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
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
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 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
"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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Motley began as a lumber and railroad town. Its location between two rivers ensured its future. Down these rivers logs were floated to sawmills built by Morrison on the Crow Wing and Curtis and Laurence on the Long Prairie. From there the rough-cut . . . — — Map (db m207230) HM
[left panel] The first white settler, Herman J. Billig came to this area in the fall of 1865. In the spring of 1866 a mission was opened at Pierz and cared for by the pastor of Belle Prairie, Father Joseph Buh. [center panel]Pierz is . . . — — Map (db m158940) HM
Dedicated to the Men and Women who served our Country Department of the Navy United States Marine Corps ☆ ☆ ☆ Department of the Air Force United States of America ☆ ☆ ☆ Department of the Army United . . . — — Map (db m213532) WM
Erected in 1952 to the Memory of Reverend Francis Xavier Pierz "Father of the Diocese of St. Cloud" 1785-1880 By assignment of Bishop Joseph Crιtin of St. Paul he came to the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries in 1852 to convert the Indians and . . . — — Map (db m213533) HM
Within this 215-acre preserve are 18 vegetative types, including bluestem prairie, oak savanna, white pine woods, deciduous forests, alder-sedge-swamp, and birch tamarack woods. In all, 145 species of birds, and 13 species of mammals have been . . . — — Map (db m145562) HM
