Who Was Here First?

Before the first French, English, or American explorers arrived, people already lived in the St. Croix River Valley, before the Ojibwe came from the east and before the Dakota and Mesquakie guided and traded with the first explorers. These early people left no written history, so knowledge of them comes from traces of their activities where they lived, camped, traveled, or worked. Stone tools, animal remains, pot fragments, charcoal from campfires, and other artifacts have been investigated along the St. Croix River. There are traces of people living there as long as 5,000 years ago, though most traces are believed to be from 1,000 to 2,000 years ago. These locations suggest temporary camps used for hunting, fishing, and gathering edible plants. Cut and roasted deer bones indicate hunting camps, piles of shells show where mussels were collected, and in the fall these people probably gathered wild rice on nearby lakes. Almost every cultural site discovered in the St. Croix valley is close to the river.

Minnesota · United States