# Minnesota River *River in southern Minnesota, tributary of the Mississippi, and the source of the territory's and state's name.* Roughly 332 miles (534 km) in length, the Minnesota River (Dakota: Mnísota Wakpá) is a tributary of the [[Mississippi River]]. It collects water from 14,751 square miles of Minnesota and from about 2,000 square miles more in South Dakota and Iowa.[^1] It begins at Big Stone Lake on the Minnesota–South Dakota line and ends at [[Mendota]], below Minneapolis and St. Paul and close to [[Fort Snelling]].[^1] The valley was [[Dakota]] country before the treaties of 1851. The [[Treaty of Traverse des Sioux]], signed July 23, 1851, ceded about 24 million acres at about 7½ cents an acre and set aside a reservation ten miles wide on each side of the river.[^2] The Minnesota Historical Society's MNopedia records that a separate document, the [[traders' paper]], was signed by all but two Dakota leaders and was "never read aloud or translated."[^2] The river also figures in this record through the 1965 flood at [[Chaska]] and through one at-issue pair concerning the name of Carver County, which lies along the river west of the Mississippi.[^3][^4] ## Where From its source in southwestern Minnesota, just south of the Laurentian Divide at the Traverse Gap portage, the river runs southeast to [[Mankato]] and then bends northeast toward the Mississippi.[^1] Its valley reaches five miles (8 km) in width and 250 feet (80 m) in depth. Glacial River Warren cut the valley between 11,700 and 9,400 years ago, at the close of the last ice age; today's river fills only a small part of it.[^1] Wikipedia's list of cities and towns for the river includes Mankato, New Ulm, St. Peter, Le Sueur, Carver, Chaska, [[Shakopee]], [[Savage]], [[Burnsville]], Bloomington, [[Eagan]] and Mendota.[^1] MNopedia describes Carver County as 376 square miles, 95% of it land, with steep bluffs along the Minnesota River Valley, and with the Minnesota and Crow Rivers and 125 lakes.[^4] Inyan Ceyaka Otunwe, a Wahpeton Dakota summer agricultural village, was "located near present-day Jordan on the Minnesota River." Burial mounds there show occupation as early as 100 CE.[^5] The Carver County Historical Society states that the Dakota dominated the Chaska area from about 1750 until the 1851 treaty, and that Thomas Andrew Holmes claimed a twenty-acre clearing on the river in 1851. It gives the town's name as a Dakota word meaning "first born son."[^6] ## When Wikipedia credits Pierre-Charles Le Sueur as the earliest European known to have travelled the river. The 1757 edition of the Mitchell Map labels it with a Dakota form of the name and as the St. Peter.[^1] Jonathan Carver left Boston on May 20, 1766. He reached the Minnesota River on December 7, 1766, and spent the winter with a Dakota band.[^7] At Inyan Ceyaka Otunwe, Jean Baptiste Faribault of the North West Fur Company "began trading at the village in 1802." The village leader Mazamani (Walking Iron) died of smallpox in 1838.[^5] The Minnesota Historical Society's treaty overview lists an 1805 Pike purchase of 100,000 acres at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.[^8] For more than a century before the Minnesota Territory was organized in 1849, French and English explorers and writers generally called the river St. Pierre (St. Peter).[^1] U.S. commissioners [[Luke Lea]], Henry Sibley and [[Alexander Ramsey]] signed the Traverse des Sioux treaty on July 23, 1851.[^2] Mazamani II was among its Dakota signatories.[^5] The [[Treaty of Mendota]] followed on August 5, 1851.[^9] MNopedia records more than 100,000 white settlers within the decade.[^2] On June 19, 1852, the territorial legislature asked Congress to adopt the river's aboriginal name, and Congress made Minnesota the official name and directed federal agencies to use it.[^1] Both the [[Minnesota Territory]] and the later state took their names from the river.[^1] Ramsey proposed the name Carver for a town in 1854, and the county adopted it in March 1855.[^7] The Minnesota Historical Society's overview lists an 1858 cession north of the Minnesota River.[^8] In April 1965 the river flooded through Carver County. On April 5 the gauge read 7.40 feet. By April 7 the river had risen nearly ten feet in forty-eight hours. It crested at 34.25 feet at Chaska at 8:00 p.m. on April 12, above the 1952 record of 29.1 feet, and held its peak on April 13. Crews used dynamite on ice that threatened bridge pillars.[^3] ## What The name Minnesota comes from the Dakota phrase "Mnisota Makoce," translated as "land where the waters reflect the sky," a reference to the state's lakes.[^1] The valley was where Minnesota's canning industry began and was centred. In 1903, Le Sueur entrepreneur Carson Nesbit Cosgrove chaired the founding meeting of the Minnesota Valley Canning Company, the firm later called Green Giant. By 1930 the valley ranked among the nation's largest sweet-corn growers. Besides the original Le Sueur plant, Green Giant ran five canneries in Minnesota, and the company was later acquired by General Mills.[^1] Barges load corn and other grain at docks on the river, move it to the Minneapolis and Saint Paul ports, and send it on down the Mississippi.[^1] Water governance on the lower river appears in the record through the Lower Minnesota River Watershed District. Its files include an executive summary of a MAWD legislative item on the general-fund levy limit under Minn. Stat. § 103D.905, subd. 3.[^10] ## How much MNopedia gives the Traverse des Sioux cession as about 24 million acres at about 7½ cents an acre. The Minnesota Historical Society's separate treaty overview, a Grade B source in the project's notes, gives about 21 million acres at about 7.5 cents an acre for the 1851 treaties.[^2][^8] MNopedia puts highway damage from the 1965 flood in Carver County at approximately $400,000.[^3] ## How many In the 1965 flood, the city of Carver had 57 homes heavily damaged and 20 businesses destroyed. In Chaska, 242 homes were damaged and 14 commercial buildings destroyed.[^3] The Carver County Historical Society reports that Chaska grew from about 2,000 people in 1960 to 24,500 in 2014. It attributes the growth "largely due to the Jonathan planned community development."[^6] ## In the at-issue record The river appears in one at-issue pair (AI-Carver-025). The pair states that the deed attributed to Jonathan Carver described land on the east bank of the Mississippi, running from the [[Falls of St. Anthony]] to [[Lake Pepin]] and five days' travel eastward. It also states that Carver County lies west of the Mississippi on the Minnesota River.[^7][^4] MNopedia records that the grant claim appears only in the posthumous third edition of Carver's *Travels* (1781), published after his death on January 31, 1780. It adds that the claim "has never been confirmed by other sources."[^7] The pair's anchor document is a May 2026 White House presidential action.[^11] ## In the Minnesota record ### Where - The river rises at Big Stone Lake on the Minnesota–South Dakota border and meets the Mississippi at Mendota.[^1] - Carver County lies along the Minnesota River Valley.[^4] - Inyan Ceyaka Otunwe was a Wahpeton Dakota village near present-day [[Jordan]] on the river.[^5] ### When - December 7, 1766: Jonathan Carver reaches the Minnesota River.[^7] - July 23, 1851: Treaty of Traverse des Sioux signed.[^2] - August 5, 1851: Treaty of Mendota signed.[^9] - June 19, 1852: Congress makes Minnesota the river's official name.[^1] - April 12, 1965: the river crests at 34.25 feet at Chaska.[^3] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Minnesota River* (revision 1378710430, retrieved 2026-10-27) — length, watershed, course, valley dimensions, name history, 1852 act of Congress, canning industry, communities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_River [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society (MNopedia), *Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, 1851* (n.d.) — signing date, commissioners, acreage and price, reservation width, the traders' paper, settler count. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/event/treaty-traverse-des-sioux-1851 [^3]: Minnesota Historical Society (MNopedia), *Flooding in Carver County, 1965* (n.d.) — gauge readings, crest at Chaska, 1952 record, damage counts, highway damage. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/event/flooding-carver-county-1965 [^4]: Minnesota Historical Society (MNopedia), *Carver County* (n.d.) — county area, land share, Minnesota River Valley bluffs, rivers and lakes. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/carver-county [^5]: Minnesota Historical Society (MNopedia), *Inyan Ceyaka Otunwe* (n.d.) — Wahpeton Dakota village near Jordan, occupation from 100 CE, leaders, Faribault's trade from 1802. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/inyan-ceyaka-otunwe [^6]: Carver County Historical Society, *Chaska* (n.d.) — Dakota presence 1750–1851, Holmes claim of 1851, name meaning, population 1960–2014. https://www.carvercountyhistoricalsociety.org/chaska.php [^7]: Minnesota Historical Society (MNopedia), *Carver, Jonathan (1710–1780)* (n.d.) — 1766 journey, publication history of the grant claim, 1854–1855 naming of town and county. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/carver-jonathan-1710-1780 [^8]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Minnesota Treaties* (U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 project, n.d.; graded B in project notes) — 1805 Pike purchase, 1851 treaty acreage, 1858 cession. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/treaties/minnesota-treaties [^9]: MNopedia, *Treaty of Mendota, 1851* (n.d.) — treaty of August 5, 1851. https://www.mnopedia.org/event/treaty-mendota-1851 [^10]: Lower Minnesota River Watershed District, *Item 6.C. Executive Summary — MAWD legislative item* (2022) — district position on the § 103D.905 subd. 3 general-fund levy limit. https://lowermnriverwd.org/application/files/5816/6051/8356/Item_6.C.-Exec.Summ.-MAWD_08172022.pdf [^11]: The White House, *Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System* (presidential action, May 2026) — anchor document of at-issue pair AI-Carver-025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/