In January 1857, a survey party left St. Cloud, Minnesota, bound for the headwaters of the Red River. Despite winter hazards, they were determined to beat rivals to the region. The expedition was led by French-Chippewa guides Charles and Pierre Bottineau. Pierre, known as the Kit Carson of the Northwest, was a famous frontiersman and surveyor.
Daniel Johnston, an impoverished schoolteacher from St. Paul, joined the expedition hoping for riches. He kept a journal of the journey. By January 20, the group reached the end of the wooded lake country. On January 23, they were caught in a blizzard. The tent blew down, and the fire went out. The ten-man party slept spoon-style in a large woolen comforter, with buffalo robes on top for warmth. Pierre Bottineau, singing in his Native language, kept spirits up and hunted two buffalo. The snow likely saved them from freezing.
The crew now faced the open prairie, where shelter and firewood were scarce. Struggling through blizzards, steep snowdrifts, and icy swamps, they reached the junction of the Red, Ottertail, and Bois de Sioux rivers on January 29, camping at what is now Welles Park in Breckenridge, Minnesota. They began surveying the townsite of Breckenridge on January 31, despite the Dakota people's legal claim to the land. In 1869, Morgan T. Rich squatted there and became known as the founder of Wahpeton, North Dakota.
By February, the men had built a log shanty and stable for the oxen. The Bottineaus and two others returned to St. Paul, leaving six men behind to occupy the townsites. They faced harsh conditions—snow, storms, and dwindling food supplies. Their meals of pork, beans, and corn ran out, and they were forced to eat the oxen. In March, the shanty and surrounding area flooded as the snow melted.
In April, one man left on foot for St. Paul, hoping to survive. He was lost in a blizzard but eventually reached a farmhouse, where his frozen toes were amputated. The crew surveyed two more townsites where a railroad was hoped to cross. Supplies and reinforcements arrived in May, but Johnston had lost his passion for townsite speculation. By August, he returned to St. Paul to become a newspaper editor.
Johnston later wrote, "The medicine I took during six months of that year cured me of the townsite speculation fever so completely that I have never felt a touch of it since."
Joe Whitford, who had founded Fergus Falls and established a lumber mill in Breckenridge, was killed during the 1862 Dakota Conflict.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- A RED RIVER TOWNSITE SPECULATION IN 1857. Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, May 13, 1913 (Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. v. 15, p. 411-434, Published 1915).
- Digital Horizons. Morgan T. Rich Portrait. https://digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/14047/
- Ottertail County Historical Society. U.S. Dakota War of 1862. https://www.otchs.org/LibraryResearch/militaryhistory/usdakotawar.html
- Minnesota Digital Library. Joe Whitford, explorer and founder of Fergus Falls, Minnesota.
- https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/otter:283#?xywh=-1875%2C0%2C7047%2C4286
- Pierre Bottineau. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bottineau
