The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1923-07-25
Paper Given On
Long Expedition
ACCOUNT OF HISTORIC LAC QUI
PARLE EXPEDITION IN 1929
GIVEN BY T. CHRISTIANSON.

( ACCOUNT OF HISTORIC LAC QUI
/ PARLE EXPEDITION IN 1929
GIVEN BY T. CHRISTIANSoN.
From an Address Deliver
ed June %, 1923, at Meet
ing of the State Historical
Society at Redwood Falls,
by Theodore Christianson.
On the 18th day of July, 1923, a
hundred years ago, party of ex-
ploration under the leadership Of
Stephen H. Long came to the banks
of the "Chanshayape watapa," or the
stream of the stree painted red"
They stopped at place about two
miles above the junction of the Red
weed with the Minnesota, then called
the St Peter River. The. beauty of
Y<ize scenery appealed to the travel
lers, who were pearied of the moB-
%tony of the prairie. William 81.
Meafing, professor of mineralogy and
ctsznistry in the University Of Penn
sylsunia, who was one Of the party
and who has given us our best ac-
count of the Long Expedition in his
work of two volumes, describes the
scenes:
"This is a beautiful rivulet, which
was about eight yards wide where
we crossed it. 1t runs in wide
and romantic valley. The bluffs
which rise on both sides, are
formed of a fine white sandstone.
We stopped for a few moments on
L. IL - fn
descending into the valley, to enjoy
the beautiful and refreshing seem
cry which offered itself to our view
and which formed a pleasing con-
trast with the burned and blasted
appearance of the prairie. The juno
tion of the valley of the st. Peter
(Minnesota) with that of it's tribu-
tary, about two miles below the place
where we stood, occasioned an ex-
pansion Of both valleys at that spot.
The beautiful and diversified vege-
tation, springing luxuriantly on the
banks of both streams, the rapid cur
rent of the waters rushing to one
common point, formed a landscape
which at that time appeared to US
as smiling and as beautiful as any
we had ever beheld."
The rocky formation made a
strong appeal to Heating, who was
the geologist of the party. He found
near the spot where the two valleys
unite an interesting fragment of
rock "of irregular hemispherical
form, about forty or fifty feet in cir
conference" which he believed to
have been cleft by lightning. De-
scending into the valley of the Mimi
esota from the prairies with view
to select camping site for the night,
they found "high rocks of rugged as
pect" which "arose in an insulated
manner in the midst of the widened
valley through which the st. Peter
(Minnesota) winds its way"
"The character of these rocks was
examined with care and found very
curious. 1t seemed as if four SIM
pie minerals, quartz, felspar, mica,
and amphibole, had united here to
produce almost all the varieties of
combinations which can arise from
the association of two or more min
erals; and these combinations We're
in such immediate contact that the
same fragment might, as we viewed
one or the other end of it, be re-
ferred to different rocks" This
IS the way these travellers of one
hundred years ago were impressed
with the land which lies at the con-
fluence of the Redwood with the Min
nesota.
How Expedition Started
It was in April OF that year that
Major Long, an officer of the United
States army, received the communi-
cation from the War Department en-
trusting to him the. command OF an
expedition which was to carry on the
work of exploration begun by Lewis
and Clark twenty years previously
and continued by Zebulon N. Pike,
who led an expedition into the West
in 1905.
That part of Major Longs in
,structions that has special interest
to Minnesotans, ordered him to pro-
reed up the Mississippi River from
Rock Island (then called Fort Arm
stxDng). to Fort st. Anthony, later
narned Fort Smelling. "thence to the
snurke Of the st. Peters (now the
Minnesota) River, thence to the
rolnt OF 1nC0QSeCLtOH DctWcCh ~.
River and the forty-ninth degree OF
north latitude, thence along the
northern boundary of the United
States to Lake Superior, and thence
homeward by the Lakes. The OBJ
iect of the expedition is to make
general survey of the country on the
route pointed out, together with the
typographical description bf the
same. to ascertain the latitude and
longitude of all remarkable points,
to examine and describe its produc-
tions, animal, vegetable and mineral;
and to inquire into the character
customs, etc. of the Indian tribes IN
habiting the same"
The party consisted of Stephen II.
Long, major of Typographical engi-
reers; Thomas Say, zoologist and an
tiauarian; William H. Keating, min
eralogist and geologist, Samuel Sey-
ihour, landscape painter and design
er: these left Philadelphia on April
20: they were Joined at Columbus by
James Edward Colhoun, astronomer
and assistant topographer. At Fort
Crawford. on the site of Prairie du
Chen, Wisconsin, which was reach-
ed on the NIGHT of June 10, they were
(Continued on Page 2.)