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
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
The Post's surgeon lived here. In addition to treating the sick and injured, the post surgeon was himself a commissioned officer, in charge of enforcing proper sanitary measures. The regular inspection of living quarters, the water supply, . . . — — Map (db m71677) HM
Most officers in the regular army during the 1850s were professional soldiers with combat experience. Most had fought in the Mexican-American War (1846-47), and three quarters were West Point graduates. To those who had seen action in Mexico, . . . — — Map (db m71768) HM
A Minority in Their Homeland
For generations, the land stretching out around you was the homeland of the Dakota Indians. Through treaties in 1851, the Dakota sold all of their land in southern Minnesota. The treaties disregarded Dakota . . . — — Map (db m71126) HM
The Dakota plan of attack on August 22 was the same as on the 20th—a volley of three shots from the north, followed by a rush of warriors from the east, south, and west. The plan was disrupted again when a mail carrier was spotted on the New Ulm . . . — — Map (db m199447) HM
You are standing where cannon fire stopped the Dakota assault on August 20, 1862. According to Tasina Wakanhdi (Lightning Blanket), who was involved in both attacks on the Fort, the warriors who made the first attack on Fort Ridgely were men from . . . — — Map (db m71702) HM
Large wood-burning ovens emitted so much heat that they were housed in a special structure on this site, remote from the other fort buildings.
Minnesota Historical Society
Fort Ridgely — — Map (db m72596) HM
In 1860, there were 39 women here at the fort. Most were the wives and daughters of officers and enlisted men. Others were governesses, servants, and cooks hired by officers. Civilian women like Wilhemina Randall, the wife of the post sutler, . . . — — Map (db m72751) HM
With hundreds of men and some 175 horses, the garrison had a gargantuan appetite for wood, hay, grain, corn, and beef. Unable to meet the requirements of the post through any direct federal supply system, the War Department issued contracts to . . . — — Map (db m71497) HM
Elden Lawrence writes about a daring rescue led by his great-grandfather, Lorenzo Lawrence:
The Dakota were divided about whether to go to war with the whites. After attempts to avert the fighting proved futile, many Dakota decided to . . . — — Map (db m72934) HM
Fort Ridgely both contradicts and fits the popular culture stereotype of a frontier fort. Following its 1855 completion, the Fort’s primary role was to assist the federal government with an orderly transition of land ownership from American Indians . . . — — Map (db m70107) HM
As the frontier moved westward, Fort Ridgely's importance declined. Troops were withdrawn on May 22, 1867, but the buildings and land remained the property of the federal government. Settlers pillaged the fort, carting off stone, wood, and other . . . — — Map (db m73002) HM
The steamer West Newton left St. Paul on April 26, 1853, transporting the first soldiers to the site of the new post. It took four days to get from Fort Snelling to Fort Ridgely. John P. Owens, passenger and editor of The . . . — — Map (db m71504) HM
The army believed that routine promoted discipline. Soldiers were on duty six days a week from daybreak to dusk. Garrison life consisted of roll calls, inspections, parades, guard duty, weapons training, drills, and daily chores called fatigues. . . . — — Map (db m71993) HM
Five log buildings stood in a row behind the barracks. They were among the earliest structures erected at the post to serve as officers' homes until regular quarters were completed. Archaeological excavations indicate that the building in the . . . — — Map (db m72801) HM
In 1972 Minnesota Historical Society archaeologists excavated a row of latrines that stood behind the officers' quarters, in order to retrieve household articles disposed of during the post's active years. This excavation revealed that the . . . — — Map (db m72670) HM
The frame structure that stood here probably housed two officers and their families, much as a duplex would today. A central hall divided the building, and each half contained living, sleeping, and cooking areas.
Minnesota Historical . . . — — Map (db m71980) HM
At first glance, this foundation of Officers' Quarters B appears identical to that of Officers' Quarters A. A closer look, however, reveals that this building was somewhat larger. Sketches of the two structures indicate they also had different . . . — — Map (db m71854) HM
This building was identical to Officers' Quarters B and was one of several Fort Ridgely structures excavated by G. Hubert Smith in the mid-1930s. Assisted by unemployed World War I veterans from the Works Progress Administration, Smith not only . . . — — Map (db m71625) HM
This original log powder magazine, and another one similar to it, stood across the road in front of you when Fort Ridgely was an active military post. These buildings were used for storing ammunition and unused weapons. During the 1862 battles, a . . . — — Map (db m71726) HM
Soldiers and civilian refugees peered anxiously in this direction, fearing another attack and praying for help. The garrison had dug entrenchments and built an earthen wall south of the fort. Barricades on all sides had been strengthened. During . . . — — Map (db m71599) HM
The immense stone barracks was the most impressive building at Fort Ridgely. Measuring 235 feet by 40 feet and two stories high, it could house as many as 400 enlisted men. Its two-foot-thick walls were made of rectangular granite blocks set in . . . — — Map (db m72209) HM
Fort Ridgely's commandant and its surgeon lived with their families in the structure on this site. A central hallway divided the quarters into two separate living units. The building was destroyed by fire in 1865.
Minnesota Historical . . . — — Map (db m71667) HM
On the morning of August 18, 1862, Captain John Marsh, 46 soldiers, and interpreter Peter Quinn left the fort to respond to news of violence at Lower Sioux Agency. After an 11-mile march, the soldiers prepared to cross the Minnesota River at the . . . — — Map (db m71633) HM
Fort Ridgely served as a buffer between Dakota Indians on the reservations and white settlers pouring into the Minnesota River valley. Soldiers stationed here enforced treaty agreements and protected the Dakota from intrusions onto their . . . — — Map (db m71197) HM
Most soldiers at Fort Ridgely were low-ranking enlisted men, and before 1861 most of these were foreign-born. Out of 166 enlisted men in the 1860 census, 70 were from Ireland, 34 from Germany, ten from Great Britain, and 33 from the United . . . — — Map (db m72429) HM
In 1856 a new town thrived where you are now standing.
Traverse des Sioux had five taverns, two hotels, several churches, and even a brewery—some 70 buildings in all—and a population that at one time reached about 300. But . . . — — Map (db m75762) HM
For generations, the land stretching out around you was the homeland of the Dakota Indians. Through treaties in 1851, the Dakota sold all of their land in southern Minnesota. The treaties disregarded Dakota people's traditional decision-making . . . — — Map (db m71537) HM
For centuries animals and people used the solid footing and shallow water at Traverse des Sioux as a natural river crossing.
In time the crossing became a place for people to meet and trade goods. European fur traders were quick to see the . . . — — Map (db m73945) HM
Archaeology is the recovery and study of material evidence, such as remainders of pottery, to help us learn about people and places of the past.
In 1994 the Minnesota Historical Society conducted a survey to map and excavate the . . . — — Map (db m78179) HM
Here, for countless generations, Dakota people followed the traditional ways of their ancestors.
Living close to the land, they learned how to read nature's signs and developed an intimate understanding of the habitats and growth cycles of . . . — — Map (db m207956) HM
Although European traders reached this area in 1695, it was not systematically mapped until the late 1830s.
The mapmaker was Joseph Nicollet, a French astronomer and cartographer who led two government-sponsored expeditions into what is . . . — — Map (db m74990) HM
Because of its importance as a river crossing, Traverse des Sioux was a major distribution point for the fur trade.
As early as the 1770s, the Dakota were trading here for guns, blankets, and kettles. One prominent local trader was the . . . — — Map (db m76158) HM
Imagine standing in this spot 150 years ago.
It would have looked very different than it does today. To the west (your left) was a rolling prairie — vast, nearly treeless grasslands. In the summer the prairie would be ablaze with . . . — — Map (db m77940) HM
The Reverend Stephen Riggs and his wife, Mary, arrived at Traverse des Sioux in 1843 to establish a Protestant mission for the Dakota.
He and other missionaries believed they had a duty to convert Indians to Christianity. Their efforts . . . — — Map (db m78112) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m65464) HM
The signing of the 1851 treaty was the signal for settlers and speculators to rush into the new territory.
Here, between 1852 and 1855, several town sites were laid out for sale. The first outfit to offer land was the Traverse des Sioux . . . — — Map (db m75224) HM
Near this place on July 23, 1851, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota sold 21 million acres of land to the federal government for $1,665,000—about 7.5 cents per acre. The Dakota, hoping to ensure a future for their children, . . . — — Map (db m71152) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m65557) HM
On July 23, 1851, a treaty was signed here that transferred millions of acres of Dakota land to the U.S. government. The treaty also resulted in the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota bands' movement to reservation lands along the Minnesota River.
. . . — — Map (db m79309) HM
When the wind blew it looked like waves upon the sea. This was the sight that greeted the explorers and then later settlers to southwestern Minnesota. Home for centuries to American Indians, this was a unique sight to people from the forested . . . — — Map (db m195736) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m34464) HM
Welcome to Minnesota (marker east side) • • • Known to her citizens as the North Star State or the Gopher State, Minnesota has never claimed to be the Land of the Giants. But two famous American giants do hail from Minnesota. The giant . . . — — Map (db m157792) HM
Minnesota's doctors and the institutions they built have played a distinguished role in the medical revolution of the past 150 years. Both the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota Medical School have pioneered treatment techniques that have . . . — — Map (db m178478) HM
A great love of nature led Dr. Charles Horace Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, and his wife Edith (Graham) Mayo to purchase a small red brick house and 340 acres in 1907. Their growing family and desire to preserve the natural beauty of the . . . — — Map (db m196339) HM
For Minnesota's Nobel Prizewinning novelist Sinclair Lewis, Inspiration Peak more than lived up to its name. From its "bald top," he wrote, "there is to be seen a glorious, 20-mile circle of some 50 lakes scattered among fields and pastures, like . . . — — Map (db m120098) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m44032) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m5105) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m5288) HM
Welcome to Minnesota (south side)Known to her citizens as the North Star State or the Gopher State, Minnesota has never claimed to be the Land of giants. But two famous American giants do hail from Minnesota. The giant lumberjack Paul . . . — — Map (db m162685) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m231549) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m42305) HM
A center of Mdewakanton Dakota community life for several generations, St. Cornelia's Episcopal Church is a symbol of Dakota continuity in the homeland from which they once were exiles. In 1987 the remains of 31 Dakota who died in an Iowa . . . — — Map (db m70182) HM
Near this spot lie the remains of Wowinape (Place of Refuge), a survivor of the Dakota War of 1862. Wowinape was the son of Taoyateduta (His Red Nation), known to whites as Little Crow, spokesman and leader of the Dakota in that tragic war. In July, . . . — — Map (db m69792) HM
Mary Schwandt and her brother August were the only two of their extended family of nine who survived the terrible six week long war now usually named the United States - Dakota Conflict of 1862. During Mary's captivity with the Dakota . . . — — Map (db m71301) HM
"It was a beautiful place to encamp, but it proved an unfortunate one for us, as the enemy had the advantage both of the timber and hill for protection."
Joseph Anderson
To . . . — — Map (db m71481) HM
"One of the sentinels fired. The shot was followed by a heavy volley from the Indians, which...killed and wounded several of our men and the fight was on."
Joseph Anderson
. . . — — Map (db m71554) HM
"Soon after the battle I, with many others who had taken part in the war, surrendered to Gen. Sibley."
Wamditanka
"As soon as I surrendered I was thrown in prison," . . . — — Map (db m71612) HM
On the prairie half a mile east of this point, a party of about 160 troops was attacked by Sioux at dawn, Sept. 2, 1862.
During the battle, the force was surrounded for thirty hours, losing over a third of its number in killed and wounded.
. . . — — Map (db m67451) HM
All our horses, both cavalry and transportation horses, were either killed or so badly wounded as to make them unfit for service."
Joseph Anderson
Tethered to wagons on the . . . — — Map (db m71575) HM
"It was concluded to surround the camp that night and attack it at daylight. We felt sure we could capture it."
Wamditanka
After the Dakota scouts spotted Anderson's men . . . — — Map (db m71510) HM
"We had no difficulty in surrounding the camp. The pickets were only a little way from it."
Wamditanka
No soldiers would have attempted to climb this hill during the battle. . . . — — Map (db m71551) HM
In the late summer of 1862, the land on which you're standing was a war zone. The causes of that war had been brewing for decades.
In treaties signed between 1805 and 1858, the Dakota nation ceded much of its land to the U.S. government. . . . — — Map (db m71337) HM
On a summer day in 1862 the Redwood Ferry landing on the Minnesota River below this point was the scene of the first attack against military troops in one of America's most tragic Indian wars.
Early in the morning of August 18, 1862, a large . . . — — Map (db m68897) HM
This monument was dedicated in 1894 as a testament to U.S. soldiers and civilians who fought and died in the Battle of Birch Coulee. The U.S.–Dakota Conflict of 1862 started when Dakota Indians, frustrated over broken treaty . . . — — Map (db m70848) HM
On the second day of the fight, we were reinforced...which ended one of the hardest and best fought battles known."
Joseph Anderson
Early in the afternoon of September 3, . . . — — Map (db m71590) HM
Just before sunrise on September 2, 1862, the sharp crack of a warning shot signaled the start of the Battle of Birch Coulee.
One of the bloodiest battles of the U.S.-Dakota War was fought here. For a day and a half, this place echoed . . . — — Map (db m71159) HM
"I led my men up from the west through the grass and took up a position 200 yards from the camp behind a small knoll."
Wamditanka
You are standing where Wamditanka and his band took . . . — — Map (db m71532) HM
Before the Battle
When glaciers receded from this region thousands of years ago, they left behind huge rivers and lakes in a broad valley.
Over time, the valley became filled with tallgrass prairies, small lakes, and the waterway known . . . — — Map (db m71445) HM
The story of Birch Coulee is told vividly by the men who fought here.
As you move along this trail, you will follow the stories of two men: Joseph Anderson, a captain in the U.S. Army, and Wamditanka (Big Eagle), a Mdewakanton chief.
. . . — — Map (db m71459) HM
"When the men in advance reached Little Crow's village...they saw a column of mounted men and some wagons...going eastward." Wamditanka
The "men in advance" were Dakota scouts. According to . . . — — Map (db m71472) HM
A Grand and Luxurious Home
This was the first house built of quarried granite in the Minnesota River valley during the 1860s. Most structures then were cabins or small wooden frame houses. Brick and stone structures had been built at . . . — — Map (db m226523) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m243426) HM
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.
. . . — — Map (db m26200) HM
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Verendrye, established Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods in 1732. A daring soldier, fur trader, and explorer, La Verendrye had the ambitious dream of finding the fabled "Western Sea" and sought to . . . — — Map (db m8375) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m8420) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m43766) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m44081) HM
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. . . . — — Map (db m43723) HM
A drop of rain water falling here in the Giants Range, a rare three-way continental divide, may flow either north into icy Hudson Bay, east into the Atlantic Ocean, or south into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
From the north slope of . . . — — Map (db m3048) HM
It has been called the “Grand Canyon of the North”—a fitting title for the world’s largest open pit iron mine. The Hull-Rust-Mahoning pit actually began as separate mines, named for their owners, first dug in 1895, that gradually . . . — — Map (db m2833) HM
The Cloquet-Moose Lake forest fire of October 12-13, 1918, which almost reached this location, was one of the most destructive forest fires in Minnesota's recorded history. Like other major fires, this one took place on cutover land- the stumps . . . — — Map (db m228645) HM
Minnesota’s Seaport. More than three billion tons of iron ore, along with millions of tons of grain, lumber, fish, and coal, have passed through the Duluth-Superior harbor since the beginning of Minnesota’s Iron Age. The first ore from the rich . . . — — Map (db m3094) HM
Minnesota’s iron mining industry was born here in 1884, and the opening of this mine was one of the great commercial events of the nineteenth century. The first ore was shipped from the Breitung pit of the Soudan Mine on July 31, 1884, beginning . . . — — Map (db m143711) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m15380) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m19789) HM
In November of 1862, after the fighting of the U.S.-Dakota War had drawn to a close, those who had not engaged in battle — mostly women and children — were taken overland by U.S. soldiers from the Redwood (Lower Sioux) . . . — — Map (db m73578) HM
The Minnesota River Valley was ripe for conflict in 1862. Tensions between the Dakota people and the U.S. government had long been brewing over broken treaty promises and dramatic changes to Dakota traditional lifestyles. Focused on . . . — — Map (db m73545) HM
When Charles Lindbergh landed his airplane on May 21, 1927, after becoming the first person to fly solo and non-stop from New York to Paris, he instantly became a national hero. His background and boyhood in Minnesota prepared him well for this . . . — — Map (db m85788) HM
After the American Revolution, the 1783 Treaty of Paris, signed by those representing the American Colonies and Great Britain, sought to establish the boundary of the new country. In the middle of the continent the boundary was to run east to west . . . — — Map (db m69746) HM
St. John's Abbey was founded in 1856 on the west bank of the Mississippi near St. Cloud and permanently located in the Indianbush, now Collegeville, on the shore of Lake Sagatagan in 1866. St. John's was the first Benedictine abbey in the Upper . . . — — Map (db m78128) HM
When Harry Sinclair Lewis was born here on a bitter cold February 7, 1885, Sauk Centre was a raw prairie town with an unpaved main street and five or six blocks of false fronts. A gawky, sensitive child who achieved little success in school and was . . . — — Map (db m43828) HM
During its first session in 1858 the Minnesota State Legislature established the first of several schools for the training and care of citizens who suffered mental and physical disabilities and for children who were unable to care for themselves. . . . — — Map (db m26252) HM
Banker Carl Bennett wanted more than a prominent new building to house his family's business. He wanted a work of art. Bennett's search for an architect led him in 1906 to Louis Sullivan, one of the country' most inventive designers. Together they . . . — — Map (db m23241) HM
America's westward expansion came at the expense of the American Indians. Tribes were relocated as the tide of European settlement reached their traditional homelands, and the treaties negotiated with them were seldom long lasting or satisfying to . . . — — Map (db m89889) HM
On October 9, 1933, William H. Jensen, an amateur archaeologist, uncovered the badly broken skeleton of a man in a gravel pit on the plateau visible about ½ mile south of this marker. The plateau was formed as an island in the ancient River Warren, . . . — — Map (db m185218) HM
"I decided that if you could ski on snow, you could ski on water." In 1922, after first trying barrel staves, then snow skis, eighteen year old Ralph W. Samuelson succeeded in waterskiing on eight foot long pine boards, steamed in boiling water to . . . — — Map (db m45308) HM
"City dwellers need go no farther than this if they seek romantic solitude,” wrote panorama artist Henry Lewis in 1848. “One cannot imagine a more lovely expanse of water than Lake Pepin in quiet, clear weather, and no wilder scene than . . . — — Map (db m45318) HM
