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1851, "These two treaties of 1851 at Traverse des Sioux and Mendota acquired for white settlement nearly 24,000,000 acres of the finest lands in the world". Gresham, Nicollet and Le Suer Counties Minnesota, p.36.
1851, Indian treaties open up the greater portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River and into present day Dakotas.. The first Norwegian settlers in Minnesota settle in Houston and Fillmore counties. Blegen, The American Transition, p. 383. Also Norlie, The History of the Norwegian People in America, p. 181. The opening up of this rich land was advanced by the railroads to the Mississippi at Rock Island in 1854, to East Dubuque in 1855, to Prairie du chien in 1857, and La Crosse in 1858. Blegen, Norwegian Migration to America, p. 371-72. Houston and Fillmore counties received swarms of Norwegians from the near-by Iowa settlements and from Rock Prairie, Koshkonong, Muskego, and elsewhere to the southeast, with the process beginning in 1851 and 1852. See also Qualey, Norwegian Settlement in the United States, p. 98 and 111, see p. 112 for a detailed map of settlement. Also see Carley, Kenneth, The Sioux Uprising of 1862, p. 2.
When Minnesota Territory opened up for settlement, a wagon train left Muskego in Wisconsin for the farm lands near the Minnesota River. Read the story of these early Norwegian pioneers created Norseland and how they got caught up in the Sioux War of 1862.
1874-75, the ravages of the grasshopper continue in Nicollet County. Gresham, Nicollet and Le Suer Counties Minnesota, p. 335. And the aid flowed in and it was noted "that this should stand out as a perpetual memorial for this people, who in times of dire distress put forth a self-sacrificing hand to aid their brethren. Gresham, Nicollet and Le Suer Counties Minnesota, p. 335. "No one can form any idea of the ravages of the grasshoppers in that section of the county without first seeing them. For miles the groundis literally covered with them. They are coming this way and mow evertthing before them". Gresham, Nicollet and Le Suer Counties Minnesota, p. 337.
