Chengwatana, Minnesota

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Chengwatana
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Chengwatana
Coordinates: 45°50′19″N92°56′15″W / 45.83861°N 92.93750°W / 45.83861; -92.93750 Coordinates: 45°50′19″N92°56′15″W / 45.83861°N 92.93750°W / 45.83861; -92.93750
Country United States
State Minnesota
County Pine
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code(s) 320
GNIS feature ID649445 [1]

Chengwatana is an abandoned village site in Pine County, Minnesota, United States.

Pine County, Minnesota County in the United States

Pine County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,750. Its county seat is Pine City. The county was formed in 1856 and organized in 1872.

Minnesota State of the United States of America

Minnesota is a state in the Upper Midwest and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858, created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory. The state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Its official motto is L'Étoile du Nord.

Contents

The former village was located immediately east of Pine City. The center of the village was generally considered near the present day intersection of Cross Lake Road (Pine County 9) and Government Road.

Pine City, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Pine City is a city in Pine County, Minnesota, in east central Minnesota. Pine City is also the county seat of Pine County. A portion of the city is located on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation. Founded as a railway town, it quickly became a logging community and the surrounding lakes made it a resort town. Today, it exists in part as a commuter town to jobs in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area.

History

Chengwatana was an Ojibwa village, located along the lower course of the Snake River, Minnesota. Its name in Ojibwe was Zhingwaadena, a contraction of Zhingwaak-oodena or "White-Pine Town"; English uses the French transcription of the Ojibwe. After statehood of Wisconsin in 1848, the transient village became a permanent village located at the outlet of Cross Lake, on its south eastern shore, at the beginning of the lower course of the Snake River, named Snake River Dam. Elam Greeley, a lumberman, co-founder of Stillwater, and member of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature whom Greeley [2] is named after, owned the Chengwatana toll dam at the outlet of Cross Lake.

Wisconsin A north-central state of the United States of America

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, which is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The state is divided into 72 counties.

Elam Greeley American politician

Elam Andrew Jackson Greeley was an American businessman and legislator.

Stillwater, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Stillwater is a city in Washington County, Minnesota across the St. Croix River from the state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat. The population was 18,225 at the 2010 census. Stillwater is part of the Twin Cities Metro Area.

Elam Greeley ElamGreeley1852.jpg
Elam Greeley

On March 1, 1856, with very informal ceremony, the village was officially named as the County Seat of Pine County and the village was renamed Alhambra by Judd, Walker and Company and Daniel G. Robertson; however, this name was not very well accepted. In 1857, Alhambra was renamed as Chengwatana. When the Point Douglas to Superior Military Road, also known as "Douglas Highway," was constructed between the modern cities of Hastings, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin to replace the Kettle River Trail that connected the modern cities of Fridley, Minnesota with Moose Lake, Minnesota, the new road was designed to pass through Chengwatana. The village was garrisoned as a frontier military post, 1862-1863. A post office operated in the village until 1873.

Point Douglas to Superior Military Road

Point Douglas to Superior Military Road, also known as Point Douglas to St. Louis River Military Road and as Douglas Highway, was a road that ran between Point Douglas, located at the outlet of the Lower St. Croix Lake near Hastings, Minnesota, first to the falls of the St. Louis River near Thomson, Minnesota, and later extended to the mouth of the St. Louis River in Superior, Wisconsin. From Douglas Point immediately east of Hastings, Minnesota, the route connected Stillwater, Taylors Falls, Sunrise, Chengwatana, Fortuna, Scotts Corner, to Thomson and Superior. Several discontinuous sections of this road are still in use.

Hastings, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Hastings is a city in Dakota and Washington counties, in the U.S. state of Minnesota, near the confluence of the Mississippi, Vermillion, and St. Croix Rivers. Its population was 22,172 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Dakota County, which contains most of it as well as a small part extending into Washington County. It is named for the first elected governor of the state of Minnesota, Henry Hastings Sibley.

Superior, Wisconsin City in Wisconsin, United States

Superior is a city in, and the county seat of, Douglas County in the state of Wisconsin. The population was 27,244 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highway 2 and U.S. Highway 53, it is immediately north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior. Its neighborhoods include Billings Park, North End, South Superior, Central Park, East End, Allouez, and Itasca. Billings Park, South Superior, East End, and North End each have small business districts.

When the railroad was constructed on the western shore of Cross Lake, a new village, Pine City, was platted — Pine City's name being a loose English translation of Chengwatana. In addition, Chengwatana and Pine City Townships were also named after the village of Chengwatana. With the railroad, Chengwatana declined into a ghost town. The county seat was transferred to Pine City in 1870.

Ghost town City depopulated of inhabitants and that stays practically intact

A ghost town is an abandoned village, town, or city, usually one that contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, prolonged droughts, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, pollution, or nuclear disasters. The term can sometimes refer to cities, towns, and neighbourhoods that are still populated, but significantly less so than in past years; for example, those affected by high levels of unemployment and dereliction.

A historical marker was placed at the former village site, simply stating its location, while a detailed historical marker noting Chengwatana and its relationship to the city of Pine City was placed along the railroad bridge crossing the Snake River in Pine City.

Related Research Articles

Chengwatana Township, Pine County, Minnesota Township in Minnesota, United States

Chengwatana Township is a township in Pine County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 809 at the 2000 census. Chengwatana Township was organized in 1874. Its name is derived from the Ojibwe Zhingwaadena, applied originally to an Ojibwe village located at the confluence of the Snake River with the St. Croix River. Neighbouring Pine City Township and the City of Pine City get their names from the English translation of Chengwatana.

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St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota) river in Wisconsin and Minnesota, United States

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Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho's grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is a re-telling of the Nanabozho stories. Nokomis is an important character in the poem, mentioned in the familiar lines.in Ojibwe Nokomis means Grandmother.

Mille Lacs Indian Reservation is the popular name for the land-base for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Central Minnesota, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The contemporary Mille Lacs Band reservation has significant land holdings in Mille Lacs, Pine, Aitkin and Crow Wing counties, as well as other land holdings in Kanabec, Morrison, and Otter Tail Counties. Mille Lacs Indian Reservation is also the name of a formal Indian reservation established in 1855. It is one of the two formal reservations on which the contemporary Mille Lacs Band retains land holdings. The contemporary Mille Lacs band includes several aboriginal Ojibwe bands and villages, whose members reside in communities throughout central Minnesota.

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Wild River State Park

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Snake River (St. Croix River tributary) river in Minnesota, United States of America

The Snake River is a 104-mile-long (167 km) tributary of the St. Croix River in east-central Minnesota in the United States. It is one of three streams in Minnesota with this name. Its name is a translation from the Ojibwa Ginebigo-ziibi, after the Dakota peoples who made their homes along this river. Kanabec County's name is derived from the Ojibwe word for this river.

Saint Croix State Park

St. Croix State Park is a state park in Pine County, Minnesota, USA. The park follows the shore of the St. Croix River for 21 miles (34 km) and contains the last 7 miles (11 km) of the Kettle River. At 33,895 acres (13,717 ha) it is the largest Minnesota state park. It was developed as a Recreational Demonstration Area in the 1930s, and is one of the finest surviving properties of this type in the nation. 164 structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration survive, the largest collection of New Deal projects in Minnesota. As a historic district they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places and proclaimed a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

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The Lake Superior Chippewa were a large historical band of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) Indians living around Lake Superior; this territory is considered part of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the United States. They migrated into the area by the seventeenth century, encroaching on the Eastern Dakota people who historically occupied the area. The Ojibwe defeated the Eastern Dakota and had their last battle in 1745, after which the Dakota Sioux migrated west into the Great Plains. While sharing a common culture and Anishinaabe language, this group of Ojibwe was highly decentralized, with at least twelve independent bands in this region.

Lake Lena, Minnesota Unincorporated community in Minnesota, United States

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Pokegama, Minnesota Unincorporated community in Minnesota, United States

Pokegama is an unincorporated community in Pokegama Township, Pine County, Minnesota, United States; along the Pokegama Lake. Its name in Ojibwe is Bakegamaang, meaning "at the side-lake", referring to Pokegama Lake's position to the Snake River.

Chengwatana State Forest

The Chengwatana State Forest is a state forest located in Pine and Chisago counties in Minnesota. Its name is derived from the Ojibwe: Zhingwaadena, meaning white-pine town, after the nearby ghost town and township. Eastern White Pine was historically the dominant tree species in the surrounding forest prior to intensive logging at the end of the nineteenth century.

Gooseberry River river in the United States of America

Gooseberry River is a 23-mile stream in Lake County, Minnesota, USA, draining into Lake Superior. It is known for its waterfalls, near its mouth in Gooseberry Falls State Park. The Gooseberry, like many of its neighboring streams, has an irregular discharge highly dependent on runoff from rain and snow melt. The region around the river was heavily forested and much logging took place during the early 20th century. The forest has since regrown and the falls and mouth of the river are now a thriving tourist destination.

Greeley, Minnesota Unincorporated community in Minnesota, United States

Greeley is an unincorporated community in Royalton Township, Pine County, Minnesota, United States.

References

  1. "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  2. Greeley, Elam, Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Accessed December 5, 2010.

Further reading