Note II-27 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D, 1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806.
Reading edition
About opp. the mouth of Pine cr. or Swan r., ½ m. above head of Roberts' isl., and on or near the present site of Gregory, Morrison Co. This place is marked as Aitkin's ferry, trading-post, and hotel, on a Minnesota map, pub. Phila., Cowperthwait, 1850; it is about the middle of the southwesternmost section of Little Falls township (Township 40, Range 32, 4th mer.), say 3 m. below the middle of the city of Little Falls. The head of Pike rapids is 1,071 or 1,072 feet above sea-level. Swan r. bends up a little to fall into the Miss. r., so that its mouth is slightly over the S. border of Sect. 6, Township 128, Range 29, 5th mer. There is a flour mill on its S. side, at the bend, half a mile or less from its mouth. Ledoux P. O. is on this stream, a few miles up, in Swan River township, which lies between North Prairie township and Pike Creek township; Swan r. runs over the N. border of it a mile W. of the Mississippi. By whom Pike's Pine cr. was first called Swan r. I do not know, unless it was Nicollet; it is Wabizio-sibi of Beltrami, Wabezi or Swan r. of Nicollet, 1836, Swan r. of Owen and later writers; but Lieut. Allen has it Elk r. on his map, by error.