Peering at the Past – From Footpaths to Train Tracks in the Root River Valley

Before white settlers arrived, the Root River Valley was known as the “Land of Hokah,” and the Native Americans called the river, “Hokah.” They were nomadic hunters and gatherers, who also cultivated some crops. They moved from camp to camp, traveling mostly on foot, occasionally by canoe. Their horses, described by historian Alden O. Droivold as “round-bellied ponies,” were beasts of burden, used to move tepees and other possessions rather than be transporters of people. It would be the 1830s before they would acquire the white man’s speedier horses.

What would become the townsite of Rushford was a popular location for camping and planting for both the Sioux and the later-arriving Winnebago. The one-eyed Winnebago chief De-co-ray (Decorah) camped there during the winter of 1840. Two years later, his oldest son was deer hunting in the area when he froze to death one stormy night after he had lost his blankets.

Where Rushford sits today was on the oft-used Indian trail between the Winnebago band along the Turkey River in Iowa and the Sioux (Wabasha) band near Winona. Seven Native American trails through the valleys converged at the future site of Rushford, connecting that crossroads with river camps at sites later to be known as Money Creek, Whalan and Hokah.

These established footpaths would later be used by early white settlers with their wagons and oxen. So many of these trails converged at Rushford, it became known as “Trail City.”

In 1825, a conference of Indian nations established a “Neutral Line” to separate the Sac and Fox in Iowa from their long-time enemies, the Sioux (Dakota) in Minnesota. The agreement was violated by both tribes while disputing hunting, camping and burial grounds in the Root River Valley. The Sac and Fox often came up from Iowa or crossed the Mississippi River from Wisconsin and Illinois to the Root River Valley, claiming their historical hunting grounds.

In the early 1830s, the Sac and Fox tribe attacked a Sioux (Dakota) encampment at Money Creek, nine miles east of Rushford. The raiders captured Witoka, the young daughter of Chief Wah-kon-de-e-tah. The Sioux chief was able to find and rescue his daughter while killing some of the enemy.

In 1832, the Winnebago gave up all their land south and east of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, agreeing to settle on land known as “Neutral Ground,” located mostly in northeastern Iowa with a small triangular corner in southeastern Minnesota.

As white settlers continued to populate the area in the 1840s and 50s, the government promoted the construction of territorial roads, which might be needed to quickly deploy military troops in case of Indian uprisings. One thousand miles of territorial roads were built in Minnesota, which greatly aided the movement of incoming pioneer settlers and outgoing agricultural produce to market.

The north-south trails from St. Paul to Dubuque (Iowa) and from Fort Atkinson (Iowa) to Winona, along with the east-west travel along both the Chatfield Territorial Road and the State Line Trail, provided convenient movement into southeastern Minnesota for settlers, merchants and provisions.

Stage coaches, powered by teams of four or six horses, became the prevailing method of transporting both passengers and the even more profitable U.S. Mail. Highly prominent was travel from La Crosse, Wis., to St. Paul on the old territorial road, which crossed through the villages of La Crescent and Mound Prairie. Three stage lines traveled this route. Farther west, Chatfield, the Territorial County Seat with a land office, was a major depot for several stage lines.

There needed to be stops about every 12 miles in order to change horses. And passengers welcomed the opportunity to stretch. About 50 miles separated more elaborate stations, which also catered to humans with telegraph service, food and sometimes overnight lodging. However, a dirt floor might suffice as lodging. Among such hostelries were the Lorette House near Mound Prairie and farther west toward Chatfield, the Trowbridge House and O’Meara’s Farm. The era of stagecoaches lasted about three decades -1849 to 1879.

The Root River, however briefly, provided another method of transportation. The Root River Steamboat Company at Houston built several vessels, but that steamboat business suffered during the Civil War (1861-64) and like stagecoach traffic, perished a few years later with the coming of the railroad.

And the river could not only be a fickle business partner but also a threat to health. The Great Flood of June 1859 devastated the valley even more than the crusted snow of the winter of 1856-57. “After several weeks of intermittent rain,” as Droivold expressed, “The mighty Root River unleashed its fury in the form of swirling, churning muddy water, gushing as it were, from the depth of the bowels of the old river, Root. It was a devastating flood, engulfing the valley from bluff to bluff, destroying everything in its path, depositing mud and rank vegetation (the stench of which was almost unbearable) on the cultivated fields and meadows.

“The resulting muck and stagnant water provided a haven for mosquitos and shortly thereafter, almost every man, woman and child in the valley was the victim of alternate chills and fever of malaria. Those not experiencing the fever and chills suffered from the loss of appetite, ambition and general weakness.”

That plague of malaria persisted the first freeze of autumn. Settlers suffered the repercussions of this disaster for several years – for those that stayed. Many did not remain, sold their land claims and improvements “for a mere pittance” and deserted the valley for someplace they hoped to be less perilous.

Steamboats on the Root and stagecoaches everywhere disappeared after the arrival of the railroad. In 1866, railcars were finally running all the 30 miles from the Mississippi River to Rushford. On New Year’s Day, 1867, the long-awaited railroad reached Rushford with tracks on the north side of the river into the station in the middle of a cornfield.

Two years later, New Year’s Day, 1869, the Southern Minnesota Railway had approximately 50 miles of railroad when there were only 559 miles of tracks in the entire state.

Sources: “The History of Rushford: the First Decade,” a collection of historical notes by Alden O. Droivold, DVM as published by the Rushford Historical Society in April. 1986