Sesquicentennial Spotlight Tour - History
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Birch Coulee Battlefield:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/bc/
Just before sunrise on Sept. 2, 1862, the sharp crack of a warning shot signaled the start of the Battle of Birch Coulee, one of the hardest fought battles of the U.S.-Dakota War. The Dakota kept U.S. soldiers under siege for 36 hours before a relief detachment arrived from Fort Ridgely.
Walk a self-guided trail through recreated prairie and read about the battle from the perspectives of Joseph Anderson, a captain in the U.S. Army, and Wamditanka (Big Eagle), a Mdewakanton soldier. Sketches from soldier Albert Colgrave provide vivid battle details. Guide posts help pinpoint where the U.S. soldiers were camped and the positions the Dakota took while surrounding the U.S. soldiers. Learn more about the U.S.-Dakota War at the nearby Fort Ridgely Historic Site or walk on the trails at the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site.
Comstock House:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/ch/
See the 1882 Comstock home built by Solomon Comstock, who established the First National Bank and Moorhead State University and helped James J. Hill build a railroad system in the Red River Valley. Ada Comstock, one of three children reared in this home, became the first dean of women at the University of Minnesota and later president of Radcliffe College.
Guided tours interpret the restored house and original furnishings. Inside, the warmth of varnished oak and butternut trim, and the ornate, colorful Queen Anne Eastlake furniture and tapestries brighten the rooms.
Fort Ridgely:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/fr/
Yielding to pressure from the U.S. government in 1851, the Eastern Dakota (Eastern Sioux) sold 35 million acres of their land across southern and western Minnesota. The Dakota moved onto a small reservation along the Minnesota River, stretching from just north of New Ulm to today's South Dakota border.
In 1853, the U.S. military started construction on Fort Ridgely, near the southern border of the new reservation and northwest of the German settlement of New Ulm. The fort was designed as a police station to keep peace as settlers poured into the former Dakota lands.
Nine years later, unkept promises by the U.S. government, nefarious practices by fur traders and crop failure all helped create tensions that erupted into the U.S.-Dakota war in August 1862. Dakota forces attacked the fort twice-on Aug. 20 and Aug. 22. The fort that had been a training base and staging ground for Civil War volunteers suddenly became one of the few military forts west of the Mississippi to withstand a direct assault. Fort Ridgely's 280 military and civilian defenders held out until Army reinforcements ended the siege.
Harkin Store:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/hs/
Savor the smells and sights of an 1870s general store as you sample the wares or try a game of checkers. Chat with the costumed staff, or sit on the porch and envision a steamboat plying the river below.
When the railroad passed by the small town of West Newton, the store was forced to close with much of the unsold inventory still on the shelves, where it remains today.
Jeffers Petroglyphs:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/jp/
Amid the prairie grasses are islands of uncovered rock, where American Indians left carvings —petroglyphs— humans, deer, elk, buffalo, turtles, thunderbirds, atlatls and arrows. They tell a story that spans 5,000 years. The glyphs served many functions, including recording important events, depicting sacred ceremonies, and emphasizing the importance of animals and hunting.
The most common technique of dating the glyphs is identifying the items depicted, then relating them to peoples of a particular time period. By this technique, they appear to range from 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1750.
Visit Jeffers
- Visitor Center: Start your visit to Jeffers Petroglyphs at the visitor center with exhibits, a multimedia presentation, gift store, restrooms and drinking fountain.
- Trails: View the glyphs on a half-mile (round trip) trail. Continue on through the restored and natural prairie for a 1.25 mile (round trip) hike.
- Glyphs: Walk out to see the glyphs on the rock. Interpreters are available to help you see the carvings.
- Programs: Every weekday at 2 p.m. Each week has a different program, ranging from throwing the atlatl to a prairie hike. Call for the current program.
Jeffers Petroglyphs wins National Award:
The National Trust for Historic Preservation presented the Minnesota Historical Society its prestigious Trustee Emeritus Award for Excellence in the Stewardship of Historic Sites for the Society’s work on the preservation and interpretation of Jeffers Petroglyphs...more...
Lac qui Parle Mission:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/lpm/
Learn about life at this pre-territorial mission, the development of the Dakota alphabet and the translation of the Bible.
A mission and fur post overlooked the Minnesota River 150 years ago and today the mission still stands. Joseph Renville, an explorer and fur trader whose mother was Dakota and father was French, established a fur post on the river in 1826 near a wide portion called Lac qui Parle. He invited missionaries to the area. After his death in 1846, Dakota opposition to the mission forced the missionaries out. Managed by Chippewa County Historical Society.
Lower Sioux Agency:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/lsa/
The Lower Sioux Agency is at the site of the first organized Indian attack in the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War. An exhibit explores the Dakota story before, during and after the war. Self-guided trails interpret the grounds.
Well-marked trails will help you explore the grounds and restored 1861 stone warehouse at the Lower Sioux Agency. Established by the U.S. government in 1853 as an administrative center, the Agency became the scene of the first organized attack in the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War.
The U.S. government created the Agency after treaties in 1851 reduced the Eastern Dakota's (Eastern Sioux) home to just 4 percent of their traditional lands across southern and western Minnesota. Over the next nine years, some Dakota families adapted to the new agricultural way of life promoted by the government on the small reservation along the Minnesota River, but many more did not. By the summer of 1862, unkept promises by the government, nefarious practices by nearby fur traders, and a crop failure in 1861 added to the growing tension at the Agency. On the morning of Aug.18, the Dakota attacked the fur traders' stores and then the Lower Sioux Agency, destroying buildings and taking food for their families. In the next six weeks 500 or more people on both sides were killed. The war was devastating for all involved.
During your visit, explore Dakota life before the reservation era and discover how the reservation system changed traditional Dakota ways of living. Learn about the Agency's operation and discover how government employees and missionaries sought to change traditional Dakota ways. Look for underlying causes of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 in the interpretive center exhibit. See the difference between traditional Dakota farming practices and those taught by Agency employees in the site's period gardens and farm plots.
W.W. Mayo House:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/wwmh/
What do the Mayo Clinic and the Green Giant Company have in common? Their stories begin in the same modest home in Le Sueur. Explore the home with costumed guides and hear stories of the Mayo and Cosgrove families who lived here in this home before founding the Mayo Clinic and the Green Giant Company. W. W. Mayo hand-built the Gothic-style home in 1859 and set up his first medical practice in a room upstairs. In 1863, Dr. Mayo was appointed examining surgeon for the Minnesota Civil War draft board, headquartered in Rochester. Later, Dr. Mayo and his sons founded the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
In 1874, the Cosgroves moved into the home. In 1903, Carson Nesbit Cosgrove conducted the organizational meeting and later served as the head of the Minnesota Valley Canning Company, which became the Green Giant Company in 1950. Managed by the Mayo House Interpretive Society.
Traverse des Sioux:
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/tds/index.html
The Dakota Indians called this place Oiyuwege, meaning "the place of crossing." French explorers called it Traverse des Sioux, or "crossing place of the Sioux."
For centuries, Traverse des Sioux has been a crossroads and meeting place for people of many cultures. First, the American Indians gathered here to hunt and traverse the river using the shallow crossing. During the 1800s, they were joined by Europeans who came here to trade furs and farm the fertile prairie.
In 1851, the U.S. government signed a treaty with the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota Indians. This treaty opened millions of acres to land-hungry settlers and speculators. The thriving town of Traverse des Sioux was soon established. It had five taverns, two hotels, several churches - some 70 buildings and a population of about 300. In 1856, nearby St. Peter was chosen as the county seat, and by 1869, nothing was left of the once-booming town of Traverse des Sioux.
On the self-guided tour, the trail signs introduce you a portion of the 10,000-year-old Minnesota River Valley. While enjoying a quiet walk through the site, learn more about Dakota Indian culture, the 1851 Treaty and its effects on people, transportation, the fur trade, and the town site of Traverse des Sioux.
Information and photos provided by the Minnesota Historical Society. For more information, visit the Minnesota Historical Society website at www.mnhs.org.