Lake St. Croix

Lake St. Croix is a Minnesota historical marker in entrance to Stillwater, Washington County.

U. S. highway 212, entrance to Stillwater · location approximate

Directions to the area ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Waters from melting glaciers several thousand years ago carved deep valleys for the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. Deprived of the glacial waters the rivers shrank, and could not clear the ancient channels. Accumulated bottom silt of the Mississippi now dams the St. Croix outlet to form the 30-mile lake from Stillwater to Point Douglas.

Verbatim 1940 text, presented as a historical record, not current interpretation. Minnesota now calls the 1862 conflict the U.S.-Dakota War and has since replaced the wording on some of these signs.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1870 · Burritt's Sectional Minnesota (1870) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1873 · Minnesota. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1948 · Stillwater, Minnesota (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1949 · Stillwater, Minnesota (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Minnesota, 1873, covering the location of Lake St. Croix, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Minnesota, 1873, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours and the location is approximate.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyExpected here. This page shows the older published text, and some signs were recast later. Telling us still helps.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: Minnesota Historical Records Survey Project, Work Projects Administration, Guide to Historic Markers Erected by the State Highway Department Cooperating with the Minnesota Historical Society (1940)

Lake St. Croix

Historical maps covering this location

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