Shetek Monument

Shetek Monument. . A military and civilian burial detail interred the remains of settlers killed at the slough. All remains were placed in seven wooden coffins in family groups and then buried side by side., At this site lie the bodies of 14 people buried in a mass grave ten feet long, four feet wide and four feet deep. These are the remains of six adults and eight children killed either at Lake Shetek or at the slough of August 20, 1862., Originally, the bodies of the slain lay where they died, untended from August 20, 1862 until October 16, 1862 when a military burial detail collected and buried the remains in a shallow grave by the edge of the slough. There they laid for another year., On October 31, 1863, a military burial detail, commanded by Captain Starkey and assisted by William Duley, Captain of Scouts, with the aid of Thomas Ireland, Charlie Hatch and Henry Watson Smith, re-buried the remains at this location., The body of Isabelle Duley was not among the victims first buried at the slough. She was taken captive from the slough and later killed near the Wright cabin. Her body was found and identified by her father during the 1863 burial expedition., A scene from the 1925 dedication., The State of Minnesota commissioned the construction of this monument in 1924 and is "dedicated to the memory of those who were slain at Lake Shetek in 1862 and to commemorate the privations and hardships and the heroic deeds of those surviving settlers of Murray County." It was completed and dedicated in 1925. , 1925 Poster of the Shetek Monument Ceremony , Minnesota Historical Society