On Lindbergh Drive South, on the left when traveling south.
The center of Charles Lindbergh's grand boyhood adventures was the Mississippi River. Here he fished and swam, built and 'sailed" a raft, skipped across logjams, and looked across the water's wide expanse, dreaming about the future. It was in . . . — — Map (db m78225) HM
On Riverwood Drive, 0.1 miles west of Minnesota Highway 75, on the left when traveling west.
Belle Prairie, meaning, "beautiful prairie," was named by French fur traders and voyageurs. It was organized as a township on March 25, 1859. Belle Prairie was the home of the first school in Morrison County started in 1849 by Frederick Ayer. Belle . . . — — Map (db m78448) HM
White pines once dominated northern Minnesota. Even in Lindbergh's time these scattered reminders of earlier eras dotted the pasture.
The trunk in front of you is the remains of one of these forest giants. This white pine stood 100-feet . . . — — Map (db m78229) HM
Young Explorer
Introspective and inventive, Lindbergh explored the rivers and woods, making his own fun most days. In the "usual good weather of a Minnesota summer," Lindbergh spent most of his time outdoors. He avidly collected rocks, . . . — — Map (db m78373) HM
On Riverwood Drive, 0.1 miles west of Minnesota Highway 75, on the right when traveling south.
The First Parish In The Diocese Of St. Cloud
Addition & Remodeling
Dedication - June 2000
————————
Built c.1877
This property recognized by
Heritage Preservation Commission . . . — — Map (db m78427) HM
On Grouse Road (County Route 213) north of 175th Street, on the right when traveling north.
On this site are the remains of a French colonial outpost called Fort Duquesne, discovered in recent years. Fort Duquesne was established in 1750 and was a center for trade, diplomacy, and exploration. As indicated by artifacts found at the site . . . — — Map (db m213086) HM
This riverfront park is named after James Green, a Pennsylvanian, who, with his wife, Isabella, and three children, came here in 1848 from the Selkirk colonies (Winnipeg). Their arrival marked the beginning of permanent settlement at Little . . . — — Map (db m78713) HM
On Lindbergh Drive South at the entrance to Charles A. Lindbergh State Park, on the left when traveling south on Lindbergh Drive South.
"I never deserted the farm as the ultimate goal of my return - and there is my home when I am home, for the farm unquestionably is the best of all places to live, and it affords the most independence." Thus wrote Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, . . . — — Map (db m78194) HM
On Lindbergh Drive South, on the left when traveling south.
After Charles Lindbergh took off on his motorcycle in 1920, headed for the University of Wisconsin, he rarely came back to Little Falls. He made one visit by airplane in 1923, landing his "Jenny" - the first plane he owned - in a field near here. . . . — — Map (db m78196) HM
On Lindbergh Drive South, on the left when traveling south.
For many generations, Native people lived in this area along the banks of the upper Mississippi. Later, fur traders and Christian missionaries worked among the Indians. But as early as the 1830s, white settlers and soldiers from Fort Snelling . . . — — Map (db m78228) HM
On 1st Street SE at Broadway (Minnesota Highway 27), on the right when traveling east on 1st Street SE.
The Little Falls Commercial Historic District is comprised of 32 contributing buildings that were constructed between 1887 and 1936, a time of tremendous growth for the city. The construction of the Little Falls dam in 1887-1888 spurred this . . . — — Map (db m78725) HM
On Riverwood Drive, 0.1 miles west of Minnesota Highway 75, on the left when traveling west.
This is a replica of the cabin, Mother Ignatius Hayes and her Sisters lived in, when they came to Belle Prairie in 1872. She purchased land from Daniel Mason in Belle Prairie on September 6, 1872 as a site for her convent. The Cabin was rebuilt . . . — — Map (db m78435) HM
On 2nd Street SE at 1st Ave, on the right when traveling north on 2nd Street SE.
Nathan Richardson, affectionately known as "Uncle Nate," was one of the founders of Morrison County when it was organized in 1856. He was later instrumental in expanding the county to include the portion on the west side of the Mississippi River. . . . — — Map (db m78471) HM
On 1st Street NW at 1st Avenue NW, on the right when traveling north on 1st Street NW.
Cass Gilbert Depot
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
Built 1899 — — Map (db m78231) HM
On Riverwood Drive, 0.1 miles west of Minnesota Highway 75, on the left when traveling west.
Mother Mary Ignatius (Elizabeth) Hayes
1823 - 1894
Foundress
"My principle prayer has been to known the will of God and my only resolution to do it." — — Map (db m78436) HM
On Lindbergh Drive South, on the right when traveling south.
This is the original Lindbergh Farm tenant farmer house, built about the same time as the Charles A. Lindbergh home, across the road to the east.
Some of these farm workers brought playmates for young Charles. Somewhat isolated on the farm, . . . — — Map (db m78193) HM
On Riverwood Drive, 0.1 miles west of Minnesota Highway 75, on the left when traveling south.
About the middle of January 1915, the convent bell was Blessed and placed in the Belfry of the Our Lady of the Angels Academy. Rev. Rather Barras preformed the ceremony. It was named, Michael, Ignatius, Francis, Anthony, Columba. — — Map (db m78429) HM
A Home Becomes A Park
The landscape before you is the farm where Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the famous aviator, spent his youth. Lindbergh completed the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight on May 21, 1927.
This land was donated to . . . — — Map (db m78374) HM
On 1st Street SE south of 5th Avenue SE, on the right when traveling south.
The Burton/Rosenmeier House is significant architecturally as the outstanding example of the Classical Revival style in Little Falls and for its associations with its first two inhabitants: The Barney Burton family and later the Rosenmeier . . . — — Map (db m78472) HM
Archaeologists have determined French traders built a fort here in the mid-1700s shortly before the Dakota-Ojibwe conflict made the area unsafe for occupation.
Archaeologists located the remains of three dwellings, containing . . . — — Map (db m213087) HM
On Riverwood Drive, 0.1 miles west of Minnesota Highway 75, on the left when traveling south.
This monument which was built to memorialize the ground where the Body of Christ burnt, when the convent was destroyed by fire, on April 26, 1889. After the sale of the Academy building the Monument was moved from that location to the present . . . — — Map (db m78434) HM
On Riverwood Drive, 0.1 miles west of Minnesota Highway 75, on the left when traveling south.
These Stations of the Cross were preserved from the chapel of Our Lady of the Angels which closed in 1969. The former Academy is now the River Pines Apartments Complex, located across the road. The original Chapel was blessed on December 7, 1911. . . . — — Map (db m78433) HM
Historic Treasures
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated federal programs aimed at putting people back to work. One of these programs was the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which focused on building . . . — — Map (db m78379) HM
Holding Up The H2O
The water tower was completed in 1939 by Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers. It stands three stories high.
Water towers use gravity to create pressure that moves water through supply pipes. Each foot of height . . . — — Map (db m78380) HM
Permanent white settlement began in the area in 1856 when Elk City was established. A map of Elk City shows a stone quarry on a river bank where a buried mass of bedrock created a rise in a trail.
The bedrock exposed at Little Elk had little . . . — — Map (db m224168) HM
The Little Elk River was known to the Ojibwe as Omushkoso-sibi, which translates to "Elk River." Elk were historically present in this area. The translation was modified to "Little Elk River" in the 1850s to avoid confusing it with another river . . . — — Map (db m225862) HM
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, these portions of the Mississippi and Little Elk Rivers were used to float logs to area sawmills, most notably Pine Tree Lumber Company in Little Falls.
Log jams were common and took large amounts of log . . . — — Map (db m225637) HM
From the late 1800s to 1904 this land was owned by retired Indian Agent Major Ashley Morrill.
He had several roads built on the property. One took Morrill from his lavish three-story mansion near the road bridge over Little Elk River to a . . . — — Map (db m225964) HM
In 1836 explorer Joseph Nicollet sketched a waterfall on Little Elk River just above this point. Twenty years later pioneer businessman William Sturgis established the town of Elk City, opened a general store and constructed a sawmill by the falls. . . . — — Map (db m224074) HM
Evidence found by archaeologists shows that tribal peoples frequented this low riverside ridge at least 5,000 years ago, perhaps using the area as a portage around rapids that existed on the Mississippi River here prior to the construction of the . . . — — Map (db m224235) HM
In September 1805, Lt. Zebulon Pike led 20 soldiers north from St. Louis, MO on an expedition to locate the headwaters of the Mississippi River, acquired a year earlier as part of the Louisiana Purchase. River levels and inclement weather slowed . . . — — Map (db m225471) HM