This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ... above the present village of Mendota, on the south side of the river, where they wintered. Col. Snelling subsequently assumed command of the garrison. On the 10th of September of the next year (1820), the corner stone of Fort Snelling was laid. The wife of Colonel Snelling, " a few days after her arrival at Ihe post, gave birth to the first infant of white parents in Minnesota, which, after a brief existence of thirteen months, departed to a better land. The dilapidated monument which marks the remains of the ' little one, ' is still visible in the graveyard of the fort. Beside Mrs. Snelling, the wife of the commissary, and of Captain Gooding, were in the garrison, the first American ladies that ever wintered in Minnesota." The Minne-ha-ha Falls, the existence of which the genius of Longfellow has pA-petuated in living lines, is within a few minutes drive from Fort Snclling, or St. Anthony, being between these two points. "Waterfalls, in the Dakotah tongue, are called ha-ha. The 'h, has a strong guttural sound, and the word is ap.ftt' plied because of the curling or laughing of the waters. The verb I-ha-ha primarily means to curl; secondarily to laugh, because of the curling motion of the mouth in laughter. The noise of Ha-ha is called by the Dakotahs 1-ha-ha, because of its resemblance to laughter. A small rivulet, the outlet of Lake Harriet and Calhoun, gently gliding over the bluff into an amphitheater, forms this graceful waterfall. It has but little of 'the cataract's thunder.' Niagara symbolizes the sublime; St Anthony the picturesque; Ha-ha the beautiful. The fall is about sixty feet, presenting a parabolic curve, which drops, without the least deviation, until it has reached its lower level, when the stream goes on...