AR&LE AboutTown Magazine PRESORT STD To Present City of Edina U.S. POSTAGE Spring Play 4801 West 50th Street PAID See page Edina, MN 55424 Permit No. 3932 Edina, MN 28 for www.ci.edina.mn.us AboutTown details Official Magazine of the City of Edina ***ECRWSS*** POSTAL PATRON CAR-RT-WS WINTER•2002 Two Teenage Boys Were First White Men To Set Foot On Edina Soil By Joe Sullivan, Freelance post. Pike estimated the The names given to Minnehaha Creek and Lake Writer and Edina resident area’s size at 100,000 Minnetonka have been loosely translated from the acres and calculated its Dakotah language as: In the summer of 1822, two value at $200,000. In teenage boys set out by canoe Minnehaha Creek – “Laughing Water” addition to the fort, the from what was then Fort St. Lake Minnetonka – "Big, Large, or Great Water” military reservation Anthony to blaze the first white included what are now man’s trail up the creek, named large parts of the cities Minnehaha by the Dakotah The ringleader of the expedition was a 17-year-old Minnesota Historical Society graphic of Minneapolis and Sioux. They set out to follow the Union Army drummer and fifer named Joseph A Dakotah Sioux encampment on the banks of the Minnesota St. Paul, all of what is River. (Circa 1857) creek and to find its source, Renshaw Brown. He was accompanied by red-haired now Richfield and most of The Ft. Snelling post covered Richfield and most of today’s which the Sioux called Minnetonka. William Joseph Snelling, the “gifted, but erratic” Bloomington and Edina. Edina Highlands neighborhood was part of an old Edina. young son of Col. Josiah Snelling, the fort’s Indian trail that began at Lake Calhoun. It crossed commander, and two soldiers from the fort known today’s Edina, and later became a wagon trail used by only as Watkins and Steward. The canoeists, who are the early settlers. Eventually, that trail became credited with being the first Caucasians to set foot on Vernon Avenue and old U.S. Highway 169, which was what is now Edina, were also the first newcomers to the main route from Minneapolis to Shakopee until discover Minnehaha Creek and Lake Minnetonka. the 1950s. But I’m getting ahead of the story. To truly Little Crow Sold 100,000 understand Edina’s earliest beginnings, we need to Acres to the Army for a go back to the days before Minnesota became a Military Post territory—when the town of Minneapolis was still In 1805, Little Crow, called St. Anthony. In the early 1800s, Minnesota was another Dakotah chieftain, still an unnamed part of the remote Northwest signed a treaty with a Territory on the nation’s northwest frontier. The young army lieutenant and Mdewakanton tribe of the Dakotah Sioux Nation explorer named Zebulon occupied the future site of the fort. Pike. Under the treaty, Minnesota Historical Society graphic Minnesota Historical Society graphic Then, as now, Fort St. Anthony was on a cliff high above the Little Crow agreed to sell Edina Historical Society photo confluence of today’s Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. Construction This simulated photo of Joe Brown and Will Snelling The Mdewakanton had villages on Nine Mile Creek, Lake nine square miles of the was begun in 1819—39 years before Minnesota would become a canoeing up Minnehaha Creek is from a re-enactment that Calhoun and near today’s town of Shakopee, named for a tribe’s land to the federal Hennepin County Historical Society photo state. Early buildings were built of wood. Later, local limestone was appears in the new “History of Edina” video. Dakotah chief. A ridge that has been preserved in the government for a military Chief Little Crow used for construction. The fort was renamed Ft. Snelling in 1825. 6• WINTER 2002 7• WINTER 2002 In 1822, when the two teenage explorers began their The young explorers and the the Mississippi, the explorers came upon Minnehaha adventure on Minnehaha Creek, Fort St. Anthony was two soldiers who accompanied Falls. Later, a “History of Minneapolis and Hennepin still under construction. Some buildings were ready them had heard about the County,” published in 1914, described the creek and for habitation in the fall of 1822, but it would be two creek from Native Americans falls in the flowery language typical of the period: “A years before the fort’s full complement of troops living at the fort. They had small but beautiful stream, about five yards wide, could be housed there. The fort was originally named told them the 22-mile trek up flows gently until it reaches the verge of a rock from St. Anthony by its first commander, Lt. Col. Henry the creek carried an element which it is Leavenworth, who also named Lake Harriet for his wife. of danger. They were venturing precipitated to a into a wilderness called the depth of 43 feet, Minnehaha Creek Explorers Were Not Beginners “Big Woods” where wolves presenting a The two boys who had decided to explore Minnehaha often followed travelers by day …parabolic Creek were already accomplished young men. Joe and howled at night. sheet, which Brown had left his Maryland home and traveled up drops without the Mississippi on a boat, arriving at the fort in 1820 Two-and-a-half miles up the Minnesota Historical Society photo interruption to with the first troops of the Union Army’s Fifth creek from where it flows into Col. Josiah Snelling its lower level Regiment. He attained the rank of major by the time Minnesota Historical Society photo when it resumes he left the army in 1825. Dakotah Sioux lodges and an Indian family living at Ft. Snelling. its course After the army, Brown (Circa 1862-63) unchanged.” went on to make many as editor and proprietor of the Minnesota Pioneer significant contributions to newspaper, now the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The people at Minnesota Historical Society photo what would become the the fort became Minnehaha Falls in the 1800s looked a state of Minnesota. He Will Snelling was no “greenhorn,” either. He had concerned when lot like it does at the present day. drew up the bill first attended a private boarding school near Boston and the missing introduced in 1846, that then spent a couple of years at West Point Military explorers didn’t return by nightfall. Col. Snelling created the Minnesota Academy. From there, he traveled to Minnesota to ordered a detachment of soldiers to search both sides Territory, and suggested join his father, Col. Josiah Snelling, and stepmother of the creek for them. its name. He also laid out at the fort. During the winter of 1820-21, he lived Stillwater, the territory’s with families of the Dakotah tribe in their tepees. The journey up the creek took two days. Joe Brown first town, where he was As a result, he learned to speak their language and mentioned the trip in later letters describing the the first lumberman to cut became a translator for people living at the fort. In Minnesota Historical Society photo early Northwest, reporting that at times they were Minnesota Historical Society photo and raft logs. For a As an adult, Joe Brown was a his later years, Will Snelling became a writer and Minnehaha Creek was an uncharted wilderness known only to driven back by swarms of mosquitoes before considerable time he served leading citizen of Minnesota. publisher in the eastern United States. Native Americans in the early 1800s. reaching the lake. After one particularly vicious 8• WINTER 2002 9• WINTER 2002 mosquito attack, young Snelling lost his enthusiasm Following the first stir of excitement about the for finding the creek’s source and headed back to the exploration of the Minnehaha Creek and the Join The Edina Historical Society fort on foot. Brown continued the quest with Watkins discovery of Lake Minnetonka, no great rush was If you love reading Joe Sullivan’s articles about Edina and Steward. made to settle in areas near the creek until the 1850s. history, visit the Edina Historical Society’s museum to That was when 17 families, most of them fleeing from learn more tales about our town. Join the Society and the starvation and death of a devastating potato receive a quarterly newsletter and a 10 percent discount famine in Ireland, came to Edina. They claimed land at the museum gift shop on things such as T-shirts, in what was then the rocky southwest section of ornaments and other memorabilia. Richfield Village and formed the Cahill Settlement near today’s 70th Street and Cahill Road intersection. The museum, located at 4711 W. 70th St., is open 9 a.m. to noon Thursdays, 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays and by They were soon followed by English and Scottish Minnesota Historical Society photo appointment. The museum features a huge archive of farmers, who claimed land near Minnehaha Creek The intrepid discoverers of Minnehaha Creek and Lake pictures, manuscripts and historical data about Edina. and today’s 50th Street. In 1856 a small grist mill was Minnetonka came home to a warm welcome from their comrades-in-arms in the Union Army’s Fifth Regiment built on the creek and a community grew up around at Ft. Snelling. Just complete and cut out the membership card (below) the mill and its 15-foot dam, which crossed the creek and mail to the museum along with membership fee. at what is now Browndale Avenue. It would become a Hennepin County Historical Society, Brooklyn thriving trading post called Edina Mills, which later Historical Society and from the following publications: Minnesota Historical Society photo “The History of Edina, Minnesota—1822-1966” video Lake Minnetonka’s Big Island was still undeveloped when this photo adopted the name given the mill by Scotsman Andrew was taken in 1905.