Note I-72 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.

Newport to St. Paul—to a steamboat ldg. about the foot of Wabasha or Robert st.—is 8½ m. by the channel, and considerably more than halfway up to Pike's camp on the island at the mouth of St. Peter's or the Minnesota r. Thus, though Pike calls to-day's voyage "24 miles," it is nearer 14. One who then swept around the bold bend of the river at St. Paul saw a germ of that great metropolis in the humble Sioux village, though only prescience could have divined what time would make of the site above it. A later account than Pike's is given in Keating's Long's Exp. of 1823, pub. 1824, I. p. 289: "Passed an Indian village consisting of ten or twelve huts, situated at a handsome turn on the river, about 10 miles below the mouth of the St. Peter; the village is generally known by the name of the Petit Corbeau, or Little Raven, which was the appellation of the father and grandfather of the present chief. He is called Chetanwakoamene (the good sparrow-hunter). The Indians designate this band by the name of Kapoja, which implies that they are deemed lighter and more active than the rest of the nation." This was a band of Mdewakantonwan Sioux (the Minowa Kantong of Pike), for which, as well as for the celebrated chief himself, see notes beyond. The term which Keating renders Kapoja is now Kaposia, as a designation of the locality of South Park, a place on the west bank of the river; but the old Sioux village was on the east bank, below Frenchman's bar, in the low ground formerly called by the French Grand Marais, rendered by Beltrami Great March (for Great Marsh, II. p. 197), and now rejoicing in the epithet of Pig's Eye marsh or lake. Pig's Eye was the soubriquet of one Peter Parrant, a whisky-seller who squatted on the bottom in 1838, below Carver's Cave in the Dayton bluff. The whole region about the mouth of St. Peter's r. had been a Sioux focus and stamping-ground for generations before any of the localities thereabouts received names from us. The curious origin of the name St. Paul for the present capital was in this wise: The limits of the military reservation about Fort Snelling were authoritatively fixed in 1839. The whisky-traders, loafers, and squatters about the place became so troublesome that the U. S. Marshal of Wisconsin was directed to remove all such intruders, who were given till next spring to decamp; and on May 6th, 1840, the troops were called out to complete the eviction by the destruction of cabins. In the words of E. D. Neill, Minn. Hist. Soc., II. Part 2, 1864, 2d ed. 1881, p. 142: "The squatters then retreated to the nearest point below the military reserve, and there they became the inglorious founders of a hamlet, which was shortly graced with the small Roman Catholic chapel of St. Paul, the name of which is retained by the thrifty capital of Minnesota, which has emerged from the groggeries of 'certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.'" The chapel above mentioned was built by Rev. Lucian Galtier, on what is now Catholic block; it fronted on Bench street. It was dedicated Nov. 1st, 1841. The first marriage bans were those of one Vital Guerin, described as "a resident of St. Paul;" and thus the priest named the place as well as the house, although it was also called for a time St. Paul Landing, because some stores had been put up close by, which caused steamboats to stop there. In 1848, when Minnesota acquired Territorial organization, and the capital was fixed at St. Paul, no such place could be found on ordinary maps; it was some obscure settlement, supposed to be somewhere about the mouth of St. Peter's r., or in the vicinity of St. Anthony's falls, perhaps at a place known as White Rock, or Iminijaska, where some bluffs were more easily discernible than any village. Even down to 40 years ago, or a little before 1858, when Minnesota acquired statehood, St. Paul had only replaced tepees with a sprinkling of log cabins; and people scrambled up the bluff by digging their toes into the ground. The site of the city is one which would hardly have been anticipated as such; nor would the original features of the locality be easily recognized now after all the grading and terracing that has been done to convert the stubborn hills and intractable hollows into a beautiful city of over 190,000 inhabitants. But all this was to be, and is well worth all that it cost. Among the natural features which should be noted in this connection, especially as they have given rise to conflicting historical statements, are Carver's Great Cave in Dayton's bluff, and Nicollet's New (Fountain) Cave, halfway thence to Fort Snelling; but for these, as well as for a third cave close to Carver's, see a note beyond, at date of Apr. 12th, 1806, when Pike's text brings the matter up.