ippi to the Falls of St.
Anthony, on the way crossing Minnehaha Creek on the bridge built in
early days by the soldiers. Here a stop was made to view the beauty of
the cascade then known as Little Falls or Brown's Falls. It was the
common practice for travellers to descend to the foot of the falls,
clinging to the shrubs along the slippery pathway, and then go behind
the sheet of falling water.[218] Continuing, at a distance of eight
miles up the Mississippi from the fort, the Falls of St. Anthony was
reached. Although only sixteen feet high, the breadth of almost six
hundred yards, broken in the middle by a rocky island gave to it an
impressive majesty, and the thick vegetation on the island and banks
returned a gloomy reflection from the whirling waters.[219]

It is no wonder that in that wild and picturesque locality the Indians
saw things ghostly and supernatural. "They tell you that here a young
Dacota mother, goaded by jealousy,--the husband [sic] of her
children having taken another wife,--unmoored her canoe above the Great
Fall, and seating herself and her children in it,--sang her death song,
and went over the foaming acclivity in the face and amid the shrieks of
her tribe. And often, the Indian believes, when the nights are calm, and
the sky serene,--and the dew-drops are hanging motionless on the sprays
of the weeping birch on the island,--and the country far and wide is
vibrating to the murmur of the cataract,--that then the misty form of
the young mother may be seen moving down the deceitful current above,
while her song is heard mingling its sad notes with the lulling sound of
'the Laughing Water!'"[220]

Here at the Falls, on the west bank of the river, were three buildings:
a saw mill, a grist mill, and a one-story frame dwelling, where a
detachment of soldiers always remained to guard the property. The saw
mill had provided much of the lumber used in the construction of the
fort, and in the grist mill the corn was cracked that was fed during the
winter to the cattle--a drove being delivered every fall for the use of
the garrison. These buildings were still standing in 1858, although they
were then in a bad state of decay.[221]

Among the lakes on the prairie the most important were the Lake of the
Isles, Lake Calhoun, and Lake Harriet. These were favorite picnic and
hunting grounds for the men and women of the garrison. An old map made
in 1823 shows "Green's Villa" on Lake Calhoun--probably a hunting