An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 35

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 924

USA > Minnesota > Rock County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 35
USA > Minnesota > Pipestone County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 35

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

without feeling his bosom swell with awe and admiration, and himself, as well as his thoughts, lifted up in sublimity when he rises the last terrace and sweeps his eye over the wide-spread blue and pictured infinity that lies around and about him.

Man feels here, and startles at the thrill- ing sensation, the force of illimitable free- dom-his body and his mind both seem to have entered a new element, the former as free as the very wind it inhales, and the other as expanded and infinite as the bound- less imagery that is spread in distance around him. Such is (and it is feebly told ) the Coteau des Prairies. The rock on which I sit to write is the summit of a precipice thirty feet high, extending two miles in length, and much of the way polished, as if a liquid glazing had been poured over its surface. Not far from us, in the solid rock, are the deep-impressed "footsteps of the Great Spirit (in the form of a track of a large bird), where he formerly stood when the blood of buffaloes that he was devouring ran into the rocks and turned them red." At a few yards from us leaps a beautiful little stream, from the top of the precipice into a deep basin below. Here, amid rocks of lovliest hues but wildest contour, is seen the poor Indian performing ablution; and at a little distance beyond, on the plain, at the base of five huge granite boulders, he is humbly propitiating the guardian spirits of the place by sacrifices of tobacco, entreat- ing for permission to take away a small piece of the red stone for a pipe. Farther along and over an extended plain, are seen, like gopher hills, their excavations-ancient and recent,-and on the surface of the rocks, various marks and their sculptured hieroglyphics-their wakons, totems and medicines-subjects numerous and in- teresting for the antiquary or the merely curious. Graves, mounds and ancient for- tifications that lie in sight, the pyramid or leaping rock, and its legends, together with traditions, novel and numerous, and a de- scription, geographical and geological, of this strange place, have all been subjects that have passed rapidly through my con- templation, to be given in future epistles.

The medicine (or leaping rock) is a part of the precipice which has become severed from the main part, standing about seven or eight feet from the wall, just equal in height, and about seven feet in diameter. It stands like an immense column of thirty- five feet high, and is highly polished on its top and sides. It requires a daring effort to leap on its top from the main wall and back again, and many a heart has sighed for the honor of the feat without daring to make the attempt. Some few, have tried it with success and left their arrows stand- ing in the crevice, several of which are seen there at this time; others have leaped the chasm and fallen from its slippery sur- face, on which they could not hold, and

254

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

suffered instant death on the craggy rocks below. Every young man in the nation is ambitions to perform this feat, and those who have successfully done it are allowed to boast of it all their lives. In the sketch already exhibited there will be seen a view of the leaping rock, and in the middle of the picture, a monnd, of conical form, of ten foot height, which was erected over . the body of a distinguished young man who was killed by making the daring effort about two years before I was there, and whose sad fate was related to me by a Sioux chief, who was father of the young man and was visiting at the Red Pipestone quarry, with thirty others of his tribe, when we were there, and cried over the grave as he related the story, to Mr. Wood and my- self, of his son's death.

Catlin pursued his operations solely be- cause of love of discovery, travel and ad- venture, and paid his own expenses. He was best known as an Indian delineator, but he also devoted some of his energies to historical research and geological do- scription. At the Pipestone quarry and at other places on the Cotean he collected samples of the rock, most of which he was obliged to throw away before he again reached civilization. He carried with him a sample of pipestone and took measures to have it subjected to chemical examina- tion. Such examination was made by Dr. C. T. Jackson, of Boston, who gave the substance the mineralogical name of cat- linite, after the first man to visit the quarry.

'The next white men to penetrate to Pipestone county were a party of explor- · ers in the government employ, who visited the quarry in July, 1838. In the party were six men under command of Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, with John C. Fremont second in command.4 Nicollet and Fre- mont traveled from Washington to St. Louis and thence up the Mississippi river to H. H. Sibley's trading post, near the month of the Minnesota river. Thence

4From 1836 to 1843 Nicollet, most of the time assisted by Fremont, prosecuted a geographical survey of the upper Mississippi country. He explored nearly all portions of Minnesota and many other parts of the country theretofore novisited. le discovered and named many lakes, creeks and other physical features, and the map he made was of inestimable value. His opera-

they journeyed over the general route of travel up the south side of St. Peters or Minnesota river, crossing at Traverse des Sioux. They proceeded west across the "ox-bow," stopping at Big Swan lake in Nicollet county, and crossed the Minne- sota again at the mouth of the Waraju (Cottonwood). They proceeded up the valley of the Cottonwood, on the north side of the river, to a point near the pres- ent site of Lamberton, and then crossed to the south side of the river and struck across country to Lake Shetek, in Mur- ray county. They went around the north side of that lake. passed between Bear lakes and thence west and a little south to the quarry.5

Nicollet described the elevated plateaui. of which Pipestone county forms a part. in some detail. "Whatever people may fix their abode in this region must," wrote the explorer, "necessarily, become agri- culturists and shepherds, drawing all their resources from the soil. They must not only raise the usual agricultural products for feeding, as is now but too generally done in some parts of the west, but they will have to turn their attention to other rural occupations, such as tending sheep for their wool, which would greatly add to their resources, as well as finally bring about a more extended application of the industrial arts among them."

The commander of the little expedition wrote as follows of the arrival at the quarry and of his impressions of the abode of the Great Spirit :

The Indians of all the surrounding nations make a regular pilgrimage to it, unless pre- vented by their wars and dissensions. The quarry is on the lands of the Sisseton tribe of Sionx.

The idea of the young Indians, who are very fond of the marvelous, is that it has

tions extended to all parts of southwestern Minnesota.

"On Nicollet's map, which appears in this vol- ume, the route to the quarry is designated by a very fine, dotted line, which, however, can be onite plainly traced.

255

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

been opened by the Great Spirit, and that whenever it is visited by them, they are saluted by lightning and thunder. We may site as a coincidence our own experience in confirmation of this tradition. Short of half a mile from the valley, we were met by a severe thunder storm, during which the wind blew with so much force as to threaten the overthrowing of Mr. Renville's wagon, and we were obliged to stop for a few minutes during the short descent into the valley.

If this mode of reception was at first to be interpreted as an indication of anger on the part of the Great Spirit for our intrusion, we may add that he was soon rec- onciled to our presence; for the sun soon after made his appearance, drying both the valley and our baggage. The rest of the day was spent in pitching our tent on the supposed consecrated ground and in admir- ing the beautiful effects of lights and shad- ows produced by the western sun as it illu- mined the several parts of the bluff, compos- ed of red rock of different shades, extend- ing a league in length and presenting the appearance of the ruins of some ancient city built of marble and porphyry. The night was calm and temperate, of which we took advantage to make astronomical ob- servations.

Nicollet and party remained at the quar- ry three days. Indians were present at the time and the whites assisted them in opening a new quarry, blasting the rock with gunpowder." On a slab of the red quartzite near the leaping roek, the mem- bers of the party carved their initials and the date. The carving, which is distinct to this day, was made in the following form :

J. N. NICOLLET

C. F. C. A. G. J. L. J. E. F.

JULY

J. R.

EXPEDITION

"Nicollet stated that it was a rule among the Sissetons to go through a three days' puri- fication by offering prayers and sacrifices to the Great Spirit before digging the precions stone, and if, perchance, in digging, one of them found an inferior piece he lost caste with the others and was obliged to withdraw in disgrace and let the honor of digging fall upon one more worthy.

"In a letter to Charles H. Bennett, dated Sep- tember 3, 1885, General Fremont wrote:

"I had hoped to disinter some data which

The C. F. was for John C. Fremont, who at that period signed his name Char- les Fremont ; the C. A. G. was for Char- les A. Geyer, the botanist of the expedi- tion : whom the J. L. represents I am unable to state: the J. E. F. was for J. Eugene Flandin ; and the J. R. for James Renville.

After departing from the quarry the expedition explored the adjacent country. On the map made a few years later, sev- eral features of Pipestone connty have a place. The Inyan Reakah, or River of the Rock, is quite accurately located, as is also Hidden Wood ereek, or Tehan-Nar- ambe (Chanarambie) creek. Red Pipe- stone ereek is made to rise a short distance east of the quarry, flow in a southwesterly direction and empty into the Tehan-Kasn- data (Big Sioux) river. A stream, labeled Coteau Perce creek, having its source near Lake Benton, is also shown as flow- ing through Pipestone county in a sonth- westerly direction to the Big Sioux. Nie- ollet and his party visited and named Lake Benton and then proceeded westward into Dakota, visiting and naming Lakes Pres- ton (for Senator Preston), Poinsett (for J. R. Poinsett, secretary of war), Abert, Thompson, Tetonkaha, Kampeska, and Hendricks. The location of each of these places was determined by celestial obser- vations, and the elevation of each place was obtained. Before returning to eivili- zation Nicollet visited Big Stone Lake and other places to the north. He re- turned to the falls of St. Anthony by way of the Renville camp on the Lac qui Parle.

might throw some light upon the obscurity of now nearly half a century ago. But fire and fre- quent change of residence have made havoc among my papers, and I can only give you the meager outline which memory retains of those journeys. The hut [at Lake Benton] you men- tion was not ours. We passed no winter there. Our campaigns were summer ones, and the green of the prairies and the herds of buffalo are leading features which remain in my mind. We made a camp at the Red Pipestone quarry and met there a band of Sioux Indians. Ī wonder if chimney rock, which stood in front

256

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

The next record we have of white men in Pipestone county is in 1844. That year a government expedition under Captain J. Allen, operating chietly to chart the Des Moines river and other streams, pro- ceeded up the Des Moines and entered Minnesota in Jackson county. The course was through Jackson, Cottonwood and Murray counties. Captain Allen found that Lake Shetek was the source of the Des Moines river, and with that lake as temporary headquarters he explored the country in several directions. He then set out for the west, passing through Pipe- stone county, and proceeded down the Big Sioux river to its mouth. Apparently, he missed the Pipestone quarry, but he de- scribed the country. and wrote in regard to the big game he encountered on the trip through Pipestone county :

Twenty-five miles west of the source of the Des Moines (Lake Shetek) we struck the range of the buffalo and continued in it to the Big Sioux river and down that river about eighty-six miles. . We found antelope in the same range with the buffalo, but no elk, and very seldom a common deer. While among the buffalo we killed as many as we wanted, and without trouble.

During the forties and fifties the Pipe- stone quarry was visited infrequently by white men. Trading posts and settlements were established in many parts of the frontier ; trappers and hunters pushed out to many out-of-the-way places in plying their trade; traders with the Indians fre- quently went far from the civilized por- tions of the country; missionaries occa- sionally made pilgrimages to the Indian villages. There can be no doubt that fron- tiersmen of this class at times traversed Pipestone county and were at the famous

quarry. Unfortunately, these people sel- dom left records of their adventures, and so it is that we know of only a few such.

Rev. Augustus Ravoux. attended by a single white man, accompanied a party of Sioux in 1845 on an extended journey through the western wilderness. He visit- ed Redwood, the Pipestone quarry. Ver- million and Fort Pierre, returning to Du- buque by way of Des Moines. He report- ed the country which later became south- western Minnesota as swarming with buf- falo and dusky red men.s

In 1853 Judge Swan, who later became a prominent citizen of Sioux City, lowa. passed through Pipestone county while on a hunting expedition. He was with , a party of Indians, who were enroute from Lake Shetek to the Dakota country. His camp was made one night on the site now occupied by the government school at l'ipestone.9

The next recorded visit of white people to Pipestone county was in April. 1857. when Miss Abbie Gardner, Mrs. Margaret Marble, Mrs. Lydia Noble and Mrs. Eliza- beth Thatcher passed through as prison- ers of an outlaw Indian, Inkpaduta, and a renegade band of Sioux Indians. These women had been taken prisoners a few weeks before at Okoboji lakes, lowa. in the butchery commonly called the Spirit Lake massacre, perpetrated by the blood- thirsty Inkpaduta. The flight of the In- dians with their captives was by way of the quarry. They spent one day there.10 and then proceeded westward to the Big Sioux river, coming to that stream at abont the point where now stands the city of Flandreau. They had then been on the

"Interview with Judge Swan in Pipestone County Star, January 19, 1894.

10"Our captors rested themselves here for about a day, in which time they were engaged in the delightful task of gathering the pipestone and shaping it into pipes, which were formed in the manner foretold ages ago."-Mrs. Abbie Gardner-Sharp in "History of the Spirit Lake Massacre."

of the escarpment, is still standing, It re- quired a sure foot to jump from the main rock to the top of it. The two sets of initials in- scribed to which you particularly refer are for ChaNes Fremont, as I then commonly wrote my name, and J. Eugene Flandlin, a young gentleman from New York, who was attached to the party. The names of Lakes Jessie and Benton were given by me, and were for my wife and her father, Senator Benton."

"Rock County Herald, December 7, 1877.

THE NICOLLET INSCRIPTION Carved in the Rocks at the Pipestone Quarry in July, 1838.

257

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

march for six weeks, over a trackless prai- county should be attached to Murray county for judicial and election purposes.

rie, through deep snow, across creeks, riv- ers, sloughs and lakes,11

At this interesting period in history, at a time when only a few explorers and ad- venturers had had the hardihood to pene- trate the wilds of the county, when women captives were held with impunity by the degenerate Sioux where later was builded the city of Pipestone, when there was not a white settler within many long miles, Pipestone county was created by legis- lative act. It was entitled to a place on the map of Minnesota for the first time May 23, 1857, when the bill creating it was approved by the territorial governor. So little did the lawmakers know of south- western Minnesota at that time that they named the county Rock and the one to the south of it Pipestone.12 Its original di- mensions were twenty-four miles north and south by thirty miles cast and west. and within its limits were the site of the present city of Flandrean, South Dakota. and the big bend in the Big Sioux river. north of that city.13 No provision was made for the organization of the county. its boundaries were not even surveyed, and for many years its territory remained the same wild country it had always been. Anticipating the time when the country should have inhabitants, the lawmakers inserted a clause in the original bill to the effect that Rock (read Pipestone)

11Of the four women captives, Mrs. Thatcher was murdered upon reaching the Big Sioux; Mrs. Noble was murdered some weeks later; Mrs. Marble and Miss Gardner, who was then a girl thirteen years of age, were ransomed after considerable delay. On September 22. 1892. Mrs. Abbie Gardner-Sharp, for the first time since she passed through as a captive, visited the Pipestone quarry. She identified the site of the lodges occupied by the captives of 1857. It was on the reservation. on ground sloping westward from the low jasper ledge, about a quarter of a mile south from the falls. This was the only point on the whole journey which the former captive recognized.

12See Rock county history, page 43. The change to the proper names was made by legis- lative act five years later.

13A section of this act was in the following words:

"That so much of the territory of Minnesota

An event that proved of great future importance to Pipestone county was a treaty with the Yankton Indians in 1858, by which that branch of the Sioux nation was guaranteed by the United States gov- ermment the unrestricted use of the Pipe- stone quarry for the digging of pipestone to make their pipes, etc. It is a maiter of doubt by what right the Yanktons laid claim to the quarry and by what process of reasoning the government officials reached the determination to grant the band the unrestricted use of the sacred grounds of the Indians. Their lands were entirely west of the Big Sioux river; they had never previously claimed the lands about the quarry, more than a right to quarry the red pipestone; all the lands east of the Big Sioux river had passed into the possession of the government by treaty in 1851, with the Sissetons, who from very early days had held undisputed possession of the quarries and the surrounding lands. 14

At any rate, the Yanktons were shrewd enough to secure the coveted prize before ceding any of their lands. The treaty was concluded at the city of Washington April 19, 1858. Charles E. Mix was the prin- cipal representative of the United States, and the Indians were represented by Pa-

as is embraced in the following boundaries be. and the same is hereby, established as the county of Rock: Beginning at the southeast corner of township one hundred and five north. of range forty-four (44) west; thence north to the northeast corner of township one hundred and eight north, of range forty-four (44) west; thence west to the northwest corner of town- ship one hundred and eight, of range forty-eight (48) west: thence south to the southwest corner of township one hundred and five north, of range forty-eight (48) west; thence east to' the place of beginning."

14The treaty with the Sisseton and Wahpaton bands of Sioux was made in the latter part of July, 1851, at Traverse des Sioux, was ratified by congress the next year, and in February. 1853, was proclaimed in force by President Fill- more. All the lands of southern Minnesota, in- cluding those of Pipestone county and the Pipestone quarries, were ceded by the terms of that treaty. See Rock county history, page 39.

258

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY. .

da-ni-pa-pa (Strike-the Ree) 15 and other chiefs and delegates. Article eight of the treaty was as follows:

The said Yankton tudians shall be secur- ed in the free and unrestricted use of the red pipestone quarry, or so much thereof as they have been accustomed to frequent and use for the purpose of procuring stone for pipes; and the United States hereby stipulate and agree to cause to be surveyed and marked so much thereof as shall be necessary and proper for that purpose, and retain the same and keep it open and free to the Indians to visit and procure stone for pipes so long as they shall desire. ·

The treaty was ratified by the senate February 26, 1859, and later in the year the Indian bureau had a reservation at the quarries surveyed. the marks of which were later obliterated.

During the late fifties a few scattered settlements had been made in southwestern

"Strike-the-Ree visited the quarries in July. 1879, at which time the Pipestone County Star said of the old chief of the Yanktons:

"Pa-da-ni-pa-pa. or Old Strike, as he is called, is a man of medium stature, having the appearance of having once been possessed of a mind of superior order. He is rapidly on the decline, and his present feeble state shows that he will ere long be gathered to the Hammy Hunt- ing Grounds."

1'In the archives of the census office at Wash- ington is a list of the names of twenty-three

Minnesota, in fact, in all the counties ex- copting Pipestone-in Lincoln, Murray. Nobles and Rock. Pipestone county alone remained exclusively Indian country. The census of 1860 gave the county no popu- lation.16

By the creation of Dakota territory in 1861, Minnesota's western boundary line was moved eastward to its present loca- tion, and part of the original Pipestone county (it was still designated Rock coun- ty) was lost to Minnesota. Legislative action was required, and on February 20. 1862, Pipestone county was created anew, with the boundaries it now has, and with the name of Pipestone. The act also au- thorized the surveying of the boundary lines.17

persons who were reported living in Pipestone county in 1860. A later census, however, con- tained the information that these were incor- rectly credited to Pipestone county; they be- longed to Rock county, which, it will be remeni- bered, was named Pipestone county at the time of its creation in 1857. For a more extended explanation see page 44 of the Rock county history.

. 17According to the Minnesota Geological Si- vey the township and section lines of Pipestone county were run as follows:

TOWNSHIP

TOWNSHIP LINES

SECTION LINES

Osborne

D. e. w. July-Aug. 61

Aug. 67

Rock

July-Ang. Gl

Sept. 67

Aetna

e. s. w. luly-Aug. 6]

Sept. 67

Kimer

n. e. July-Aug. Gl

Sept. 70

Gray

D. e. s. Inty-Ang. 61

Sept. 70

Grange

n. e. s. July-Aug. (.]

July 71

Fountain Prairie .

p. s. July -Aug. 61

July 71

105-46

s. Sept. 61

n. Sept. 50

w. July 71

Sept .- Det. 70

100-40

n. w. s. Sept. 70

Det. 70

H57-46

n. w. s. Sept. 70

July 71

108-14

n. Sept, 61

s. Sept. 70

w. July 71

Inly 71

105-17

s. Sopt. Gl

n. Sept. 70

e. July 71

Det. 70

106-47

n. c. s. Sept. 70

Oet. 70

107-47

w. . Inty 50

n. e. s. Sept 70

July 71

w. July 50

108-47

n. Sept. Gl

8. Sept. 70

P. July 71

Ang. 67

s. Sept. 58

Burke

July-Aug. 61

Aug .- Sept. 67

n. Sept. 55

s. w. Sept. 55

w. Sept. 58

w. Sept. 5%

n. w. Sept. 5%

e, Sept. 55

e. Sept. 58

P. Sept. 5%

r. Sept. 58

w. July 59

w. July 50

259

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

If there had been a belief that there was urgent necessity for the surveying of Pipestone county it was rudely dispelled. Not only did no settlers come, all those at the time residing in western Minnesota fed for their lives upon the outbreak of the Sioux war late in the summer of 1862. Pipestone county was as destitute of white people as it had been when Gitche Mani- tou fashioned the first peace-pipe. When the white settlers of Minnesota rallied their forces and undertook to drive the redskins from the state for all time, Pipe- stone county was again visited, this time by soldiers in pursuit of the red demons. One party of 200 volunteer soldiers camp- ed on the quarries one night in 1862,18 and possibly others passed through the county.

After peace was obtained and the fron- tier regions were once more safe, visitors again came to the famous quarries. In October, 1866, Dr. F. V. Hayden was at the quarries for the purpose of examina- tion from a geological standpoint. He published a description of the quarries in the American Journal of Science and Arts, January, 1867,19

Dr. C. A. White made a trip to the fa- mons region in 1868, and in the American Naturalist for 1868-69 gave a deseription of a "trip to the great red Pipestone quar- ry." Doubtless other people-trappers, traders and curiosity seekers-visited the renowned spot during the late sixties, for its reputation as a place of .beanty and the scene of Indian superstition became widely known.

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An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 35

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970 Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 924