Camden State Park is our wilderness, so far as we may find wilderness in Southwest Minnesota. I spent my childhood years in and around Marshall where my most common experiences of being immersed in nature are all about camping, swimming, hiking, fishing, and exploring all that Camden had to offer a kid.
This kid, now inhabiting a much older body, still frequents Camden to recharge his batteries by absorbing snowy silence in the winter; by hiking, biking, camping, and enjoying birdsong in the warmer months; or by simply breathing woods-scented air in any season.
Many of us have Camden stories that reflect the special place it occupies in our lives. Today’s column begins a series of love letters about and to this special place and to everyone who seeks recreation and relaxation in the forested valley and prairieland of Camden State Park.
We who love time spent in Camden’s woods, waters, and prairies are only the most recent people to value and visit this place. These lands are a part of the ancestral lands of the Dakota Oyate (nation) many of whom returned to the area again and again across many generations, drawn by the renewable resources these lands offered and on which they relied and thrived.
A.P. Rose’s “History of Lyon County,” published in 1912, restates an account of Dakota life in the Camden area given by Parker I. Pierce, who passed through Lyon County in the 1860s. Mr. Pierce apparently collected accounts of Dakota life in the area prior to Euro-American settlement. We need to recognize, however, that relying on a non-Dakota source for an account of Dakota life always carries a risk of misrepresentation.
“At Lynd there were about 1,500 acres of timber (most of it later being cut by settlers), consisting of oak, bass, and sugar maple. This timber was paradise for the [Dakota], furnishing shelter and fuel for the winter and a feeding ground for their ponies. In the summer they would hunt and kill the buffalo and dry the meat for winter. After the cold weather set in, they devoted their time to trapping the fur-bearing animals such as otter, mink, and muskrats, which were abundant.”
“As I said before, there were plenty of sugar maples and the [Dakota] women made hundreds of pounds of sugar. In the spring the surplus would go to the Indian trader and shortly would be traded back to them for furs and robes. Each band of [Dakota] had their allotment of trees. The troughs that were made to catch the sap remained under the trees until the following spring; then the same ones would go back to their camping ground. The [Dakota] were happy and rich with ponies.”
Rose’s history identifies the first white household in what later became Lyon County as occupying a site near Camden.
“A white man first established a home in Lyon County in 1835. He was Joseph LaFramboise, a trader in the employ of the American Fur Company and his post was in the Lynd woods on the Redwood River. There for a period of two years he lived with his family, engaged in trade with the [Dakota].”
Rose also relates an account about how the noted western traveler and painter of Plains Native Americans, George Catlin, visited the LaFramboise family at their Lynd trading post in 1837. Catlin stopped while enroute to visit the Pipestone quarries to the west.
Rose’s history later identifies the first long-term, white resident of what became Lyon County as another trader.
“It was during the month of May 1855 that James W. Lynd established his trading post on the Redwood. The original site was on land which, when surveyed, was found to be the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 5, Lyons Township – land which was later taken as a homestead by Charles E. Goodell. The groves along the Redwood had always been a favorite camping ground of the [Dakota] and the site was a model one for barter with [them]. The fur trade was a profitable one and Mr. Lynd is said to have carried on a successful business, trading sugar, blankets, calico, tobacco, ammunition, and possibly whiskey for pelts of the numerous fur-bearing animals.”
When I consulted a map of Lyons Township, the general site of Mr. Lynd’s trading post as described in the Rose history places it in the heart of Camden State Park.
Rose’s account of the location of Mr. Lynd’s trading post was confirmed during the 1930’s, when the state bought the land by eminent domain and developed it as a state park. The Master Plan Report of Camden State Park, published by the park’s National Park Service landscape architect, Mr. R.A. Skogland, in 1936, described the location of the former trading post.
“The first building within the present park site was a Trading Post which was reported to have been built prior to 1850. A Mr. Lynd operated this post for a number of years. Its former site is indicated on a plan just west of the present swimming pool. It is reported that a fire destroyed the original building.”
“In the [1880’s], a farm residence was constructed on the old trading post site. Several owners occupied the premises prior to its purchase by Mr. A. H. Dale. The Dale family occupied this residence until the purchase of the area by the state.”
But this beautiful valley location enjoyed a widespread reputation as a great picnic location long before it became a park.
I welcome your participation in and ideas about our exploration of prairie lives. You may reach me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com.
"Love" - Google News
June 19, 2021 at 01:01PM
https://ift.tt/3gEqzYY
Camden love letters — earliest times | News, Sports, Jobs - Marshall Independent
"Love" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35xnZOr
https://ift.tt/2z10xgv
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Camden love letters — earliest times | News, Sports, Jobs - Marshall Independent"
Post a Comment