectangular grooves. This indented design was used, according to the records of the day, to provide a firm and substantial footing for horses.
Dedicated in 1959 by the . . . — Map (db m44081) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Northwoods Sailors |
| | Department of the Navy • United States of America —
Navy Operational Support Center • Duluth, Minnesota
May all who pass this memorial recognize the brave men and women who have served in the United States Navy. This memorial stands in tribute to their honorable service that has changed the course of human events.
Serving in Duluth since 1898, their patriotism and sacrifice have preserved the freedom of the high seas and made this port what it is today. On every continent . . . — Map (db m5818) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Priley Fountain / Duluth Civic Center |
| | Priley Fountain
In grateful recognition
to Joseph C. Priley for his
unselfish and dedicated
efforts to beautify Duluth
July 26, 1970
Duluth Civic Center
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
— Map (db m49827) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Rice's Point |
| | Rice's Point separates Duluth-Superior's outer from it's inner harbor, and is a focal point of Duluth's industrial activity. Many of the city's bridges can be seen, among them the Aerial Lift Bridge to the left, the John A. Blatnik Bridge straight ahead, and the Richard Bong Memorial Bridge to the right. The latter two connect Duluth with Superior, Wisconsin. Since the opening of the first Soo Lock in 1855, joining Lake Superior to the other Great Lakes, Duluth-Superior has been an important . . . — Map (db m4965) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — The Skyline Parkway |
| | As you face Lake Superior, you will find that the eastern access to the Skyline Parkway, a 30-mile drive along the rim of the hills overlooking Duluth and Lake Superior, begins here to your right on the left bank of the Lester River. As you proceed north along the river you cross it to your left at Superior Street and then take the first road to your right. You are now on the Seven Bridges Road which follows the Amity Creek. Crossing it seven times before reaching the shoreline of pre-historic . . . — Map (db m44599) HM |
| Minnesota (St. Louis County), Duluth — Trotman Folding Stock Anchor — 1892 |
| | Conventional ship's anchor used from about 1870 to 1910, from the Whaleback steamer Thomas Wilson, sunk a half mile outside Duluth Piers. Recovered in 1973 by the U.S.C.G. Cutter Woodrush with divers Elmer Engman, Dave Anderson, Dan Goman and Paul Von Goertz.
The anchor weighs a ton and a half — Map (db m21027) HM |
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