I’m “getting out of Dodge” for a bit to find out what went on, history-wise, after Father Hennepin arrived at St. Anthony Falls. Well, lots of things, of course, but one of the most important things was the establishment of military posts. Their main purpose was to protect law-abiding travelers and American traders, to exclude foreigners from commercial use of American rivers, and to prevent the British from stirring up trouble with the Indians and the fur traders. So, in 1817 Major Stephen H. Long picked a site between the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, and then in 1818, Lt. Col. Leavenworth established a post there on the west side of the Mississippi.
In 1820, Colonel Josiah Snelling was appointed commandant of the new post. He immediately started putting up buildings. Logs were obtained from the mouth of the Rum River. The defenses, storehouses, shops and quarters were all constructed of stone quarried near the fort. By September 1820, the first permanent building was finished and the cornerstone was laid. Other buildings at the post were made of logs, but they needed more lumber to make them habitable. The first boards were made with whip-saws, but this was slow and difficult. So, a site for a sawmill was selected a few rods below the brink of St. Anthony Falls and a wooden flume was constructed for carrying water to the wheel.
This mill was built by soldiers at the fort; the construction supervised by Lieut. John B. Russell, who acted as quartermaster. The mill was 50 by 70 ft. in size and equipped with an upright saw called a “muley.” In the winter of 1820-21 about 2000 logs were floated down from the Rum River into the Mississippi and the mill began operating in the summer of 1821. It was the first building erected at the Falls of St. Anthony.
In 1823, the United States commissary at St. Louis sent the fort all kinds of equipment for construction of a grist mill to grind wheat to make bread. The problem here was that there had been so much hunger that winter, because of the scarcity of provisions, that some of the soldiers were dying of scurvy. Sent to them were two dozen sickles for reaping a crop of wheat, a pair of buhr mill stones and 337 pounds of plaster of Paris. So, a corner of the sawmill, 16 ft. square, was partitioned off for this operation, and the burhs were placed therein. Col. Snelling had sown some wheat that year (1823) and they ground it at the government mill at the Falls.
Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out too well! The wheat had become moldy or sprouted and was dirty, and it made wretched, black, bitter-tasting bread. This was issued to the troops, who got mad because they could not eat it. They brought it to the fort parade grounds and threw it out. Col. Snelling appeared on the scene and had a word (or two) with them! Such were the travails of our forefathers trying to get an industry started. The sawmill itself was operated until May, 1849, about two months after Minnesota became a territory.
Colonel Snelling, himself, was a very busy man. (He was married twice. His first wife, who had his son, died in 1810; he married his second wife, Abigail Hunt, in 1812.) He and his soldiers made roads, planted hundreds of acres of crops, such as vegetables, wheat, com, and hay for livestock, and felled trees for firewood. They enforced the laws and policies of the United States, acted as inspectors for the different trader’s goods and were hosts to Dakota and Ojibwa (Chippewa) who gathered to trade. All this aside from working the saw mill and the improved grist mill.
This early military post was first called Camp Coldwater, then was changed to Fort St. Anthony. When General Winfield Scott made a tour of inspection of frontier posts in 1824, he visited this one at the mouth of the Minnesota. He wanted to reflect credit on Colonel Snelling and, as a compliment to the officer under whom it had been erected, changed the name to Ft. Snelling.
Ft. Snelling has been called, “the fountain-head of early history of the Northwest.” From this point on, the wheels of history turned rapidly. You have seen in these articles how we follow it, from Father Hennepin discovering St. Anthony Falls to the establishment of a military post at Fort Snelling. Our next trip will be to the town of St. Anthony, itself, and to some of the early settlers who migrated there. Then on to settlers who found their way to “Camden Place.”
Note: Excerpts taken from Minnesota and It’s People Vol. 2, by J.A.A. Burnquist.