Trails to the Past

Minnesota

Scott County

 

 

 

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Scott County was first inhabited by two bands of the Santee Sioux (Dakota) Indians, the Mdewakanton and Wahpeton. Their semi-nomadic life followed a seasonal cycle. They gathered food, hunted, fished, and planted corn. In the summer the Dakota villages were occupied but in the winter the groups separated for hunting. They had many permanent villages along the Minnesota River. They had many trails leading to these settlements and to the Red River Valley in the North, and the Prairie du Chien to the Southeast. These trails were later used by the fur traders and settlers, and were known as the "ox cart trails." The area of Scott County, as well as much of southern Minnesota, was opened for settlement by two treaties signed at Mendota and Traverse des Sioux, in 1851 and 1853. These treaties removed the Dakota Indians to reservations in upper Minnesota.

Scott County was established and organized by an Act passed in the legislature on March 5, 1853. The 369-square-mile county was named after General Winfield Scott. Settlers started entering the area in the mid-1850s. The Minnesota River and the ox cart trails were the primary transportation routes. The first settlers were Yankees, followed by groups of Germans, Irish, Czechs, and Scandinavians. They each brought their own traditions and religions. Most of these settlers became farmers. Fur trading, lumbering, and farming were Minnesota's major industries all throughout the 19th century. With the fast-growing farms, sprang up towns. Shakopee, the County Seat, began in 1851 as a trading post by the Dakota Village of Chief Shakopee (or Shakpay). Other towns were established alongside transportation routes. When the railroads came to Minnesota they became the primary mode of transportation, and eventually highways were developed along the ox cart trails between the communities.

On Line Data

Cities
Belle Plaine
Elko New Market
Jordan
New Prague
Prior Lake
Savage
Shakopee (county seat)
Unincorporated communities
Blakeley
Cedar Lake
Helena
Lydia
Marystown
Mudbaden
Spring Lake
St. Benedict
St. Patrick
Union Hill
Townships
Belle Plaine Township
Blakeley Township
Cedar Lake Township
Credit River Township
Helena Township
Jackson Township
Louisville Township
New Market Township
Sand Creek Township
Spring Lake Township
St. Lawrence Township

 

Adjacent counties
Hennepin County (north)
Dakota County (east)
Rice County (southeast)
Le Sueur County (southwest)
Sibley County (west)
Carver County (northwest)

 

Jordan City Hall

 

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