135. Ancestry, Life and Times of Henry Hastings Sibley, by Nathaniel
West, D. D., 1889.

136. Minnesota and Dacotah in Letters descriptive of a Tour
through the Northwest in the Autumn of 1856, with information
relative to public lands and a table of statistics, by General
C. C. Andrews.

137. Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate by the Rt. Rev.
Henry Benjamin Whipple, D. D., L. L. D., Bishop of Minnesota.

138. Reminiscences, Memoirs and Lectures of Monsignor A. Ravoux,
V. G. 1890.

139. Encyclopedia of Biography of Minnesota, with a History of
Minnesota, by Judge Charles E. Flandrau.

FINIS.

TALES OF THE FRONTIER.

* * * * *

HUNTING WOLVES IN BED.

Forty-six years ago, almost immediately after my arrival in St. Paul, I
accepted an offer to explore the valley of the Minnesota river and its
tributaries, with reference to finding out the character of its soil,
timber, steamboat landings and other natural features, bearing upon the
founding of a city. My attention was particularly directed to the point
where St. Peter now stands, which had then acquired the name of Rock
Bend, from a turn in the river in front of the prairie, with a rocky
wall which presented a fine landing for steamboats. Of course, the
valley was not a _terra incognito_ when I entered it, but settlement was
very sparse, and very little was known about it. Town-site speculation
was rife, and any place that looked as if it would ever be settled was
being pounced upon for a future city. There was not a railroad west of
Chicago, and every town location was, of course, governed by the rivers.
As strange as it may seem to the residents of the present day, the
Minnesota was then a navigable stream, capable of carrying large side
wheel steamers several hundred miles above its mouth, and afterwards
bore an immense commerce. As soon as the ice broke up in the spring,
the river would rise and overflow its banks clear to the bluffs on each
side, making a stream of from five to six miles wide, and deep enough to
float boats anywhere within its limits.

A man by the name of William B. Dodd, better known as Captain Dodd in
those days, had selected a claim at Rock Bend, covering the landing, and
had laid out a road from the Mississippi to this point. He wanted to
interest capitalists to start a town on his claim, and had succeeded in
gainin