Native Cultures and the River

Long before French and British fur traders arrived in the 1600s, Dakota and Ojibwe peoples lived throughout the region, hunting, fishing, ricing, and traveling in birchbark canoes. A profitable fur trade flourished as heavily laden canoes of furs paddled between Lake Superior and the Mississippi River by way of the St. Croix River. Here in the park, archaeologists have found remnants of pottery and stone tools made 400 to 3,000 years ago by native cultures. Daniel Greysolon Sieur Dulhut is thought to have been the first European to enter Dakota lands along the St. Croix River in 1679. Francis Lee Jacques painted a scene in the 1920s showing Dulhut on Lake Superior.

Scandia, Minnesota · United States