s. The valleys of the St. Croix, the Rum, and
the Upper Mississippi rivers, with their tributaries, soon resounded
with the music of the woodman's axe. Saw mills were erected, and
Minnesota was recognized among the great lumber producing regions.

Although immigration continued to be quite rapid during the years
1850-54, it was not until about the year 1855 that it acquired a volume
that was particularly noticeable. The reader must remember that
Minnesota was on the extreme border of America, and that it represented
to the immigrant only those attractions incident to a new territory
possessing the general advantages of good climate, good soil and good
government as far as developed. There was no gold, no silver, nor other
special inducements. The only way of reaching it was by land on wheels,
or by the navigable rivers. There was not a railroad west of Chicago. To
give an idea of the rush that came in 1855, I quote from the "History of
St. Paul," by J. Fletcher Williams, for many years secretary of the
Minnesota Historical Society, published in 1876. Speaking of the
immigration of 1855, he says:

"Navigation opened on April 17th, the old favorite, 'War Eagle,'
leading the van with 814 passengers. The papers chronicled the
immigration that spring as unprecedented. Seven boats arrived in
one day, each having brought to Minnesota two hundred to six
hundred passengers. Most of these came through St. Paul and
diverged hence to other parts of the territory. It was estimated
by the packet company that they brought thirty thousand
immigrants into Minnesota that season. Certainly 1855, 1856 and
1857 were the three great years of immigration in our
territorial days. Nothing like it has ever been seen."

In the early fifties, the Mississippi up to, and even for a long
distance above, the Falls of St. Anthony was navigable for steamboats. A
fine boat, the "Ans. Northrup," once penetrated as far as the Falls of
Pokegama, where she was dismantled and her machinery transported to the
Red River of the North, and four or five boats regularly navigated the
stream above the falls.

The Minnesota river, during all the period of our early history, and far
into the sixties, was navigable for large steamers up to Mankato, and in
one instance, a steamboat carrying a large cargo of Indian goods was
taken by Culver and Farrington, Indian traders, as far as the Yellow
Medicine river, and into that river