USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 10
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His account of this is as follows: "I left the habitations of these hospitable Indians the latter end of April, 1767, but did not part from them for several days, as I was accompanied on my
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journey by near three hundred of them, among whom were many chiefs, to the mouth of the River St. Pierre. At this season these bands annually go to the great cave (now called Carver's cave) before mentioned, to hold a grand council with all the other bands, wherein they settle their operations for the ensuing year. At the same time they carry with them their dead for interment, bound up in buffalo skins."
As already stated, Carver hunted with the Indians over some of the great plains of Southwestern Minnesota which, "accord- ing to their (the Indians') account, are unbounded and probably terminate on the coast of the Pacific ocean."
From information received from the Indians Carver made some wonderful deductions as to the physical features of the country. In his narrative of the trip he wrote: "By the accounts I received from the Indians I have reason to believe that the River St. Pierre (Minnesota) and the Messorie (Missouri), though they enter the Mississippi twelve hundred miles from each other, take their rise in the same neighborhood, and this within the space of a mile. The River St. Pierre's northern branch (that is, the main river) rises from a number of lakes (Big Stone lake) near the Shining mountains (the Coteau des Prairies), and it is from some of these also that a capital branch (Red River of the North) of the River Bourbon (Nelson river), which runs into Hudson's bay, has its sources. * * * I have learned that the four most capital rivers of North America, viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the River Bourbon (Nelson) and the Oregon (Columbia), or River of the West, have their sources in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty miles of each other; the latter, however, is rather farther west.
"This shows that these parts are the highest lands of North America; and it is an instance not to be paralleled on the other three-quarters of the globe, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise together and each, after running separate courses, discharge their waters into different oceans at the dis- tance of 2,000 miles from their source."
Of the country through which he traveled Carver wrote: "The River St. Pierre, which runs through the territory of the Nadowessies, flows through a most delightful country, abound- ing with all the necessaries of life that grow spontaneously, and with a little cultivation it might be made to produce even. the luxuries of life. Wild rice grows here in great abundance; and every part is filled with trees bending under their loads of fruit, such as plums, grapes and apples; the meadows are covered with hops and many sorts of vegetables; whilst the ground is stored with useful roots, with angelica, spikenard and ground nuts as large as hen's egges. At a little distance from the sides of the river are eminences from which you have views that cannot be
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exceeded by even the most beautiful of those I have already de- scribed. Amid these are delightful groves and such amazing quantities of maples that they would produce sugar sufficient for any number of inhabitants."
Ft. Snelling Established. With the establishment of Ft. Snelling, the area of Redwood county became more widely known, as the soldiers, traders and visitors there made many trips up the river past the county.
February 10, 1819, the Fifth Regiment United States Infantry was ordered to concentrate at Detroit preparatory to a trip which was to result in the maintaining of a post at the mouth of the St. Peter's (now Minnesota) river. After establishing various garrisons at different places, the troops started up the river from Prairie du Chien, Sunday, August 8, 1819. The troops num- bered ninety-eight, rank and file. They were accompanied by twenty hired boatmen. There were fourteen keel boats for the troops, two large boats for stores, and a barge for Lieut-Col. Harry Leavenworth, the commander, and Maj. Thomas Forsyth, the Indian agent. This expedition established at Mendota the military post now moved across the river and now known as Ft. Snelling.
May 10, 1823, the "Virginia," the first steamboat to navigate the upper Mississippi, arrived at Ft. Snelling, and thus what is now Redwood county was placed in still closer communication with the outside world. On board, among others, were Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro and James Constance Beltrami, the Italian explorer.
Long, Keating, Beltrami. Undoubtedly white men, engaged in trade with the natives or trapping and hunting for the fur companies or for themselves, visited that part of south-central Minnesota which is now designated Redwood county in the early part of the nineteenth century. But such men left few records of their operations, and our information concerning the exploration of the country is obtained almost wholly from expeditions sent out by the government.
An early visitor to south-central Minnesota was Major Stephen H. Long.
In accordance with orders from the War Department, an expe- dition under the command of Major Long, with a corps of scien- tists for observations of the geographic features, geology, zoology and botany of the Northwest, traversed the area of Minnesota in 1823, passing from Ft. Snelling up the Minnesota valley, down the valley of the Red river to Lake Winnipeg, thence up the Winnipeg river to the Lake of the Woods, and thence eastward along the international boundary and partly in Canada to Lake Superior. Prof. William H. Keating, of the University of Penn-
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sylvania, was the geologist and historian of this expedition. One of its members or its guest in the travel from the fort to Pembina was Constantino Beltrami, a political exile from Italy, but becom- ing offended, he left the expedition at Pembina and returned to the fort by the way of Red lake and the most northern sources of the Mississippi, traveling alone or with Indian companions.
The boat party entered the mouth of the Minnesota river, then called the St. Peter, late in the night of July 2, and a stay of a week was made there, for rest and to visit the Falls of St. Anthony.
Provided by Colonel Snelling at the fort with a new and more efficient escort of twenty-one soldiers, with Joseph Renville as their Dakota interpreter, and with Joseph Snelling, a son of the colonel, as assistant guide and interpreter, the expedition set forward on July 9 up the Minnesota valley. A part traveled on horseback, including Say and Colhoun, while the others, includ- ing Long, Keating, Seymour and Renville went in four canoes, which also carried the bulk of their stores and provisions. It was planned that the land and river parties "should, as far as practicable, keep company together, and encamp every night, if possible, at the same place."
On July 13 they reached the vicinity of Traverse des Sioux (St. Peter), and encamped at a beautiful bend of the river, called the Crescent. Here the expedition left the canoes, reduced the escort, and on July 15 moved westward by the route of Swan lake. They now numbered in total twenty-four men, with twenty- one horses. The most southern part of the course of the Minne- sota having been cut off by the journey past Swan lake, this stream was again reached and crossed a short distance below the mouth of the Cottonwood river. Thence the expedition passed along the southwestern side of the valley, and across the con- tiguous upland prairies, to Lac qui Parle and Big Stone lake. The latter lake was reached on July 22, and the Columbia Fur Com- pany's trading post, at the southern end of Lake Traverse, the next day. Joseph Snelling returned to Ft. Snelling from Pem- bina by way of the Red and Minnesota rivers, thus passing Red- wood county.
Of the Redwood river, Prof. Keating makes the statement that its banks "are formed of a fine white sandstone." In this ob- servation he was in error, having mistaken the conspicuous white kaolin bluffs, which occur at this point, derived from the decom- position of the granite "in situ" for sandstone. The red pipe- stone was said to exist on the banks of the river three days' journey from its source.
He notes a "very interesting fragment of rock" at the place where the Redwood joins the Minnesota, said to be forty or fifty feet in circumference, evidently out of place, of an enormous
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mass, and irregular hemispherical form, cleft by lightning. This mass was said to be granitic, presenting "very distinctly the ap- pearance of a formation of concentric shales. The rock at Patterson's rapids (section 29, township 114, range 36, northern Delhi), was considered as primitive, but was not carefully ex- amined.
Of the mouth of the Redwood river, Beltrami wrote: "We now reached a valley of the most lovely and interesting character. Never did a more striking illusion transport my imagination back to the classic lands of Latium and Magna Graecia. Rocks scattered, as if by art, over the plain, or plateau, and on the hills, were, at a little distance, perfect representations of every varied form of the ruins of antiquity. In one place you might think you saw thermal substructures, or those of an amphitheater, a circus, or a forum; in another, the remains of a temple, a cenotaph, a basilicon, or a triumphant arch. I took advantage of the time which chance procured me, to survey this enchanted ground ; but I went alone, that the delicious reverie it threw me into, might not be broken by cold heartedness or presumption. My eyes continually met new images; at length they rested on a sort of tomb, which for some time held me motionless. A thou- . sand afflicting recollections rushed to my heart; I thought I be- held the tomb of virtue and friendship; I rested my head upon it, and tears filled my eyes. The spot was of a kind to soften and embellish grief, and I should have long given myself up to its sweet influence had I not been with people who had no idea of stopping for anything but a broken saddle, or some such impor- tant incident.
The rocks are granitic, and of so beautiful and varied a qual- ity, that the tricking dealers of the Piazza Navona, at Rome, would sell them for the most enthusiastic and,-in their own opinion-the most learned antiquarians, as oriental and Egyptian porphyry or basalt, which are now generally admitted to be merely granite more elaborated by time and water.
The Pembina Refugees. The members of the Pembina colony in the Red river valley were among the people who passed Red- wood county during the era of exploration. In the early winter of 1820 the Pembina colony sent a delegation to Prairie du Chien for seed wheat, which could not be found nearer home. The men set out on snow shoes and reached their destination in three months. The route was by the way of the Red river to Lake Traverse, then down the Minnesota, past Fort Snelling, and thence down the Mississippi. At Prairie du Chien 250 bushels of wheat was purchased at ten shillings ($2.50) per bushel. It was loaded into flat boats, which were, with much hard labor, pro- pelled up the Mississippi to the St. Peter, thence up that river to the portage near Lake Traverse. The boats and cargo were
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then transported across to the Red river and floated down that stream to Pembina.
In 1827 a number of Swiss families left the Red river colony to make new homes for themselves within the United States. They were accompanied by several families of French Cana- dians who had become "Selkirkers," that is, members of the Selkirk colony. The refugees came down the valley on the Red river-or up that stream-to Lake Traverse, and thence down the Minnesota (or St. Peter's) to Fort Snelling. Alexis Bailly and others who had visited the colonists in their Red river homes had informed them of the superiority of the Minnesota country over the Assiniboine region, and assured them that they would be heartily welcome if they removed to the big, free, hospitable and favored company of the Stars and Stripes.
Colonel Snelling gave the refugees a kindly reception and allowed them to settle on the military reservation, west of the Mississippi and north of the fort. The colonists at once set to work and built houses, opened farms, engaged in work at the fort, and were soon comfortable, contented and hopeful. All of the refugees spoke French. The French Swiss and the French Canadians seemed like kinsmen and dwelt together like brethren in unity. It is of record that among these people were Abraham Perry, a watchmaker, and Louis Massie, both Switzers, but the names of the other heads of families have not been preserved.
July 25, 1831, twenty more Red river colonists arrived at Fort Snelling. Up to the year 1836 nearly 500 more had come, and by the year 1840 nearly 200 more, while from time to time, for many years, frost-bitten and famine-stricken fugitives from the Red river country found rest for their feet, food for their bodies and comfort generally in Minnesota. But only about one- half of these people remained here permanently. The others went further south-to Prairie du Chien, to Illinois, to Missouri, and some families journeyed to Vevay, Indiana, the site of a Swiss settlement.
Nearly all of the early residents of St. Paul were Red river refugees and their children. Many of the descendants of good old Abraham Perry were born in Minnesota and are yet citizens of the state.
Featherstonhaugh and Mather. Another exploration of south- western Minnesota was made in the summer of 1835 by G. W. Featherstonbaugh, an English gentleman. He bore the title of United States geologist and was commissioned by Colonel J. J. Abert, of the Bureau of Topographical Engineers. Featherston- haugh proceeded up the Minnesota river to lakes Big Stone and Traverse, and to the high sources of the Minnesota on the Coteau des Prairies west of these lakes. Featherstonhaugh was accom- panied by William Williams Mather.
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From Featherstonhaugh's expedition resulted two works, one entitled "Report of geological reconnaisance made in 1835 from the seat of government by the way of Green Bay and the Wis- consin Territory to the Coteau des Prairies, an elevated ridge dividing the Missouri from the St. Peter's (Minnesota) river," printed by the order of the Senate in 1836, and the other "A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotar," published in London in 1847.
Catlin. It was in 1837 that George Catlin, the famous traveler and Indian delineator, passed near this county on his way to visit the Pipestone quarries.
He organized the expedition at the Falls of St. Anthony and was accompanied only by Robert Serril Wood, "a young gentle- man from England of fine taste and education," and an Indian guide, O-kup-kee by name.
This little party traveled horseback and followed the usual route up the Minnesota. At Traverse des Sioux, near the present site of St. Peter, Mr. Catlin and his companion halted at the cabin of a trader, where they were threatened by a band of savages and warned not to persist in their determination to visit the quarries. They continued on their way, however, crossed to the north side of the river at Traverse des Sioux, proceeded in a westerly direction, and crossed the Minnesota to the south bank near the mouth of the Waraju (Cottonwood), close to the present city of New Ulm.
There Messrs. Catlin and Wood left the river and journeyed "a little north of west" for the Coteau des Prairies. They trav- eled through the present counties of Brown, Redwood and Lyon and passed several Indian villages at several of which they were notified that they must go back; but, undaunted, they continued their journey. Catlin states in one place that he traveled one hundred miles or more from the mouth of the Cottonwood, and in another place "for a distance of one hundred and twenty or thirty miles" before reaching the base of the coteau, when he was still "forty or fifty miles from the Pipestone quarries." He declared that part of the journey was over one of the most beau- tiful prairie countries in the world.
Most of Catlin's distances were overestimated. The distance from the mouth of the Cottonwood to the base of the coteau where he came upon it is only about seventy-two miles in a direct line; then he was about thirty-six miles from the quarries.
Nicollet and Fremont. From 1836 to 1843, most of the time assisted by John C. Fremont, afterward candidate for the presi- dency of the United States on the Republican ticket, Joseph Nicolas Nicollet prosecuted a geographical survey of the upper Mississippi country. He explored nearly all portions of Minne- sota and many other parts of the country theretofore unvisited.
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His operations in south-central Minnesota were quite extensive. In 1838 Nicollet and Fremont made a trip to the vicinity of what is now Renville county. In the party were six men, the others being Charles A. Geyer, the botanist of the expedition ; J. Eugene Flandin and James Renville.
Nicollet and Fremont traveled from Washington to St. Louis and thence up the Mississippi river to H. H. Sibley's trading post, near the mouth of the Minnesota river. Thence they journeyed over the general route of travel up the east side of the Minne- sota river, crossing at Traverse des Sioux. They proceeded west across the "ox-bow," stopping at Big Swan lake in Nicollet county, and crossed the Minnesota again at the mouth of the Cottonwood. They proceeded up the valley of the Cottonwood, on the north side of the river, to a point near the present site of Lamberton, and then crossed to the south side of the river and struck across country to the Pipestone quarries.
On Nicollet's map, issued in 1843, his route to the quarries is indicated by a fine dotted line. This map at the time it was issued was the most complete and correct one of the upper Mis- sissippi country. It covered all of Minnesota and Iowa, about one-half of Missouri, and much of the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Illinois. The author gave names to many streams and lakes and gave the first representation of the striking topographical fea- tures of the western and northern parts of Minnesota. He located, by astronomical observations, the numerous streams and lakes and the main geographical features of the state, filling in by eye-sketching and by pacing the intermediate objects. On his map the country along the Minnesota river is labeled Warpeton country and that further south Sisseton country. The Tehan- shayapi or Redwood river, Waraju or Cottonwood river, and Patterson's rapids all appear on the map.
After spending three days at the Pipestone quarries, where is now situated the city of Pipestone, the Nicollet party visited and named Lake Benton (for Mr. Fremont's father-in-law, Sena- tor Benton) and then proceeded westward into Dakota, visiting and naming Lakes Preston (for Senator Preston) ; Poinsett (for J. R. Poinsett, secretary of war), Albert, Thompson, Tetonkoha, Kampeska and Hendricks. Before returning to civilization Nicol- let visited Big Stone lake and other places to the north. He returned to the Falls of St. Anthony by way of Joseph Ren- ville's camp on the Lac qui Parle.
Allen. The next recorded visit of white men was in 1844, when an expedition in charge of Captain J. Allen came up the Des Moines river, operating chiefly to ehart that and other streams. He passed through Jackson, Cottonwood and Murray counties and came to Lake Shetek, which he decided was the source of the Des Moines river. He gave that body of water the
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name Lake of the Oaks and described it as remarkable for a singular arrangement of the peninsulas running into it from all sides and for a heavy growth of timber that covered the penin- snlas and the borders of the lake.
With Lake Shetek as temporary headquarters, Captain Allen extended his explorations in several directions. He proceeded due north from the lake and crossed the Cottonwood and later the Redwood near the present site of Marshall. When thirty- seven miles north of Lake Shetek he turned east and crossed the Redwood again near the site of Redwood Falls. From the mouth of the Redwood he explored the south shore of the Minnesota river several miles up and down and returned to Lake Shetek. The expedition then set out for the west and went down the Big Sioux river to its mouth.
"From Lizard creek of the Des Moines to the source of the Des Moines, and thence east to the St. Peter's is a range for elk and common deer, but principally elk," wrote Captain Allen. "We saw a great many of the elk on our route and killed many of them; they were sometimes seen in droves of hundreds, but were always difficult to approach and very difficult to overtake in chase, except with a fleet horse and over good ground. No dependence could be placed in this country for the subsistence of troops marching through it."
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Fur Traders. These explorers, Le Sueur, Carver, Long, Keat- ing and Beltrami, Featherstonhaugh and Mather, Catlin, Nicollet and Fremont and Allen were men who gave their knowledge to the world, and their journeys in the Minnesota river region marked distinct epochs in its development. It should be under- stood, however, that even before 1700 white men were probably passing Renville county with more or less frequency. The fact that several Frenchmen took refuge in Le Sueur's fort after being stripped naked by the Indians, shows that white men visited this region even at that early date.
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· Lac qui Parle, Big Stone lake and Lake Traverse made excel- lent fur trading points, and were probably locations of such from early in the eighteenth century. The furs from these posts were brought down the Minnesota and past Renville county in canoes.
Of the several traders in the Minnesota valley toward the close of the eighteenth century one of the principal ones was Murdoch Cameron, a Scotchman.
As early as 1783, Charles Patterson had a trading post in Red- wood county. He was located in what is now section 29, township 114, range 36 (Delhi township), at the place long known as Pat- terson's rapids. It is not, however, definitely known on which side of the rapids Patterson located. He may have been over the river in Renville county.
Charles Le Page, a Canadian, made a trip from the Yellow-
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stone region in 1803. He reached the headwaters of the Minne- sota, May 15, and with a band of Yanktons and Sissetons went on to Mendota.
James H. Lockwood, the first white native of the United States to trade with the Indians of this locality, came up the Minnesota river in 1816, and maintained a trading post at Lac qui Parle for a little over two years.
After Ft. Snelling was established, an Indian agency opened, where the traders were required to obtain licenses from the agent. In 1826 the records of the agent show that Joseph Renville was at Lac qui Parle, and John Campbell at the mouth of the Chip- pewa, both of which locations were not far from Renville county. William Dickson and Hazen P. Mooers were at Lake Traverse. Mooers was especially successful. It is recorded that in the sum- mer of 1829 "the dry year," he made a trip from Lake Traverse to Ft. Snelling with 126 packs of furs, valued at $12,000.
In 1833-23 Moers and Renville were at the same stations as in 1826. Joseph R. Brown, afterward a pioneer of Renville county, was on the Minnesota at the mouth of the Chippewa. Joseph Renville, Jr., was at the Little Rock on the Minnesota, at the mouth of the Little Rock (Mud) creek, which flows for a part of its course in what is now Renville county. Joseph La Framboise established himself at the mouth of the Little Rock in 1834. He also had various other locations and was in Lyon county when Catlin passed in 1837.
The Missionaries. In 1835 Thomas S. Williamson established a mission at Lac qui Parle. In coming up the river as a mission- ary for the American Board of Foreign Missions, Williamson had met Joseph Renville. After surveying the situation carefully, the missionary concluded to accompany Mr. Renville to the latter's home and store at Lac qui Parle and establish a mission station there. On June 23 his party embarked on the Fur Company's Mackinaw boat, which was laden with traders' goods and sup- plies, and set out on a voyage up the Minnesota, then at a good stage of water. The boat was propelled by poles, oars, a sail, and by pulling the willows along the abrupt shores. Progress was very slow and eight days were required to reach Traverse des Sioux. From the Traverse the remainder of the journey was made in wagons and Lac qui Parle was reached July 9-seven- teen days out from Fort Snelling. At Lac qui Parle Dr. William- son and his companions established themselves as religious teach- ers of the Wahpeton and Sisseton Sioux.
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