Fur Trapper Ambush

Fur Trapper Ambush. . The first Europeans to enter Minnehaha County in search of animal pelts to satisfy the demand abroad for furs may have been French trappers. Some historians believe that trader Charles Pierre Le Sueur, or his men, visited this area as early as 1683. Le Sueur supplied information for a map, published in Paris in 1701, which included a voyageurs road leading from the Mississippi River to the falls of the Big Sioux River., In the 1850s three men in two canoes heavily laden with fur pelts headed downstream on nearby Split Rock Creek. An Indian warrior shot an arrow from ambush killing trapper Morgan in the lead canoe. Trapper White quickly fired his rifle and killed the warrior. After burying Morgan, White scalped the dead warrior and tacked his scalp to a tree as a warning., The two remaining trappers then continued downstream to Sioux City. Years later, White returned to the ambush scene to place a marker near Morgan's grave. The exact location of the burial site was lost when the marker was removed by road builders in the 1930s.