The MinnesotaThe Rvers of America Author:Evan Jones Southeast from Big Stone Lake, through a bed carved by a glacial ice,flows the Minnesota,a river long forgotten but rich in the history and legend of the old frontier. — It is the story of explorers like John Charles Fremont and Zebulon Pike,who stopped bu the Minnesota before continuing their epoch-making journeys westward;of Artists like George... more » Catlin and Henry Thoreau,who drew strength and inspiiration from the wild, beautiful country that surrounded the river's banks.
Above all, the story of the Minnesota is the story of two great races,red and white,who lived together for centuries in peace until the Indians wre pushed too far,and shattered the peace inthe most hideous massacre of them all:the Sioux Uprising of 1862,when five hundred settlers met death under the hatchetsof Little Crow and his men.
It was here also that the great horse,Dan Patch, breathed his last,here that Jesse James committed the only realblunder of his career,here that an obscure telegrapher named sears dreamed up the fantastic idea of selling goods by mail-on credit.
Mr.Jones provides intriguing glimpses into the lives of the Scandinavian,Welsh,and German families who began farming the richest land near the river in the early nineteeenth century,and who worked hard to make the area one of the most productive and inviting in all America. His book closes with a nostalgic trip downriver, from Big Stone Lake through Odessa to Lac qui Parle,New Ulm,Makato,Le Sueur,Belle Plaine,past the sites of old trading posts and mining camps,turning northward finally toward the Twin Cities of Minnesota and Mississippi meet.« less