"Where the Waters Meet"

Called M'Dote, or "the place where waters meet," by the Dakota, this area is central to many Dakota creation stories and remains significant to Dakota people today. Just west of this site is Pilot Knob, which the Dakota used extensively for burials up to the 1850s. Archaeological research has uncovered evidence of habitation here going back at least 9,000 years. Artifacts including French gunflints and other trade goods show that this was one of the earliest fur-trading locations in Minnesota, perhaps as early as the 1660s. In its heyday in the 1830s, warehouses stood directly on the riverbank near where railroad tracks run today. Much of the landscape changed in the early 20th century when barge channels were cut and natural burns were stopped in the state park along the river. Trees now block what was once a tremendous view of the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, with Fort Snelling standing over them on the opposite bluff. The river was the lifeblood of the fur trade and the major travel artery until the railroad came to Minnesota in the 1860s. Today the land along the rivers is part of Fort Snelling State Park.

Mendota, Minnesota · United States