We have been camping like crazy this summer. Instead of a big trip somewhere, we decided to do a series of 3-day weekend camping trips, with the goal to explore new places in the state. We came to this plan rather late and it turns out that camping is a popular activity during a pandemic. Who would have known??? So, our plans were often set by the availability of campsites in the state parks, rather than our ideal plan of where to go. Last weekend it was the BWCA, and this weekend was the opposite corner of the state with the goal to visit Pipestone National Monument and Jeffers Petroglyphs.
We were at Blue Mounds State Park less than a month ago (also in SW Minnesota), but this time, we were staying at Lake Shetek State Park as a base to explore the area.
Lake Shetek is the largest lake in southwestern Minnesota. The state park is located on the eastern edge of the lake, but the other side is filled with lake homes and docks for speedboats and jet skis. Unlike most state parks we’ve been at, the sound of jet skis and other pleasure craft on the lake was omnipresent.
The park has a variety of camping options including cart-in camping, camper cabins, tent, and electric RV sites. We opted for a cart-in campsite, which was adjacent to the lake, with a good distance between most campsites. Although right on the lake, there was a very sharp slope down to the lake from our cart-in site #3, which made the lake inaccessible.
The wind off the lake was quite strong and setting up the tents and hammock was a bit challenging, as we were fighting the wind gusts. The wind never calmed down the entire night. We had lightweight tents (Gossamer Gear), which weigh only 27 ounces and set up with only two poles. During the evening, the wind was pounding against the side of the tent, causing the lightweight tent fabric to bounce off my head once in a while, which was not a great way to be awakened throughout the night.
After setting up camp, we walked the Monument Trail, which led to a monument erected in honor of the pioneer settlers who had lost their lives during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. From the information on the park website, I knew that this area was important to the war but hadn’t quite comprehended what had happened there. The Monument was erected in 1924 and contains the gravesites for 15 adults and children that were killed. What really struck me was the young age of the children (5, 2, 5, 3, 9, 4, 2, 10, and 6) who were killed at the beginning of the U.S.-Dakota War.
With the first homesteaders arriving in 1855, Lake Shetek was home to at least 9 families by 1862, with cabins spread out along 5 miles of the lakeshore. The settlers were known to interact and trade with the local Dakotas. At the time, the Dakota were being relocated to reservations, were subject to treaty violations including missed payments, and increasingly were suffering hunger and distress from the loss of their traditional way of life. Determined to change the course, a council of Dakotas declared war on August 17, 1862.
On August 20, 1862, the Dakota visited the settlers at Lake Shetek, with the goal to have them leave their homesteads. After violence ensued, there was a compromise reached for the settlers to flee their homes and head for New Ulm. While taking cover in a slough, the Dakota attacked (one of the white settlers may have fired at them first while trying to retain keep of his horse) killing 15 settlers and taking 8 others captive. The slough is now named Slaughter Slough and is about 3 miles from Lake Shetek State Park.
The Duley cabin site, located right in the Lake Shetek Campground now contains the Koch cabin, which was restored and moved to this location. A bit confusing---but I’m sure it all made perfect sense at one point in time. The Duley family had three children killed during events of August 20, 1862, and the patriarch, William Duley was the appointed executioner for the 38 Dakotas on December 26, the largest mass execution in United States history.
Whew, this is all really deep and dark stuff---not your typical campground folklore and I wasn’t quite prepared for it. How strange for us to be camping in this place where so much strife and conflict and death happened. But then again, every state park we go to is an area that was Native American land, every home we have owned was on land previously Native American land and so forth. I’m sad for the indigenous people who were forced off their land and lost their way of life, sad for the homesteaders and children who lost their lives, sad for those of us who weren’t taught this dark part of Minnesota history. And it was a bit surprising that so little of this historical information was given on the state park website.
The Ingalls family lived less than 20 miles to the northeast of Lake Shetek, on the banks of Plum Creek, near Walnut Grove MN. They lived in the sod dugout from 1874 to 1876, so over a decade after the U.S.- Dakota War. One can’t help but think about the Little House on the Prairie - vibe in the area. I think of all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books I have read and adored, and the hundreds of episodes of the tv show watched, all with the attitude that white people were entitled to this land. As a child, I never questioned that concept which now is so obviously wrong to me.
Back to the present…we had big plans for Saturday. It was supposed to be extremely hot and humid. After a morning visit to Pipestone National Monument, we would go kayaking and cool off. But Mother Nature had different plans and she decided to kick up some nasty red blobs on radar weather that threatened 60-70 mile an hour winds and thunderstorms. Given our situation with strong winds during the night, we decided to pack up on Saturday around noon. Although camping can be about sacrifice, I don’t think it’s necessary for us to suffer during camping.
It is a pain to get all the gear ready, haul it across the state, and set it up for only one night, but that’s the downside of camping. I think this is the first time we have bailed during a camping weekend. Are we too soft? Are we city-folk at heart? Perhaps, and I think that is okay. Kevin says one can be both (He generally dislikes car-camping. It's the in-betweenness that bothers him - the "sort-of camping" quality to it all. He'd rather be wilderness tripping in a canoe or thru-hiking than hanging out and sleeping next to a bunch of RVs). We camp to engage with nature, get out of the house, see new things, spend time off-line with cribbage and books, and go hiking. But there is no point in knowingly putting yourself in harm's way when you have other options. Add in the fact that we do appreciate our air-conditioned house, refrigerator and cooking appliances, and nice beds when we return home. Ozzie is definitely a city dog. He prefers sleeping on a couch with a super soft pillow for his head. He looks miserable at muddy campsites, where he might be relegated to napping in the tall grass, agitated by black flies. He retires to the tent as soon as the campfire is lit and always takes the spot with the air mattress and pillow.
We changed our tickets for Jeffers Petroglyphs to Saturday and were able to see them on the way home, and we stopped in a few town cemeteries on the way to find gravestones for Kevin’s relatives. It is not lost on us that some of his roots are from an area so rich with Indigenous sacred sites and sites of great loss.
See Kevin's musings on Jeffers Petroglyphs and Pipestone National Monument here.
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