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Red Pipestone Quarry

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

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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.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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)

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