A Great River's Road
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Mendota, the Meeting Place

A Great River's Road, also, Mendota, the Meeting Place. . A National Scenic Byway , The Great River Road is the longest scenic byway in the nation, stretching nearly 3,000 miles through ten states from the Mississippi River's headwaters in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. For thousands of years, the river and its tributaries have been the primary transportation corridor for people living between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains, connecting communities and establishing trading networks. Today the river still transports bulky and heavy commodities but leaves the moving of people to the roads, rails and trails that parallel it., Inviting Destinations , To publicize the importance of the Mississippi River, connect its communities and promote tourism, the Great River Road was established in 1938. As a Great River Road traveler in the headwaters state, you can explore more than 500 miles of natural, recreational and cultural treasures between the source of the Mississippi in Lake Itasca and Minnesota's border with Iowa. In Minnesota the river and surrounding landscape change dramatically as you travel through six distinct destination areas that welcome the Great River Road traveler. Here, in an area called Metro Mississippi, the power of the river was tapped, transforming the landscape into a thriving metropolis. Through Dakota County, from the Mississippi's confluence with the Minnesota River through its confluence with the St. Croix River, explore and enjoy the historic and cultural legacies and the scenic and recreational opportunities that are especially rich along this segment of the Great River Road., The opportunities the Great River Road provides for exploration are many and varied. From an historic town's streetscape to a nature preserve's landscape, there are many interesting stories. But the most compelling story - the story that binds them all together - is the river. Let the Great River Road become your route to the inviting destinations that can be discovered along this National Scenic Byway., [Reverse] , The Dakota called the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers "B'dote," which loosely translated means "meeting place." For more than 13,000 years, people have been converging at this naturally strategic location, now called "Mendota," a word that means "crossing of paths" or "meeting place.", Early Inhabitants , Paleo-Indians were the first people to congregate here, drawn to the river as nomadic hunters and gathers for water and food. People have long occupied this area, as evidenced by the 10,000-year-old stone and copper tools found by archeologists in this area. The extensive complex of ancient burial mounds that once dotted the landscape is additional evidence that humans have occupied this land for thousands of years. Unfortunately many of the burial mounds have been destroyed since the 1850s. For example, the main business district of modern-day Mendota was once the site of eight massive burial mounds, one of which was nearly 100 feet in diameter. , Caption: Artist's drawing of burial mounds, The Nature of Commerce , The location of nearby Pike Island, located where the two rivers meet, made it a perfect gathering place for the Dakota Indians who are thought by many to be descendants of the ancient mound-building peoples who also had gathered here. It was also a perfect site for Euro-American traders making their way up river from Prairie du Chien in the late 1700s. In 1826, availing themselves of the island's fortunate location as well as the protection of nearby Fort Snelling, the American Fur Company established a post on the island. The potential for profit drew traders and settlers to burgeoning Mendota much like the ample wildlife and supply of fresh water drew nomadic hunters thousands of years earlier. , Caption: Pike Island, a favored gathering spot for centuries, is now part of Fort Snelling State Park., The Sibley House: Layers and Layers of Life , The most prominent fur trader to settle in Mendota during those boom years was Henry Hastings Sibley. The stone house he built with his own hands, which still stands to this day as a museum, reveals how Sibley gradually transformed what was initially a rudimentary bachelor residence into a gracious Victorian home for his wife, Sarah Jane Steele. Also on display are artifacts that archaeologists have found near the house documenting thousands of years of continuous human habitation and the cultural vitality that sprang from a place where nature decreed people and two mighty rivers would all meet., In the circle: Illustration of the Dakota at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers by Seth Eastman, 1848., Fort Snelling served as an active U.S. Military Fort for more than 120 years. Today, the historic fort has been restored to its 1820s-1830s appearance., Henry Hastings Sibley , (1811 - 1891) , Sibley was the Minnesota Territory's first delegate to Congress during the Territorial Period (1848-1858), and once Minnesota became a state, Sibley was its first governor.