The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-09
FAMOUS oUARRIEs
Of Red Pipestone Mentioned In
LOnEfeliOw's "Hiavvatha.,

OF Red PipestOne Mentioned In
LonRfellOw's "Hiavvatha.,
From the Chicago Chronicle
Less than a mile from the bus:Iing
little city of Pipestone, Mimi, are three
freaks of nature that will well repay
a visit from the lovers of the curious
and the beautiful. The first is a water
fall or cataract, which, when the
stream that feeds 1t is swollen by the
melting SHOWS and spring rains, is
immature Niagara and in point of
beauty rivals many. of the famed
waterfalls of the. East. The second
is the famous Red Pipestone quarry.
the scene of the opening of Lonyfel-
lows beautiful poem, '.Hiawatha." and
the third is a group Of immense rocks
also spoken of in "Hiawatha" as the
Three Maidens-that have stood for
ages as a landmark to guide the In
dams to the only spot in the known
world where the sacred pipestone could
be found
Inc waterfall, quarry and Three Mai
dens are all located on the INDIAN
reservation, which is one mile SQUARE
adjoining the corporation of Pipestone
on the north. reservation belongs
to the Dakotas, or what is better
known by its French name as the. Stony
ton Sioux. Several years since a de-
termlned effort was made by commit
tee of citizens Of Pipestone to purchase
1t, as they did not want SO large a.
tract OF land so near this CITY living
idle, but the Indians would not part
WITH It for love or money. The next
pest thing to do was to see if some
tnlng could not be done with 1t even
/. 1T remained in the Indians possess
sion. An application was made to con-
gress, an appropriation of 100000 was
obtained and a substantial school
bulldlng was built on one corner Of the
land. The school has proved so sue
cessful that a second building. the size
OF the first, is being built to accommo
cate the ever increasing number Of pu-
pills..
The poem of 'Hiawatha" begins:
On the mountains of the prairie.
Onsthe great Red Pipestone uuarries
And any one unaequainted with the
nefghborhood would naturally suppose
that 1T was billy, to say the least On
the contrary, the country is quite level
there not being even what in Eastern
parlanoe Woud be called Small hill"
IN ia the nelghborhood The quarry lies
IN about the center of the bed of what
is apparently prehistoric lake. and
When first discovered the stone cropped
out at the surface. but the continual
qIarfying for ages has extended the
quarry about sixty rods toward the
south, and as the dip" Of the .svein"
Is toward the south, it is now necessary
to remove from six. to eight feet Of
shale and dirt before the pure stone is
reached.
No one but the indians is allowed
to quarry it, and every summer thew
come in squads from distant reserva.
tons to get supplies of the stone with
which to make pipes, knick-knacks
and ornaments that they carve out of
1t, both for their own use and for sale
and trade to the white man. Thew also
frequently sell the stone in the rough
to the white men, who, with a turning
lathe, can work it up much better than
they can.
The stone is known to the scientific
world as catlinite,. being so called in
honor of Catlin, the celebrated his
torian of the Indianss.who was the first
white man to set eyes on the quarry.
while gathering material for his His
tory of the Indians OF the Northwest
in 1886. Two years later the Nicollet
exploring, expedition, one of the chief
members being John c. Fremont, camp
ed near the quarry, q record of the date
of their visit having been carved in the
rocks near the waterfall that is still
plainly descipherable