Pipestone County, Minnesota - Chapter 18, 1911

Chapter 18

GK0H(;K Ciitlin organized his o.\- peilition at the falls of St. Antlidiiy and set out on horseback, following the usnal route up the Minnesota river on the south side. He was accompanied only by Robert Serril Wood, "a young gentleman from England of line tasic and education," and an Indian guide. O-kup-kee by name. At Traverse des Sinux, near the present site of St. Peter, ^Ir. Catlin and his companion halted at the cahin of an Indian trader, and there received the first warning of (rouble fiMiii the Indians. The incident is related bv Jfr. f'atlin:'

On our way to this place, my English companion and myself were arrested by a rascally band of the Sioux and held in durance vile for having dared to approach the sacred fountain of the pipe! While we had halted at the trading-hut of LeBlanc, at a place called Traverse des Sioux, on the St. Peters [Minnesota] river, and about 150 miles from the Red Pipe, a murky cloud of dark visaged warriors and braves commenced gathering around the house, closing and cramming all its avenues, when one began his agitated and insulting harangue to us. announcing to us in the preamble that we were prisoners and could not go ahead. About twenty of them spoke in turn, and we were doomed to sit nearly the whole afternoon, without being allowed to speak a word in our behalf, until they had all got through. We were compelled to keep our seats like culprits and hold our tongues until all had brandished their fists in our faces and vented all the threats and invective which could flow from Indian malice, grounded on

During this scene, the son of Monsr. Le- Blanc was standng by, and, seeing this man threatening me so hard by putting his fist near my face, he several times stepped up to him and told him to stand back a respectful distance, or that he would knock him down. After their speaking was done, I made a few remarks, stating that we should go ahead.

LeBlanc told us that these were the most disorderly and treacherous part of the Sioux nation, and that they had repeatedly threatened his life, and that he expected they would take it. He advised us to go back as they ordered; but we heeded not his advice.

There was some allowance to be made and some excuse, surely, for the rashness of these poor fellows, and we felt disi)osed to pity, rather than resent, though their unpardonable stubborness excited us almost to desperation. Their superstition was sensibly touched, for we were persisting, in the most pre-emptory terms, in the determination to visit this, their greatest medicine (mystery) place, where, it seems, they had resolved no white man should ever be allowed to go. They took us to be "officers sent by the government to see what this place was worth," etc. "As this red stone was a part of their flesh, it would be sacrilegious for white man to touch or take it away - a hole would be made in their flesh, and the blood could never be made to stop running." My companion and myself were here in a fix, one that demanded the use of every energy we had about us; astounded at so unexpected a rebuff, and more than ever excited to go ahead and see what was to be seen at this strange place, in this emergency we mutually agreed to go forward, even if it should be at the hazard of our lives.

Tlic cletorinincil men saddled their liorses and I'nde oft' tlirough the midst of the scowling savages, without molestation. They crossed the river at Traverse des Sioux, proceeded in a westerly direi'liiui. and crossed the Minnesota to the south i)ank near the mouth of the Waraju (Cottonwood), close to the pi'esent city f>f Now TTIni. Thence they left the river and jonrneved "a little north of west" for the Cotean des Prairies. On the journey the explorers passed througii sevei-al Indian villages, at several of which they weic notified that they must go hack: hut, undaunted, they continued tl'eir journey. Catlin states in one place that he ti'aveled one hundred miles or more from the month of the Cottonwood, and in another place "for a distance of one hundred and fwentv or thirty miles" hefore reaching the hase of tlic Coteau. when he was still "forty or fifty miles from the Pipestone quarry." In either case lu' overestimated the distance. He declared tliis part of his jolirnev was over one of llie most iH'aulifid prairie countries in the woi'ld."

-"This tract of country, as well as that alons thp St. Peters [Minnesota] river, is mostly eovci-cd witll the richest soil and furnishes an abundance of Kood water, which feeds from a thousand livinp springs. For many miles we had the CV>teau in view in the distance l>eforc us. whicli lool<cd like a l)lue cloud settling down in lln' horizon, and wc were scarcely sensible of the fact wIicti we had arrived at its base, from the graitcful and almost imgrass, five or six inches hiirh. On t!;e very top of the mound Callin and Wood found their far-famed quarry. Catlin wrote upon Iiis arrival: "... and, having arrived u|)on this interesting ground, have found it (piile equal in interest and beautv In mii' sanguine expectations, ahundantly repaying us for all our trouble in traveling to it."

The first white man in Pipestone cnuntv grew eldcpient as he viewed the wonders spread out lieror<> liiin. In his charming stvie, wi'iting nil the sjioi which lie had made a jdiirney of 21110 miles to reach, Mr. Callin described tlie rormatinns. told i/f the traditions and legends of llu' Indians and his adventures on the trip. I (|uotc at length from ^Ir. Catlin's "North .Vmerican Indians:"

My excellent and esteemed fellow-traveler, like a true Englishman, has untiringly stuck by me through all difficulties, passing the countries above mentioned, and also the upper Mississippi, the St. Peters, and the overland route to our present encampment on this splendid plateau of the western world. . . . Thus far have I strolled, within the space of a few weeks, for the purpose of reaching classic ground.

Be not amazed if 1 have sought, in this distant realm, the Indian Muse, for here she dwells, and here she must be invoked - nor be offended if my narratives from this moment savor or appear like romance.

If I can catch the inspiration, I may sing (or yell) a few epistles from this famed ground before I leave it; or at least I will prose a few of its leading characteristics and mysterious legends. This place is great (not in history, for there is none of it, but) in traditions and stories, of which this western world is full and rich. .

Such are a few of the stories of this far famed land, which of itself, in its beauty and loveliness, without the aid of traditionary fame, would be appropriately denominated a paradise. Whether it has been an Indian Kden or not, or wliether the thunderbolts of an Indian ,Iupiter are actually

'A Joseph Iva Framboise was living in Yellow Medicine county so early as ls:i5. When the first permanent settlers of I.yon county came in the sixties they bought claims from Joseph and Alexander I.a Framboise.

forged here, it is nevertheless a place renowned in Indian heraldry and chronicle, as explanatory of many of my anecdotes and traditionary superstitions of Indian history, which I have given, and am giving, to the world.

With my excellent companion, I encamped on, and am writing from, the very roclv where "the Great Spirit stood when he consecrated the pipe of peace, by moulding it from the rock, and smoking it over the congregated nations that were assembled about him."

Lifted up on this stately mound, whose top is fanned with air as light to breathe as nitrous oxide gas, and bivouacked on its very ridge (where naught on earth is seen in distance save the thousand treeless, bushless, weedless hills of grass and vivid green, which all around me vanish into the infinity of blue and azure), stretched on our bearskins, my fellow-traveler, Mr. Wood, and myself have lain and contemplated the splendid orrery of the heavens. With sad delight, that shook me with a terror, have I watched the swollen sun shoving down (too fast for time) upon the mystic horizon, whose line was lost except as it was marked in blue across the blood-red disc. Thus have we lain night after night (two congenial spirits who could draw pleasure from sublime contemplation) and descanted on our own insignificance; we have closely drawn our buffalo robes about us, talked of the ills of life - of friends we had lost - of projects that had failed - and of the painful steps that we had to retrace to reach our own dear native lands again. We have sighed in the melancholy of twilight, when the busy winds were breathing their last, when the chill of sable night was hovering about us, and naught of noise was heard but the silver tones of the howling wolf and the subterraneous whistle of the busy gophers that were ploughing and vaulting the earth beneath us. Thus have we seen wheeled down in the west the glories of the day, and at the next moment, in the east, beheld her silver majesty jutting up above the horizon, with splendor in her face that seemed again to fill the world with joy and gladness. We have seen here, too, in all its sublimity, the blackening thunderstorm, the lightning's glare, and stood amidst the jarring thunderbolts that tore and broke in awful rage about us, as they rolled over the smooth surface, with naught but empty air to vent their vengeance on. There is a sublime grandeur in these scenes as they are presented here, which must be seen and felt to be understood. There is a majesty in the very ground we tread upon, that inspires with awe and reverence: and he must have the soul of a brute, who could gallop his horse for a whole day over swells and terraces of green that rise continually ahead and tantalize (where hills peep over hills, and Alps on Alps arise).

without feeling his bosom swell with awe and admiration, and himself, as well as his thoughts, lifted up in sublimity when he rises the last terrace and sweeps his eye over the wide-spread blue and pictured infinity that lies around and about him.

Man feels here, and startles at the thrilling sensation, the force of illimitable freedom - his body and his mind both seem to have entered a new element, the former as free as the very wind it inhales, and the other as expanded and infinite as the boundless imagery that is spread in distance around him. Such is (and it is feebly told) the Coteau des Prairies. The rock on which I sit to write is the summit of a precipice thirty feet high, extending two miles in length, and much of the way polished, as if a liquid glazing had been poured over its surface. Not far from us, in the solid rock, are the deep-impressed "footsteps of the Great Spirit (in the form of a track of a large bird), where he formerly stood when the blood of buffaloes that he was devouring ran into the rocks and turned them red." At a tew yards fi'om us leaps a beautiful little stream, from the top of the precipice into a deep basin below. Here, amid rocks of lovliest hues but wildest contour, is seen the poor Indian performing ablution; and at a little distance beyond, on the plain, at the base of five huge granite boulders, he is humbly propitiating the guardian spirits of the place by sacrifices of tobacco, entreating for permission to take away a small piece of the red stone for a pipe. Farther along and over an extended plain, are seen, like gopher hills, their excavations - ancient and recent, - and on the surface of the rocks, various marks and their sculptured hieroglyphics - their wakons, totems and medicines - subjects numerous and interesting for the antiquary or the merely curious. Graves, mounds and ancient fortifications that lie in sight, the pyramid or leaping rock, and its legends, together with traditions, novel and numerous, and a description, geographical and geological, of this strange place, have all been subjects that have passed rapidly through my contemplation, to be given in future epistles.

The medicine (or leaping rock) is a part of the precipice which has become severed from the main part, standing about seven or eight feet from the wall, just equal in height, and about seven feet in diameter. It stands like an immense column of thirtyfive feet high, and is highly polished on its top and sides. It requires a daring effort to leap on its top from the main wall and back again, and many a heart has sighed for the honor of the feat without daring to make the attempt. Some few, have tried it with success and left their arrows standing in the crevice, several of which are seen there at this time; others have leaped the chasm and fallen from its slippery surface, on which they could not hold, and suffered instant death on the craggy rocks below. Every young man in the nation is ambitious to perform this feat, and those who have successfully done it are allowed to boast of it all their lives. In the sketch already exhibited there will be seen a view of the leaping rock, and in the middle of the picture, a mound, of conical form, of ten foot height, which was erected over the body of a distinguished young man who was killed by making the daring effort about two years before I was there, and whose sad fate was related to me by a Sioux chief, who was father of the young man and was visiting at the Red Pipestone quarry, with thirty others of his tribe, when we were there, and cried over the grave as he related the story, to Mr. Wood and myself, of his son's death.

Catlin pursticd his operations solely Ijocaiise of love of discovery, travel and adventure, and paid his own expenses. lie was hest known as an Indian delineator, but he also devoted some of his energies to historical research and geological description. At the Pipestone quarry and at other places on the C'oteau he collected samples of the rock, most of which he was obliged to throw away before he again reached civilization. He carried with him a sample of pipestone and took measures to have it subjected to chemical examination. Such examination was made bv Br. C. T. Jackson, of Boston, who gave the substance the mineralogical name of catlinite, after the first man to visit the quarry.

The next white men to penetrate to Pipestone county were a party of explorers in the government employ, who visited the quarry in .July, 1838. In the party were six men under command of Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, with .lohn ('. Fremont second in command.* Nicollet and Freiiiiint traveled from Washington to St. Louis and thence up the Mississippi river to IT. IT. Sibley's trading post, near the iiiiiuth oF the Minnesota river. Thence

<From 183G to 184.'i Nicollet, most of the time assisted by Fremont, prosecuted a geographical surve.v of the upper Mississippi country. He explored nearly all portions of Minnesota and ma!iy other parts of the country tlieretofore unvisited. He iliscuvered and nain<^il man>' lakes, creeks and other physical fe;itin-fs, and the map he made was of inestimalile value. His operathcy journeyed over the general route of travel up the south side of St. Peters or .Miiiuesola river, cro.ssing at Traverse des Sidux. I'hey proceeded west across the "ox-bow," stopping at Big Swan lake in Xicollet county, and crossed the Minnc- S(ila again al the nioulh of the W'araju ( ('otliinu(iod). They proceeded up the willcy lit the I'ottonwood, on the north side of the river, to a jioint near the present site of I.,aniLiertoii, and then crossed f'l the south side of the river and struck across country to Lake Shetek, in Murray county. They went around the north side of that lake, passed between Bear lakes and thence west and a little south to the quarry.^

Nicollet described the elevated plateau, of which Pipestone county forms a ]iarl. in some detail. "Whatever jieople may tlx their abode in this region must," wrote the explorer, '"necessarily, become agriculturists and shepherds, drawing all their resources ti'om the soil. They must not only raise the usual agricultural products for feeding, as is now but too generally dune in .-oiiic parts of the west, but they will have to turn their attention to other ruial occupations, such as tending sheep lor their wool, which would greatly add to their resources, as well as finally bring aliout a more extended application of the industrial arts among them."

The commander of the little expedition wrote as l^dlows of the arrival at the quan'v and cd' his impressions of the abode of the (treat Spii'it :

The Indians of all the surrounding nations make a regular pilgrimage to it, unless prevented by their wars and dissensions. The quarry is on the lands of the Sisseton tribe of Sioux.

Nicollet's map. which appears in this volume, the r(uite to the quarry is designated by a. very fine, dotted line, which, however, can be <iuite plainly traced.

been opened by the Great Spirit, and that whenever it is visited by them, they are sahited by lightning and thunder. We may site as a coincidence our own experience in confirmation of this tradition. Short of half a mile from the valley, we were met by a severe thunder storm, during which the wind blew with so much force as to threaten the overthrowing of Mr. Renville's wagon, and we were obliged to stop for a few minutes during the short descent into the valley.

If this mode of reception was at first to be interpreted as an indication of anger on the part of the Great Spirit for our intrusion, we may add that he was soon reconciled to our presence; for the sun soon after made his appearance, drying both the valley and our baggage. The rest of the day was spent in pitching our tent on the supposed consecrated ground and in admiring the beautiful effects of lights and shadows produced by the western sun as it illumined the several parts of the bluff, composed of red rock of different shades, extending a league in length and presenting the appearance of the ruins of some ancient city built of marble and porphyry. The night was calm and temperate, of which we took advantage to make astronomical observations.

Nicollet and party remained at tlie quarry three days. Indians were present at the time and tlie whites assisted tliem in openiii<r a new (|uarry, blasting the rock with gunpowder." On a .slab of the red quartzite near tlie leaping rock, the members of the paity carved their initials and the date. The carving, which is distinct to this day, was made in the following form:

After departing finm tlic (puiiTy tlie expedition explored the adjacent country. On the map made a few years later, several features of Pipestone county have a place. The Inyan Eeakah, or River of the Kock, is quite accurately located, as is also Hidden Wood creek, or Tchan-Xarambe (Chanarambie) creek. Eed Pipestone creek is made to rise a short distance east of the quarry, flow in a southwesterly direction and empty into the Tchan-Kasndata (Big Sioux) river. A stream, labeled Coteau Perce creek, liaving its source near Lake Benton, is also shown as flowing through Pipestone county in a southwesterly direction to the Big 8ioux. Nicollet and his party visited and named T.ake Benton and then proceeded westward into Tlakota, visiting and naming T.akes Preston (for Senator Preston), Poinsett (for .]. E. Poinsett, secretary of war), Ahert, Thompson, Tetonkaha, Kampeska, and Hendricks. The location of each of these places was determined by celestial observations, and the elevation of each place was obtained. Before returning to civilization Nicollet visited Big Stone Lake and other places to the north. He returned to the falls of St. Anthony by way of the Renville camp on the Lac qui Parle.

-Nicollet stated that it was a rule among the Sissetons to go through a three days' purification by offering prayers and sacrifices to the Great Spirit before digging the precious stone, and if. perchance, in digging, one of them found an inferior piece he lost caste with the others and was obliged to withdraw in disgrace and let the honor of digging f.Tll upon one more worthy.

might throw some light upon the ob.scuritv of now nearly half a century ago. But fire and frequent change of residence have made havoc among my papers, and I can only give you the meager outline which memory retains o( those journeys. The hut [at Lake Benton] you mention was not ours. We passed no winter there. Our campaigns were summer ones, and the green of the prairies and the herds of buffalo are leading features which remain in my mind. We made a camp at the Red Pipestone' quarry and met tliere a. band of Sioux Indians. i wonder if chimney rock, which stood in front

The next record we have of white men in Pipestone eDiiiity is in 1S4 t. That year a governiiu'nt t'\]HMlitioii umlrr Captain J. Allen, operating chiefly to chart the l)es jMoines river anfl other streams, proceeded up the Des iloines and entered jMinnesota in Jackson county. The course was through Jackson, Cottonwood and Murray counties. Captain Allen found that Lake Shetek was the source of tin- Pes Moines river, and witli that lake as temporary headquarters lie exjilored the country in several directions. He then set out for the west, passing through Pipestone county, and pi'oceeded down the Big Sioux river to its mouth. Apparently, lie missed the Pipestone quarry, but he descrii)ed the country, and wrote in regard to the big game he encountered on the trip through Pipestone county:

Twenty-five miles west of the source of the Des Moines (Lake Shetek) we struck the range of the buffalo and continued in it to the Big Sioux river and down that river about eighty-six miles. . . . We found antelope in the same range with the buffalo, but no elk, and very seldom a common deer. While among the buffalo we killed as many as we wanted, and without trouble.

During the forties and lifties the Pipestone quarry was visited infrequently by white meii. Trading jiosts and sottlements were established in uumy parts of the frontier ; trappers and hunters pushed out to many out-of-the-way places in plying their trade; traders with the Indians frequently went far from the civilized portions of the country; missionaries occasionally made pilgrimages to the Indian villages. There can be no doulit that frontiersmen of this class at times traversed Pi])cstone county and were at the famous of the escarpment, is still standing. It required a sure foot to jump from the main rock to the top of it. The two sets of initials inscribed to which you particularly refer are for C^liartes Fremont, as I then commonly wrote my name, and J. Eugene Flandlin. a young gentleman from New York, who was attached to the partv. The names of Lakes Jessie and Benton were given by me, and were for my wife and her father, Senator Benton."

Rev. Augustus Eavoux, attended by a single while man, accompanied a ])arty of Simix in liS4.") on an extended journey through the western wilderness. He visited Iicdwood, the Pipestone quarry, Xcvniillion and F(U-t Pierre, returning to Dubuque Ijy way of Des ^loines. He reported tlie country which later became southwestern ^linnesota as swarming with buffalo and dusky red men,**

In 1853 Judge Swan, who later became a prominent citizen of Sionx City, Iowa, passed through Pipestone county while on a hunting exjjedition. He was with /a party of Indians, who were enroute from Lake Slu'tek to the Dakota country. His camp was nnidc one night on the site now oceupii'd bv the government school at Pipestone.^

The next recorded visit of white people to Pipestone county was in April, 1857, when ;\[iss .\l)bie GardiuM-, l\[rs, Margaret ilarhle, ilrs. Lydia Noble and Mrs. Elizabeth Thatcher passed through as prisoners of an outlaw Indian, Inkpaduta, and a reiu\<i'ade band of Sioux Imlians, The.se women had been taken prisoners a few weeks before at Okolioji hikes. Iowa, in the butchery commonly called the Spirit Lake massacre, perpetrated by the bloodthirsty Inkpaduta, The flight of the Indians with their captives was by way of the quarry. They spent one day there,'" and then )iroceeded westward to the Big Sioux n\cv. coming to that stream at about the point where now stands the city of Flandreau. They liad then been on the

""Our captors rested themselves here for about a dav. in which time they were engaged in the delightful task of gatliering the pipestone and shaping it into pipes, which were formed in the manner foretold ages ago." - Mrs. Abbie C.ardner-Sharp in "History of the Spirit Lake Massacre."

At this interesting period iu history, at a time when only a few explorers and adventurers had had the liardilmod to penetrate the wilds of the county-, when women captives were held with impunity Ijy tlie degenerate Sioux where later was Imilded the city of Pipestone, wlien there was not a white settler within many long miles, Pipesdme county was created hy legislative act. It was entitled to a place on the map of Minnesota for the first time May 3;i, 1857, when the bill creating it was a]jproved by the territorial governor. So little did the lawmakers know of southwestern Minnesota at that time that they named the county Eock and the one to the south of it Pipestone.'^ Its original dimensions were twenty- four miles north and south hy thirty miles east and west, and within its limits were the site of the present city of Flandreau, South Dakota, and the big bend in the Big Sioux river, north of that city.*-'' No provision was made for the organization of the county, its boundaries were not even surveyed, and f(H- many years its territory remained the same wild country it had always been. Antiei]iating the time when the country should have inliahitants, the lawmakers inserted a clause in the original bill to the effect that Eock (read Pipestone)

"Of the four women captives. Mrs. Thatcher was murdered upon reaching the Big Sioux; Mrs. Noble was murdered some weelss later- Mrs. Marble and Miss Gardner, who was theii a girl thirteen years of age, were ransomed after considerable delay. On September '>2 1892. Mrs. Abbie Gardner- Sharp, for tlie first time since she passed through a.s a captive visited the Pipestone quarry. She identified the site of the lodges occupied by the captives of 1857. It was on the reservation, on ground sloping westward from the low jasper ledge, about a quarter of a mile south from the falls This was the only point on the whole journey which the former captive recognized.

county should be attached to Murray county for judicial and election purposes. An event that proved of great future importance to Pipestone county was a treaty with the Yankton Indians in 185S, by which that branch of the Sioux nation was guaranteed by the United States government the unrestricted use of the Pipestone (|uarry for the digging of pipestone to make their pipes, etc. It is a matter oil doubt by what right the Yanktons laid claim to the quarry and by what process of reasoning the government officials reacheil the determination to grant the band the unrestricted use of the sacred grounds of tlie Indians. Tlieir lands were entirely west of the Big Sioux river; they had never previously claimed the lands about the quarry, more than a right to quarry the red pipestone; all the lands east of the Big Sioux river had passed into the possession of the government by treaty in 1851, with the Sissetons, who from very early days had held undisputed possession of the quarries and the surrounding lands."

At any rate, the Yanktons were shrewd enough to secure the coveted prize before ceding any of their lands. The treaty was concluded at the city of Washington April 19, 1858. Charles E. Mix was the principal representative of the United States, and the Indians were represented by Paas is embraced in the following boundaries be and the same is hereby, established as the county of Rock: Beginning at the southeast corner of township one hundred and five north of range forty-tour (44) west: thence north to the northeast corner of township one hundred and eight north, of range forty-four (44) west - thence west to the northwest corner of township one hundred and eight, of range forty-eight (48) west; thence south to the southwest'corner of township one hundred and five north of range forty-eight (48) west; thence east to- the place of beginning."

"The treaty with the Sisseton and Wahpaton bands of Sioux was made in the latter part of July, 1851, at Traverse des Sioux, was ratified by congress the next year, and in February 185J, was proclaimed in force by President Fillmore, AH the lands of southern Minnesota, including those of Pipestone county and the Pipestone quarries, were ceded by the terms of that treaty. See Rock county history page 39

The said Yankton Intlians shall be secured in the tree and unrestricted use of the red Pipestone quarry, or so much thereol as they have been accustomed to frequent and use for the purpose of procuring stone for pipes; and the United States hereby stipulate and agree to cause to be surveyed and marked so much thereof as shall be necessary and proper for that purpose, and retain the same and keep it open and free to the Indians to visit and procure stone for pipes so long as they shall desire.

The treaty was ratified by the senate February 2(i. 1859. and later in the year the Indian bureau had a reservation ai the quarries surveyed, the marks of which were later ohliterated.

da-ni-pa-pa, or Old Strike, as he is called, it a man of medium .statin-e. havmg he appearance of having once been P°«.^essed o a mind of superior order. He is rapidly on tlie dec ine and his present feeble state shows that he will ere long be gathered to the Happy Hunting Grounds."

.Minnesota, in fact, in all the counties excepting Pipestone - in Lincoln, Murray, Nobles and Eock. Pipestone county alone remained exclusively Indian country. The census of 1860 gave the county no jiopulation.'"

By the creation of Dakota territoiy in isni. :Minnesota's western boundary line was moved eastward to its present locali(in. anil pari of the original Pipestone county (it was still designated Koek county) was losl to ^Minnesota. Fegislative action was retjuired, and on February 20, 1862, Pipestone county was cieatcd anew, with the boundaries it now has, and with the name of Pipestone. The act also authorized the surveying id' the boundary lines.'' persons who were reported living in Pipestone county in 1S60. A later census, however, contained the information that these were incorvectlv credited to Pipestone county; they beonged ?o Rock county, which, it will be reinembe rid was named Pipestone county at the time of its creation in 1857. For a more extended explanation see page 44 of the Rock county history.

Links Section

If there liadbeeii a belief tluit tliere was urgent necessity for the surveying of Pipestone county it was rudely dispelled. Not only did no settlers come, all those at the time residing in western Minnesota fled for tiieir lives upon the outbreak of the Sioux war late in the summer of 18G2. Pipestone county was as destitute of white people as it had been when Gitehe Manitou I'asliioned the first peace-pipe. When the white settlers of Minnesota rallied their forces and undertook to drive the I'edskins from the state for all time, Pipestone county was again visited, this time by soldiers in pursuit of the red demons. One pai'ty of 800 volunteer soldiers camped (in the quarries one niglit in ISli-.',"* and possilily others pa.ssed through the county.

After peace was obtained and tlie frontier regions were once more safe, visitors again came to the famous quarries. In October, IStiO, Dr. F. V. Hayden was at the (|uarries for the purpose of examination from a geological standpoint. He published a dcscri|ition of tlie quarries in the American Journal of Science and Arts, January, 1867.'"

Dr. r. A. While made a trip to the famous region in 1 868, and in the American Naturalist for 18()8-fi9 gave a description of a "trip to the great red Pipestone cpiarry." Doubtless other people - trappers, traders and curiosity seekers - visited the renowned «pot during the late sixties, for its reputation as a place of beauty and the scene of Indian siipcrstitiou bccauK^ widely known.

In the summer of 18iiS a small [larlv of Sioux City gentlemen visited the fpiarvy and one of their number had an exciting experience with Indians. The party was composed of Mahlon Core, then editor

"Prof. James Hall read a paper on the geology of the rocks at the Pipestone quarry beand proprietor of the Sioux City Journal, now a retired capitalist of Orlando, Florida; Hon. .\. W. Ilulibard, then congressman from the Eleventh Iowa district: Charles Kent, a Sioux City druggist; and a young man named Tripp, who was employed as cook, teamster and utility man.

The party spent several months on the trip and visited Sioux Falls, Luverne, the Pipestone quarries. Lake Shetek, Graham Lakes, Spirit Lake and intermediate points. They took witli them two saddle horses, a light spring wagon hauled by two other horses, a camp outfit hauled by a yoke of oxen, and a cow. They spent two or three days at the quarries, secured several specimens of the stone, and then proceeded to Lake Shetek. Of the events which occurred during this part of the trip Mahlon Gore has written:^"

We left Pipestone early in the morning, going in a northeasterly direction, following an old trail made by teams hauling corn and other supplies from the settled portion of Minnesota to the outposts on the Missouri river. We had proceeded some seven or eight miles when we espied a band of five or six elk half a mile ahead of us on the prairie.

Seeking a little depression on the prairie which would partially conceal our wagons and animals, Mr. Kent and I prepared to stalk the game by shedding all superfluous clothing and pocketing some extra cartridges. While we were doing this the judge looked in its accustomed place for our ax. It was not there. A hasty search through the wagons revealed the fact that it had been overlooked and left at our last camping place, at the quarry. Kent instructed Tripp to take his horse and ride back for it while he and I went ahead and killed an elk. We all left the outfit at the same time, and after a couple of hours the hunters succeeded in getting a fine stag. We returned to the wagons to make ready to care for our meat.

As we approached within a quarter of a mile of the outfit we saw Tripp coming from the opposite direction, Kent's horse on a dead run, the rider leaning far forward as the horse did not go fast enough and he seemed to think it he leaned far out in front he would get there sooner. Kent was very careful of his horse. He also sometimes indulged in language. In this instance he seemed to desire to make Tripp baldheaded. I looked for a scrap when the two should come together. But just then three other persons on horseback rode up to the top of a ridge behind Tripp: we saw a puff of smoke from a gun and saw the dust fly close to Tripp, where the bullet struck the ground; then another and another shot followed. Then the three Indians who were after Tripp evidently saw us, for they wheeled their horses and took the back track.

Wild eyed, Tripp rode into camp and Mr. Kent was considerate enough not to say a word derogatory of Ti'ipp's character, parentage or judgment. Tripp explained that he had secured the ax and had covered about a mile of the return trip when his peace of mind was disturbed by a shot from an Indian on horseback, and from that time until he came in sight of us he had a run for his money. He dropped the ax and could not be persuaded to go back for it.

Our party went on almost a mile, when we came to a creek where we halted, brought in our meat and spent the remainder of the day in caring for it.

"Fur the purpose of ciifureinn; civil rights anil criminal Justice" on tlie frontier, Pipestone county anil tliii'teen otliev unorganized counties were organized into a judicial district by an act of March 1. 1866, and attached to P>rown county.^^ of llie townships in 1867. The Southern ^liiiiiesota Paihoad cniu[iany in IH'd) ran a line through the county, passing between the quarries and the site of the city of Pipestone, and estal)lished their ten and twcnly-iiiih' limits. In 1871 iMcssrs. Walker and Miller completed the survey ol till' section lines: Pipestone county was ready for settlers.

The surveycus who ran the section lines id' Sweet township neglected to mark the re.^ei'vatinii limits nn their plat, which becanu' the oft'icirtl map of the h:ind office. Oil dulv 1"'. 1871. August t'lauson was liermitted tn fde a claim to land upon which the famous quarries are located, and later he received a government patent to the tract. The Indian's Garden of Filen passed to the ownership of a white man. despite the provisions of the Indian treaty! Put only for the tiiue being. Clauson sold the quarries to Herbert M. Carpenter. When the Wa.shington authorities Icni-ned the cimilitinn of affairs they revoked the patent. The ca.se found its way to the courts, and the Indian's lights weie maintained, and have been to this ilav. In lS7-i the hiuindaries of the reservaiiiin, one mile sipiare. were resurveveil and phiiidy staked.