r the winter months. This was obtained from the broad
prairies of the military reservation. A group of men called the "Hay
Party" were employed during the summer in cutting and stacking the long
grass. But one officer was of the opinion that this task caused
discontent--the enlisted man was no more than a common laborer and hence
he lost the pride of a soldier.

The diverse tasks at which a soldier might be called to labor are
indicated by a summary of the employment of the troops in 1827. Seven
soldiers were acting as teamsters, five were performing carpenters'
duties, two were quarrying stone, two men and a sergeant composed the
party guarding the mills at the Falls of St. Anthony, and eight others
were "Procuring forage by order of Col. Snelling".[253]

Summer brought its own pleasures as well as duties. At Lake Calhoun,
Lake Harriet, Lake of the Isles, and Minnehaha Falls, many were the
picnics held when visitors came to the garrison.[254] Swan, geese, and
ducks were numerous about the lakes and swamps, and with the famous
hunter H. H. Sibley as a guide, the game bags were soon filled. During
a period of three years, Mr. Sibley, alone, shot 1798 ducks--a
fact which indicates what success a soldier-sportsman could have in his
few hours of recreation.[255]

But it was when the prairies were impassable because of drifts of snow
from six to fifteen feet high,[256] and when the course of the river
could be traced only by a streak of white between the gray of its wooded
banks that there appeared those features which are peculiar to the life
of a remote garrison. The isolation was almost complete. There was no
traffic upon the frozen river, and the traders were wintering in the
Indian villages. Only through the mail was communication with the
outside world possible. It was planned to have a monthly mail service,
soldiers being sent to Prairie du Chien with the letters. Here they
delivered about two-thirds of the mail to the persons to whom it was
addressed and the rest was deposited in the post office.[257]

In summer the mail was carried by the soldiers in canoes, but in winter
the journey had to be made on foot. In summer the labor was lightened
when a passing steamer overtook the rowing soldiers and picked up the
canoe with its crew. In winter no such aid was possible. A hard day's
tramp was followed by a night among the drifts, unless the tepee of some
friendly Indian gave a temporary respite for a few hours.[258]