Note II-28 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D, 1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806.

Less than this, to camp on left or E. bank of the Mississippi, in the present city of Little Falls, Morrison Co., probably about the place where is the lower bridge, a few blocks from the Buckman hotel. Painted Rock rapids is now Little falls. A high, small island at the falls divides the river in two channels; it is Rock isl. of Nicollet, now called Mill isl.; some mills are there, and there is the site of the present dam, immediately below the lower bridge. Little Falls is a flourishing place, as towns with a water-power of 35,000 horses may easily be; pop. now or lately 3,000; dam built 1887-8, said to have cost $250,000; two bridges span the river, the upper one for the N. P. R. R., near the large sawmill which stands on the W. bank; chief industry, milling flour and logs; city incorporated 1889; N. Richardson, mayor for five years: see Little Falls Daily Transcript, Industrial ed., Jan. 1st, 1894, large folio, pp. 28, maps and views, price 5c. The Little falls—cataract, not town—are so called by Pike elsewhere in this work; he also says that "the place is called by the French Le Shute de la Roche Peinture," by which we may understand La Chute de la Roche Peinte; his map legends "Painted Rock or Little Falls." Beltrami names the falls Great Rock and Kekebicaugé. As to the "5 miles" of to-day's journey, we may note that the distance is less now than it used to be by the channel, because there was a bend of the river to the E. which is now straightened out. This bend appears on maps of 20 years ago; it is now city ground, and the march of improvement has effected various other changes in the course of the river. When about a mile from this morning's camp, Pike passed a place where the river was fordable, and may be so still; here was the site of Swan River P. O., on the E. bank, in Little Falls township. When a mile further on, he passed the mouth of a creek from the W. which he calls 2nd cr. (on the map "2d Cr."), and which others have rendered Second cr., though Nicollet and Owen both have it Little Fall cr.; it is now known as Pike cr., and gives name to Pike Creek township. It falls into the Mississippi at the middle of the E. border of Sect. 25, Township 129, Range 30, 5th mer., through the 6th one of the 16 outlots of O. O. Searles, slightly beyond present city limits.