Red Pipestone Quarry

Red Pipestone Quarry is a Minnesota historical marker in Pipestone County.

Pipestone County · Trunk highway 47, at the junction of highways 47 and 75 · location approximate

Directions to the area ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

For centuries the soft red stone found here has been quarried by the Indians for ceremonial pipes. The region was sacred and many legends cluster around it. The stone, because George Catlin who visited the quarry in 1836 described it, is often called catlinite. The tract was a Sioux reserve until taken for a U. S. Indian school in 1892.

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

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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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)

More markers nearby

On the National Register nearby

Calumet Hotel170 ft
Pipestone Commercial Historic District220 ft

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.