The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-04-18
April 1S, 1902

Minnesota. Sn0 was OInc6I0O Dy III.
z. Harris, captain ]. 8. Armstrong,
pilot; CIV. Scott, first engineer and
g. L. Sargent, second engineer. The
Fl. Smelling band was again in re-
QUESTION. Late on the afternoon of
the second day the boat passed Ira
verse Des Sioux where the missionaries
had just harvested small field Of
wheat, probably thel first ever raised
in the valley. It certainly was fitting
that this first year of steamboating in
the valley should also be the first year
to grow that commodity which soon
was to play 80 important part in the
vers' traffic The second night wa
spent at the upper end of Kasota
prairie. 1t was charming moon
light night and a number of the Yam
KEGS party held dance on the grassy
floor of this level plateau. The band
furnished the music. Some of the
dancers say that several mosquito
bands were out too
Early Wednesday the Yankee started
up stream again, soon passing the sign
the Anthony Wayne had fastened to q
neighboring tree the week before. On
the mound at the mouth of the Blue
Earth our travellers found a small
Indian trading post belonging to q.
81. Sibley in charge of Frenchman.
Discovering here in the sand what
seemed to be pieces of cannel-coal, the
Frenchmsn assured them that two or
three miles up the Blue Earth there
was solid bed of coal four feet thick
in bluff. This must have been the
same wonderful. bluff in which LIE
Sueur found his copper mine, but as
no such bluff was ever after known in
that locality and the Frenchman too
: mysteriously disappeared, there may
r be some ground for the report that he
8 stole it, or it may have been all bluff
8 "a French bluff. By the third evening
9 the boat reached a point little above
" the present village of Judson, in Blue
e Earth county. Even thus late in the
: season July 24th) the stage of water
t in the river was excellent and no diff
Q Guilty 80 far had been incurred in it's
q navigation 1t was voted that eve
y ming to proceed again on the morrow,
/, but the intense heat (104 degrees in
l. the shade that day and the swarms of
). mosquitoes prevented both crew and
|, passengers from resting and the ice and
b ether provisions being exhausted the
vote was reconsidered in the morning
is and the fourth night found them
" again at Traverse Des Sioux. The
y next day they spent an hour at SKIS
TX village.
10 The old chief with about hundred
zt of his braves came down to the land
er ing to meet them and there made a
30 speech claiming big damages because
70 the excursionists had trampled down
OF his corn. True the corn had been
as drowned out and washed away by the
w high water long before the whites
ne landed, but then. the Great Spirit was
n angry because they had taken those
er big fire canoes up the river, and that
40 was why. the frsshet came, 80 they
~ ought to pay for the corn. How SIX
or Tor "Half Dozen, as James Goodhue
ey of the "Pioneer" called him) succeed
or ed with his damage suit is not stated,
Cd but our travellers reached st. Paul al
X safe by night and never did they for
he get the beautiful country they hac
e, seen and the delightful journey they
on had taken on its most picturesque
mt highway. Nearly all the prominent
of people of the territory and scores oil
ert visitors from the east had participated
,at in one or more of these excursions
of The navagab;lity of the Minnesota b.
ler steamboat was now a demonstrated
me fact and the desirability for settle
ere ment of the fertile country it draine
ng was by these eye witnesses everywher
by enthusiastically heralded. This focus
sed ing of the public eye on the vale
it contributed in no small degree to tn
me making of the great treaty with tn
DIS, Sioux Indians the following summer
whereby this magnificent country We
.ew thrown open to civilization.
cry On the goth of June. 1851 the steam'
lelr Excelsior called by the Indians TT
iets "Buck boat" from the antlered hes
was of a deer which decorated its prov
ne transported the treaty commissioner
Ing Hon. Luke Lee and Gov. Ramse
t is with their attendants and supplies
by Traverse Des Sioux, where at sunrl
yne on the morning of the SOth they a
age rived. On the Goth of the folloWll
and July the Benjamin Franklin No.
e OF carried to the same place party
y II st. Paul people to witness the tamo
treaty then in progress The third al
ave. only other boat to ascend the MINI
t in sofa this year was the Uncle Tob
got which on October 18th conveyed
the Traverse Des Sioux the first load
and Indian goods under the new treat
lted During the fall and winter follow
and this treaty there was great rush
settlers into the Minnesota valley
~ before the spring of 1852 series
nth town sites lined the banks of the rlV
ard from st Paul to the mouth OF t
YER Blue Earth, distance by water OF o
l,z hundred and fifty miles. These ei
bryo towns were at once in dire ne
80 of communication with the clVlIlZ
I,ou world that they might be accessiI
to the swarms of settlers ever pressl
uasrvard and that those locating