For centuries animals and people used the solid footing and shallow water at Traverse des Sioux as a natural river crossing.

In time the crossing became a place for people to meet and trade goods. European fur traders were quick to see the advantages of the location and set up trading houses. Some of the earliest ox-cart routes crossed the Minnesota River here, and by the early 1850s steamboats from St. Paul were passing this spot, bearing supplies for the territory's new towns and settlements.

Slow Going!

Today we can drive from St. Paul to Traverse des Sioux in under 90 minutes. In 1854 the same trip, made by steamboat, was a tedious two-and-a-half day journey."The unexhilarating pace of the boat as it struggles against the current curbs our enthusiasm," complained one correspondent for the St. Anthony Express."The steamer pokes along as if it had half a mind not to go at all. It is only by watching the shore intently for a half an hour that we can perceive that we make any progress."

Minnesota Historical Society
Traverse des Sioux

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Show me all markers in:  St Peter, MN  |  Nicollet County  |  56082  |  Minnesota  |  United States of America

Treaty of Traverse des Sioux Site
The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux
The Old French Cemetery
Fur Trader Louis Provencalle
The Rush for Land
Ministering to the Dakota
Ecakensdonyapi
Archaeology
Land-Seas
"Only a Memory Now"

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