Note II-21 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D, 1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806.

"Lieut. Pikes, Block House or Post, for the Winter 1805-1806" is legended on the pub. map, and marked by a zigzag line snug up under his Pine cr. (now Swan r.). The orig. MS. map, now on file in the Engineer Office of the War Dept., is large enough to show the exact spot, on which is delineated a stockade 36 feet square, with a blockhouse on the N. W. and another on the S. E. corner of the structure. Notwithstanding such precise indicia, the site has been vaguely stated by various authors, and even shifted down to Two Rivers by so careful and usually correct a writer as my friend the Hon. J. V. Brower, who is clearly in error in stating that "the south branch of Two Rivers was named Pine creek, and the other Second creek," Minn. Hist. Coll., VII., Mississippi R. and its Source, 8vo., Minneapolis, 1893, p. 126. This is simply an obiter dictum, by inadvertence. I had satisfied myself of the true site within a few rods, when I first learned from Prof. N. H. Winchell, State Geologist of Minnesota, that traces of the building had been discovered by Judge Nathan Richardson, Mayor of Little Falls, Minn. On writing to this gentleman, I received a prompt reply, as follows: