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History and Biography
OF
POLK COUNTY, MINNESOTA
MAJ. R. I. HOLCOMBE, Historical Editor WILLIAM H. BINGHAM, General Editor -
WITH SPECIAL ARTICLES BY ELIAS STEENERSON, W. E. MCKENZIE, N. P. STONE, EDMUND M. WALSH, JAMES M. CATHCART, CHARLES L. CONGER, PROFESSOR N. A. THORSON, C. G. SELVIG, THOMAS B. WALKER, WARREN UPHAM, E. D. CHILDS REV. E. THEILLON, PETER ALLAN CUMMING
AND OTHERS
ILLUSTRATED
MINNEAPOLIS W. H. BINGHAM & CO. Book Publishers and Engravers 1916
COPYRIGHT 1916 BY W. H. BINGHAM & CO. Minneapolis, Minn.
APR 27 1916
OMIA427553
FOREWORD
In compiling this compendium of history and bi- ography and preparing it for publication its publish- ers have been engaged in a work of very unusual interest. The story told in these pages is substan- tially that of a rich and fertile region awakened by the commanding voice of mind from its wasteful sleep of ages to a condition of intensifying and expanding produetiveness and the conversion of its vast re- sources, prior to that time unused, into serviceable forms for the benefit of mankind.
The various stages by which that region has ad- vanced from a wilderness to a highly developed sec- tion of country, rich in all the elements of modern civilization-basking in pastoral abundance, re- sounding with the din of fruitful industry, busy with the mighty volume of a multiform and far-reaching commerce and bright with the luster of high moral, mental, and spiritual life-the home of an enterpris- ing, progressive, 'and all-daring people, as they founded and have built it, are depicted in detail or clearly indicated in the following chapters. Such a theme is always and everywhere an inspiring one. But happily for the world, though unhappily for the historian, among us it is one fast fading from current experience and comment into the realm of the anti- quarian. For in this land of ours civilized man has established his dominion over almost every region, and there is little of our onee vast wilderness left to be conquered.
The book contains biographies of many of the progressive residents of Polk County, past and pres-
ent, and some of men living elsewhere now who were once potent in the activities of this region-those who laid the foundations of its greatness and those who have built and are building on the superstructure -and is enriched with portraits of a number of them. It also gives a comprehensive survey of the numerous lines of productive energy which distinguish the peo- ple of the county at the present time and of those in which its residents have been engaged at all periods in the past since the settlement of the region began. And so far as past history and present conditions dis- close them, the work indicates the trend of the coun- ty's activities and the goal which they aim to reach.
In their arduous labor of preparing this volume the publishers and promoters of it have had most valu- able and highly appreciated assistance from many sources. Their special thanks are due and are cor- dially tendered to Judge William Watts for his serv- ices as a reviewer and fountain of information ; to Mr. Elias Steenerson for his complete and entertaining contribution deseriptive of the early Norwegian set- tlements in the county ; to Mr. W. E. Mckenzie for his diseriminating history of the press in this section ; to Mr. N. P. Stone, Historian of the Old Settlers' So- ciety, for information obtainable from no other per- son; to Mr. Edmund M. Walsh for thrilling remi- niscenees of the carly days at Crookston ; to Mr. James M. Cathart for his equally valuable history of the city of Crookston; to Mr. Charles L. Conger for his graphic account of the rise and fall of Columbia County ; to Professor N. A. Thorson for his able and
FOREWORD
suggestive history of the Polk County school system ; to Mr. C. G. Selvig for his fine exposition of the North- western School of Agriculture and the Experiment Station operated in connection with it ; to Mr. Thomas B. Walker, of Minneapolis, for his Ineid and highly in- teresting presentation of the salient features of the lumbering industry in this region; to Mr. James J. Ilill and Mr. W. J. Murphy, of Minneapolis, for vahi- able, timely, and helpful encouragement in the work : to Mr. Warren Upham, secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society, for comprehensive and aeenrate information on the geography and geology of Polk County ; to Mr. E. D. Childs, of North Yakima, Wash- ington. for a chapter of sparkling reminiseenees of the early days; to Rev. William Thiellion for his ex- cellent artiele on Gentilly and his church there and the cheese factory condueted by its members under
his supervision and started by his initiative; to Peter Allan Cumming for his article on the Marias Com- munity, and to many other persons whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged but who are too numerous to be mentioned specially by name. Without the valu- able and judicious aid of all these persons, those who are named and those who are not, it would have been impossible to compile a history of l'olk County of the completeness and high character it is hoped and be- lieved this one has. Finally, to the residents of Polk County, to whose patronage the book is indebted for its publication, and whose life stories constitute a large part of its contents, the publishers freely tender their grateful thanks, with the hope that these per- sons will find in the volume an ample recompense for their generosity and publie spirit in making its pro- dnetion possible.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF POLK COUNTY 9
BY WARREN UPHAM.
CHAPTER II.
THE EARLY INDIAN INHABITANTS.
LACK OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE VERY FIRST PEOPLE OF POLK COUNTY-THE MOUND BUILDERS DOUBTLESS NEVER LIVED HERE, AND THE MOUNDS IN THE COUNTY WERE BUILT BY THE RED INDIANS-TIIE CREES WERE THE FIRST MODERN INDIANS TO LIVE HERE, ALTHOUGH EXACT PARTICULARS OF THEIR OCCUPATION ARE NOT KNOWN-TIIE CHIPPEWAS FOLLOWED THE CREES, FOUGHT THE SIOUX, AND DROVE THE MAJORITY OF THE LATTER FROM THE THIEF RIVER COUNTRY-ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THIEF RIVER-THE SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS BATTLE FOR THE RED RIVER COUNTRY-SIOUX DEFEAT AT PEMBINA-FLAT MOUTH, THE CHIPPEWAA CHILEF, THWARTS THE TREACHERY OF BEAVER, THE SIOUX CHIEF, AND HIAS HIM MURDERED NEAR EAST GRAND FORKS-COL. ROBERT DICKSON, THE SCOTCH TRADER AT EAST GRAND FORKS, PROTESTS THE MURDER AND ALSO HELPS THE BRITISH IN THE WAR OF 1812 17
CHAPTER III. THE FIRST WHITE MEN IN POLK COUNTY.
THE NORSEMEN WHO MADE THE KENSINGTON RUNE STONE WERE FIRST-THE EARLY WHITE EXPLORERS-OTHER FIRST VISITORS TO MINNESOTA-THE LA VERENDRYES DISCOVER THE RED RIVER VALLEY-FIRST PRINTED DESCRIP- TION OF THE REGION BY A CHIPPEWA HALF BREED-RED LAKE NAMED "FROM THE COLOUR OF THE SAND"- NOT MANY OTHER EARLY EXPLORERS. 28
CHAPTER IV. FUR TRADERS THE FIRST WHITE RESIDENTS.
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY-DUNCAN GRAHAM COMES TO EAST GRAND FORKS PRIOR TO 1800-DAVID THOMPSON FINDS JEAN BAPTISTE CADOTTE HERE IN 1798-THE NORTHWEST FUR COMPANY FORMED AND SENDS IN TRAD- ERS-THE COLUMBIA AND AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES. 34
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V.
EARLY AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN RED RIVER VALLEY.
MAJOR LONG'S EXPEDITION IN 1823-ITS HISTORIAN DESCRIBES RED LAKE RIVER AS TIIE "RED FORK" AND NOTES THE SALT DEPOSITS OF THIE REGION-COUNT BELTRAMI, OF ITALY, ACCOMPANIES TIIE MAJ. LONG EXI'EDITION, DESCRIBES THIE COUNTRY, AND CALLS THE RED "THE BLOODY RIVER"-THE SELKIRK SETTLEMENT AND IT'S CONNECTION WITH THE HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY-SELKIRK COLONISTS WERE THE COUNTY'S FIRST WIIITE RESIDENTS-TIIE AREA OF THE PRESENT COUNTY FIRST PURCHASED OF TIJE INDIANS BY LORD SELKIRK-CAPT. . JOHN P'OPE, IN 1850, RECORDED THE FACT THAT THE COLONISTS CAME TO EAST GRAND FORKS BETWEEN 1814 AND 1820-A FEW OF THEIR NAMES. 40
CHAPTER VI. CIIIEF HISTORIC FEATURES OF EARLY TIMES.
THE OLD RED RIVER CARTS AND THIEIR TRAILS-NORMAN KITTSON'S FIRST TRAIL ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE RED RIVER THROUGHI POLK COUNTY-ITS HISTORY AND LOCATION, AS MAPPED BY CAPT. POPE AND DESCRIBED BY OTHIERS WHO TRAVELED THIE ROUTE-IT CROSSED THE RED LAKE RIVER WEST OF FISHER-WAS THE TREATY OF 1863 HIELD AT THIE PROPER CROSSING ?- TIIE GOVERNMENT EXPEDITION UNDER MAJOR WOODS AND CAPTAIN POPE TO PEMBINA IN 1849-IT FOLLOWED THE OLD KITTSON TRAIL AND CROSSED THE RED LAKE RIVER AT TITE OLD CROSSING, WEST OF FISHER-THEY DESCRIBED THE COUNTRY NOW THE WEST SIDE OF POLK COUNTY AS GOOD FOR WHEAT BUT NOT PROMISING FOR CORN-TITE TREATIES WIJICH BOUGHT THE LAND FROM THE IN- DIANS-THE "OLD CROSSING" TREATY HELD AT THE NEW CROSSING OF RED LAKE RIVER 46
CHAPTER VII.
EARLY HISTORICAL DATA AFTER 1850.
FIRST NATIONAL CENSUS-FROM 1850 TO 1860-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY RETURNS TO MINNESOTA-BUILDING OF FORT ABERCROMBIE-CREATION OF POLK COUNTY 56
CHAPTER VIII. IHISTORICAL ARTICLES OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT.
REMINISCENCES OF THE SETTLEMENT OF POLK COUNTY, BY ELIAS STEENERSON-E. M. WALSHI'S DESCRIPTIONS OF PI- ONEER BUSINESS LIFE-LUMBERING OPERATIONS IN POLK COUNTY, BY T. B. WALKER-EARLY BUSINESS ENTER- PRISES, BY E. D. CHIILDS-GENESIS OF THE I'RESENT HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY, WITH A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY'S RESOURCES, BY N. P. STONE, HISTORIAN OF TIIE POLK COUNTY OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION- IIISTORY OF TIJE CATHOLIC PARISH OF ST. PETER, GENTILLY, MINN., BY REV. E. TIIEILLON-THIE MARAIS COM- MUNITY, BY PETER ALLAN CUMMING; ITS EARLY PERMANENT SETTLEMENT, ITS PROGRESS AND PRESENT CONDI- TION-FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS-THIE CHURCHES-SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 63
CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX. CROOKSTON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
BY JAMES A. CATHCART, SECRETARY OF THE COMMERCIAL CLUB.
HISTORICAL SKETCH-CITY BUILDINGS AND OTHER PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS-THE COMMERCIAL CLUB-THE BANKS -MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES-THE CITY SCHOOLS-OTHER SCHOOLS-LODGES AND OTHER CIVIC ORGANIZA- TIONS-THE NORTHWESTERN MINNESOTA AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION-HOSPITALS, ETC. 85
CHAPTER X. THE NEWSPAPERS OF POLK COUNTY.
BY W. E. MCKENZIE, CROOKSTON TIMES.
NEWSPAPER CONDITIONS PAST AND PRESENT-LAND NOTICES PAID THE PIONEER PRINTERS-E. M. WALSH AND THE CROOKSTON PLAINDEALER-FIRST PAPER WAS THE POLK COUNTY JOURNAL-BROWN AND HIS "BROADAXE''- TIIE TRAGIC TALE OF THE NORTHERN TIER-THE CROOKSTON CHRONICLE-THE FISHER BULLETIN-THE PAPERS OF 1882-RED LAKE FALLS DEMOCRAT AND THE CROOKSTON TIMES FIRST DEMOCRATIC PAPERS-THE M'INTOSH TIMES-CROOKSTON TRIBUNE-THE VESTESHEIMEN-THE PEOPLE'S PRESS-OTHER POLK COUNTY PAPERS ALIVE 90 AND DEAD.
CHAPTER XI.
THE SCHOOLS OF POLK COUNTY.
BY N. A. THORSON.
BASIS FOR SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT-THE COMING OF THE COUNTY'S SCHOOLS-COUNTY SCHOOLS IN 1877 AND IN 1878-FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER, LUELLA MAY THOMPSON-OTHER EARLY TEACHERS-THE COUNTY SU- PERINTENDENTS-REPORTS OF SCHOOL YEARS FROM 1882 TO 1908-THE CONDITIONS IN 1910-SOURCES OF SCHOOL SUPPORT-APPORTIONMENT-STATISTICS OF STATE AND OTHER AIDS-PRESENT CONDITIONS OF POLK 96 COUNTY SCHOOLS.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CROOKSTON SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. BY C. G. SELVIG.
A RED RIVER VALLEY INSTITUTION-NEW BUILDING DEDICATED-DEATH OF SUPERINTENDENT WM. ROBERTSON-THE SCHOOL'S ADVANCEMENT AND GROWTH-MOVING YEAR-SCHOOL FACULTY-EQUIPPING A TECHNICAL SCHOOL- THE SCHOOL'S GROWTH-ITS WORK OUTSIDE SCHOOLROOM DOORS. 106
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIII.
THE NORTHWEST SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE AND EXPERIMENT STATION.
BY SUPERINTENDENT C. G. SELVIG.
ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY-SECURING THE LAND FOR A SITE-BEGINNINGS IN 1895-THE SOIL AT THE STATION- PLANS OUTLINED-TIIE WORK OF EARLY YEARS-DRAINAGE INSTALLED-DRAINAGE WORK BEGUN-A NEW AD- MINISTRATION-EXPERIMENTS IN CROP PRODUCTION-FIELD CROP WORK-THE HORTICULTURAL DIVISION- LIVE STOCK DEPARTMENTS, ETC .. 111
CHAPTER XIV.
IHISTORY OF AGRICULTURE IN POLK COUNTY.
BY PROF. C. G. SELVIO.
LOCATION OF THE COUNTY-EARLY GEOLOGICAL HISTORY-SOILS-TEMPERATURE-SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SET- TLERS-RED RIVER CARTS-IMMIGRATION AFTER 1876-PIONEER WIIEAT FARMING-AGRICULTURAL DEVEL- OPMENTS AND PRODUCTION STATISTICS-PRESENT FARMING CONDITIONS-CORN-POTATOES-FRUITS-LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY-DAIRYING-POULTRY RAISING-LIVE STOCK FARMING-CATTLE STATISTICS-GROWTH OF LIVE STOCK RAISING-STATISTICS OF FARM PRODUCTS AND LIVE STOCK-DRAINAGE WORK IN POLK COUNTY, BY GEORGE A. R.ALPII, C. E. 116
CHAPTER XV.
THE RISE AND FALL OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
BY CHARLES L. CONGER.
SOME PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD-BUSINESS DONE REGULARLY AND IN ORDER-DEFEAT AND DISASTER AFTER ALL -THIE NEW COUNTY FIGHT OF 1896-THE LEADERS OF COLUMBIA'S FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE. 125
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BANKING INTERESTS OF THE COUNTY.
SKETCIIES OF SOME OF TIIE IMPORTANT AND TYPICAL BANKS OF POLK COUNTY-CROOKSTON STATE BANK-THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF M'INTOSH-THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF CROOKSTON-POLK COUNTY STATE BANK- SCANDIA AMERICAN BANK, CROOKSTON-FIRST STATE BANK OF FERTILE-FIRST STATE BANK OF EAST GRAND FORKS-STATE BANK OF ELDRED -- THE STATE BANK OF ERSKINE-FARMERS STATE BANK OF WINGER-FIRST STATE BANK OF MENTOR-CITIZENS STATE BANK OF FERTILE-FARMERS STATE BANK OF FERTILE-FIRST NA- TIONAL BANK OF EAST GRAND FORKS-STATE BANK OF FISHER-FARMERS MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY- FIRST STATE BANK OF BELTRAMI. 131
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
To face page To face page
Polk County Court House.
The Consolidated School at Trail, Polk County
96%
The Old Crossing of Red Lake River, near Fisher, in 1858
48V District 69-Polk County 96V
First Depot in Crookston-Picture taken in 1874.
70+ District 272-Polk County. 96 V
Main Street, Crookston, in 1882.
70V N. A. Thorson, County Superintendent 96
Crookston Lumber Mill in Height of its Activities
72 V. Central High School, Crookston. 101k
Pioneer Fire Fighters.
76 New Armory, Crookston 101k
Bird's-Eye View of Crookston in 1885
76V Owen Hall, Robertson Hall. Stephens Hall, Kielle Build- 85 V ing and ITome Economics .. 107
Robert Houston's Claim Shanty
85V Home Economies Building and Stephens Hall.
109 v
Crookston's First Flour Mill.
85 V Senior Hall and the Ilill Building 110 --
South Broadway, Post Office in Foreground.
86 V Another View, Including Superintendent's Residence
113 C --
A Corner of the Railroad Yards, Crookston.
87V Stock at Northwest Experiment Station
115 v
The Crookston Dam (Built by W. J. Murphy in 1914) .. . . 88 / First National Bank at MeIntosh 131 V
INDEX OF PORTRAITS
Anglim, W. S ..
465 Morris, Tom. 153
Mossefin, Ed. 259V
Bagley, Sumner Chesly 309L
Murphy, W. J. 89-458
Berg, C. M . . 131-342
Buekler, Hon. R. T
194\ Nelson, Dr. Arne 4136
Nelson, Theodore 375 W
Conger, Charles L
161
Opheim, Andrew. 407 6
Duckstad, Brown
391
Ohnstad, Jens, M. D
Flaskernd, K. E., Mr. and Mrs. 331 V
Reese, T. N. J 324 6
llanson, Norman.
425 V Remiek, Mr. and Mrs. John 297
Hendricks, John Albert
367 \ Rosaaen, Hans Olus. 276 1
Ilill, James Jerome. 111-444
Ross, Charles 384
Johnson, Edward W. 290 V Sargent, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph O. 283
Keek, Bert D ..
252
·Steenerson, Elias 167
Kelley, Andrew J.
431
Steenerson, Gunder. 201 t.
Kronschnabel, George
307V Steenerson, Ilon. Halvor 263 -
Krostue, Hon. Gunder. 175
Stowe, Edmund L 333
1814
Larsen, L. W.
233 v Tagley, Joseph 268
MeKenzie, William E
.96-395
Mckinnon, John R.
225/ Thorson, N. A
Marin, W. A.
216
. Vasenden, Nels. 315 kr
Melbo, Hans H.
358 V Walker, Thomas Barlow 74-451
Merrill, Anson Charles
411 Watts, Hon. William. 141
146
Wheeler, Jerome Winthrop.
187
Misner, Harvey Chase.
243 Stone, Nathan P
Selvig, Conrad G
420
Crookston's Water Power in Early Days.
POLK COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
-
HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF POLK COUNTY.
BY WARREN UPHAM.
PRINCIPAL RIVERS.
The great watercourses of Polk County are the Red River, which here flows nearly north-northwest, form- ing the western boundary of the county and the state, and its principal tributary, the Red Lake River, which takes a more meandering course. If the many small loops and bends of the latter stream are disregarded, however, its general route, from which the bends mostly deviate only a quarter to a half of a mile on either side, is seen on the map to be quite direct, run- ning west and northwest through the central part of the county. The cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks are named from their situation where these streams unite, or rather where the lower river forks as it was scen by the Indians or the French voy- ageurs when coming up in their canoes.
Both these rivers have received translations of their Ojibway or Chippewa names, which these Indians gave to them on account of their being the outlet of the great Red Lake. Above the Grand Forks, indeed, the main Red River, as it is named by the white men, was called Otter Tail River by the Ojibways from the lake of that name on the upper part of its course. We may also go a step farther back to note that the name of Red Lake is likewise translated from its Ojibway name, given very long ago, according to the late Rev. Joseph A. Gilfillan, for twenty-five years a missionary on the White Earth reservation, from the bright red and vermilion hues of the sunset sky reflected upon
the placid water of the lake; while Otter Tail Lake derived its Indian name from a long point of land, shaped like the tail of an otter, between the east end of the lake and its main inflowing stream.
FOREST AND PRAIRIE.
The southeast part of this county is sparingly tim- bered, mostly with groves of small poplars, being on the western limit of the originally forested region of the eastern United States; but it also has consid- erable expanses of original prairie, interspersed with the wooded and brushy areas. Westward a heavier growth of forest trees, including oaks, elm, basswood, box-elder, cottonwood, and other species, borders the rivers, usually reaching only a few rods and rarely a quarter of a mile from their banks. Otherwise the main western tract, forming a part of the broad and flat Red River Valley, is an extensive prairie, richly carpeted with grasses and flowers, being the eastern margin of the great prairie region of western and southern Minnesota, which thence continues west in the Dakotas and is gradually succeeded by the drier treeless plains that reach to the Rocky Mountains.
SURFACE FEATURES.
Although no very conspicuous hills or ridges diver- sify the surface of Polk County, it includes in its highest southeastern part two tracts of low drift hills, small ridges and knolls, called moraines, which were
1
9
10
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
amassed on the borders of the continental ice-sheet at times of pause or readvance interrupting its general departure from this region. The more northern of these tracts begins close cast of Fertile and reaches about thirty-five miles northeast and cast, with a width from one to five miles, passing close south of Erskine and onward to Gully station, near the cast boundary of the county. The more southern morainie traet is part of a wider and longer hilly belt, stretch- ing from Fosston southward into Mahnomen County and northeastward into and through Clearwater County.
Hills in each of these moraines occasionally rise 50 to 75 feet, or rarely more, above the adjoining and intervening hollows. Nearly all the surface is strewn with plentiful drift boulders, varying in size up to five feet or sometimes ten feet in length or diameter. Their abundance on the moraine belts is in remark- able contrast to their infrequent occurrence on other and smoother glacial drift areas that form much of this southeast part of Polk County and also the greater parts of Red Lake and Pennington counties, which originally were included in this county.
No rock outerop is found in these counties, nor indeed in a very large region of western Minnesota, which is overspread with a vast sheet of the glacial and modified drift deposits to a depth commonly ranging from 100 to 200 feet or more, mantling and concealing the bed rocks.
Westward, along the low and flat valley of the Red River, fine alluvial silt, destitute of drift boulders or even pebbles, is spread over both the underlying rocks and the glacial drift, reaching in general about twenty or twenty-five miles from the river. This deposit, which has given this valley its fame as a very fertile wheat raising arca, was laid down chiefly by river floods that flowed northward after the ancient lake of the valley had been drained away. If the valley silt were mainly of laeustrine deposition, it would extend farther from the Red River to the old lake beaches on each side of the valley at consid- erable heights above the flat river plain.
FLOODS OF RED RIVER.
The range between the lowest and highest stages of the Red River much surpasses that of any other river in Minnesota. At Breckenridge the range is about 15 feet, but it increases rapidly northward, becoming 32 feet at Moorhead, attaining its maxi- mum of 50 feet in the south part of Polk County, and continuing nearly at 40 feet from Grand Forks to the international boundary and Winnipeg. Floods rising nearly or quite to the high water line thus noted have been rare, occurring in 1826, 1852, 1860, 1861, and 1882. They are caused in the spring by the melting of unusual supplies of snow and by heavy rains, and often are inereased by gorges of ice, which is usually broken up along the southern upper portion of the river earlier than along its lower course. These floods attain a height only a few feet below the level of the adjoining prairie where that is highest, and along the greater part of the distance between Moor- head and Winnipeg the banks are overflowed and the flat land on each side of the river to a distance of two to four or five miles from it is covered with water one to five feet or more in depth.
HEIGHTS ABOVE THE SE.1.
It is of much interest, for our consideration of the ancient water levels, that a brief notice be given to the altitude and general contour of Minnesota, and more especially of the basin of the Red River. The topographic features of the state may be summed up for its western three quarters as being a moder ately undulating, sometimes nearly flat, but ocea- sionally hilly area, gradually descending from the Coteau des Prairies and from the Leaf hills, re- spectively about 2,000 and 1,700 feet above the sea, to half that height, or from 1,000 to 800 feet, in the Red River Valley and to the same height along the valley of the Mississippi from St. Cloud to Min- neapolis. The lowest land in Minnesota is the shore of Lake Superior, 602 feet above the sea; and the Mississippi flows past the southeast corner of the state at the height of 620 feet.
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
Lakes in northern and central Becker County, forming the sources of Ottertail River, the head stream of the Red River, are 1,400 to 1,500 feet above the sea; Ottertail Lake, 1,315 feet; and Red Lake, 1,176 feet.
Rainy Lake is 1,117 feet above the sca; the Rainy River deseends 23 feet at International Falls, two miles and a half from the month of this lake; the Lake of the Woods is at 1,060 feet; and the Winni- peg River thence falls 350 feet to Lake Winnipeg.
At Fergus Falls the Red River descends about 80 feet in three miles, from 1,210 to 1,130 feet; at Breckenridge its height at the stage of low water is 943 feet; at Moorhead and Fargo, 866 feet; at Grand Forks, 784; at St. Vincent and Pembina, near the northwest corner of Minnesota, 748; and at the eity of Winnipeg, 724 feet.
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