The Sauk Rapids museum sent me a copy of a photo taken by Mike Knaak of Peace rock from l977. As you know, I was interested in learning why Peace Rock was not a Minnesota monument as it played such an important place in the tribal Indian wars in the area. I tried to find the rock that was such an important part of history and it seems to have been devoured by housing complexes. I also learned from an newspaper story titled "Peace Rock, Plan may create new park Land, by Mark Pearson of the Times that the "Indians saw the giant rock as something sacred. Its size and constance made it a place of their god, a place of wonder..." At the time of this writing state and federal grants were trying to help finance a county park at the sight. It must have fallen through. You can learn more by reading Harold Fisher's book called "The Land called Morrison published in l972 and The Watab web site may soon give us more information as they are writing a history of Watab.
We know the Pembina trail, a route white men used to travel from St. Paul to northwestern Minnesota wound right by Peace Rcok. Just to the south of this rock was a fur trade post named Watab. At the time of the news article, Benton County was trying to get 60,000 to purchase the land. The quote from the story said " Once again, the back of the slumbering giant towering l00 feet above the river may become a place where people come for contemplation and companionship away from the frictions of society." This apparently fell through for lack of funding and it appears that most of the markers leading to the rock etc, must have disappeared or at least I could not find the foot trail that the early papers stated existed to visit the monument.
Mike Moran did a follow up called American Indians had a special name for a special Rock", August 18th 200l, in the St. Cloud Paper. This writer stated,"those living by Peace rock today state that on days of large temperature changes, faint groaning sounds can be heard ast he minerals expand or contract" ( in the rock.) He went on to say it provides stunning views of the Mississippi river some l00 feet below. It is too bad it did not become a public place.
I had good intentions. I followed the directions as stated to Pirates cove and then drove .4 miles to what was supposed to be a gravel road. It was tared. I then found myself in a rather complicated housing development and I certainly did not see a foot path leading to Peace Rock. Apparently this is one of our historical Minnesota sites that is pretty much forgotten about.
I did do a little reseach on Chief Hole in the Day I and II and that too is a bit confusing because they do not give accurate dates for many of the old articles, so you are not certain if you are reading about the first chief or his son. Apparently the son was the rabble rouser and more involved in politics than his father. I found that one of the chiefs died falling off a wagon and the other was killed by members of his own band because they though he had betrayed them in his dealings with the white man. Interestingly enough, Chief Hole in the Day is supposedly buried Near Little Falls. There is a rumor that if his body is disturbed we will have bad weather. A few years ago some young Little Falls gentlemen, defaced part of his monument, trying to prove the curse did not exist. His monument has since been replaced.
I was told that the mounds on Little Rock Lake are not Ojibwe since the Ojibwe did not build mounds. They would have been from another tribe that settled in the area before the Ojibwe. I guess they could be Winnebago or Sioux as these Native Americans were also in this area.
If you know of any interesting LRL history, email me at lokiloki@aol.com and I will include it. I know there was a lot of things done on Sharon Point at one time, including the creation of the point by adding fill. Send me an email and share some of our local Little Rock Lake history. PJ
I talked to Hurley the other day on Sharon Point and he told me that in the l960's there was a large gravel hill that was used to haul dirt into Sharon Point. He did a lot of the hauling. So if any of you do a core soil sample, you will probably find dirt on your lots that came from the large gravel hill. Gee, maybe we will find Inian Arrow heads.
Asa White started a fur post at what was called Watab. This was later bought out by David Gilman, who had the first farm in Benton County. The Watab Indians, lead by Chief Watab had a camp north of the fur post which extended to the outlet of Little rock lake.