erection of the permanent post. Colonel Leavenworth chose
for the site a position three hundred yards west of the crest of the
cliff. Some material was brought to this place, but no building was
done. In August Colonel Leavenworth was superseded in command by Colonel
Josiah Snelling, who located the position at the extreme point of land
between the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.[78] The work of erecting
the buildings was done by the soldiers, it being customary at that time
to pay the soldiers fifteen cents a day in addition to their regular pay
for this extra work.[79]

Steps were taken during the summer of 1820 to obtain the necessary
material. A saw mill was needed to make the lumber with which the
interior of the buildings would be finished and the furniture
constructed. As the water in Minnehaha Creek was very low that year, it
was decided to erect the mill at the Falls of St. Anthony. Some men were
sent up the Mississippi River to Rum River to examine the timber, and
during the winter of 1820-1821 a party of soldiers was employed in
cutting logs and dragging them to the river bank. With the coming
of spring the logs were floated down to the Falls of St. Anthony, where
they were sawed into lumber and then hauled to the fort by teams.[80]

The progress made on the building was slow. On the tenth of September,
1820, the cornerstone was laid.[81] More than a year later, on November
7, 1821, Colonel Snelling wrote to the Indian agent, Lawrence
Taliaferro, that "nothing new has occurred since my return excepting
that the other stone barrack is up & the rafters on."[82] The fort was
partially occupied, probably in the fall of 1822, before all the
surrounding wall had been completed.[83] But it is evident that most of
the fort was finished by July, 1823, for at that time the troops erected
the Indian Council House.[84]

In the meantime other events had been occurring. On July 31, 1820,
Governor Cass of Michigan Territory, who had been on an exploring
expedition to the upper Mississippi, passed down the river and remained
with the troops until the morning of August 2nd. A council was held with
the Indians, during which a peace was made between the Sioux and the
Chippewas. That the garrison had been busy at duties other than erecting
buildings is evident from the fact that Governor Cass found ninety acres
planted with corn and potatoes and wheat. From the garden green peas had
been obtained as early as June 15th, and