Syrup cooks at Lower Sioux

Slow process creates sugar, maple syrup

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

MORTON -- Maple sap boiled in a large pot over an open fire Saturday afternoon as it became sugar and then syrup during at the Lower Sioux Agency Historical Site.

With the help of Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) members Mary and John Peterson, of Orono, site interpreter Randy Kvam and his daughter Kara of Franklin, the labor and time-intensive process of sugar and syrup making was underway in a wooded area behind the visitor center.

Kvam said the heating process begins with 40 gallons of maple sap that is used to produce a gallon of syrup and about a pound of sugar over a 12-hour period.

While the maple sugar process was underway, Dakota storyteller Joe Campbell of Welch, MN told stories of coyotes, buffaloes, cowboys and Indians to Franklin youngsters Alex Fjeld and Carsten Kvam in a nearby teepee. Hot coals warmed the brisk air inside the teepee with a floor lined with the skin and hair of wild animals.

Events continue 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Lower Sioux Agency, located on Redwood CSAH 2, 9 miles east of Redwood Falls.

It is the site of the first organized Indian attack in the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War. An exhibit explores the Dakota history before, during and after the war.

Three self-guided trails, two of them wheelchair accessible, interpret the grounds.

The half-mile long Agency Trail winds through the visitor center, period gardens and farm plots and the 1861 Agency Warehouse. It was the first segment of the trail that connected New Ulm and the Upper Sioux Agency, along the Minnesota River, southeast of Granite Falls.

The mile-long Traders Trail runs west of the government complex. A steeper, mile-long River Trail was an important highway for the Dakota, government employees, the military, settlers and travelers.

In the 1850s and 1860s, steamboats delivered people and goods to the agency landing at the foot of the bluffs near the eastern end of the trail. It was there that the agency workers fled the morning of Aug. 18, 1862 when the war erupted, in an effort to cross and reach Fort Ridgely. It was there that the Dakota surprised Captain Marsh and Fort Ridgely soldiers later that day.

The 1861 Agency Warehouse provided storage for food and goods intended for the Dakota. The wooden interior was burned out but the stone walls survived the war. The building was a farmhouse for the next century before efforts to restore it to its 1862 appearance began in 1997.

Lately, the future status of the historic sites at the Lower Sioux Agency and at Fort Ridgely State Park, as well as five other historic sites throughout the state, are in doubt.

A pair of state legislative bills deal with the same subject. On Feb. 12, Sen. Gary Kubly, (D-Granite Falls) co-authored a bill to transfer the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site (referred to in the bill as "surplus state land" to the Lower Sioux.

The same day in the Minnesota House, Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall), co-authored a similar bill that originally had the support of Rep. Brad Finstad (R-New Ulm).

Meanwhile, the politicians received lots of feedback regarding the bills. They all backed away from the land transfer in favor of legislation that would provide money to keep the sites open at least for next year, and keep the property in the hands of the MHS.

Last May, the Legislature and Gov. Pawlenty agreed to cut state funding to the MHS by $4.3 million for fiscal year 2004-2005. An MHS advisory said the reduction would likely force the closure of seven historic sites as of July 1, 2003.

The Lower Sioux and Fort Ridgely historic sites were on the closure list. Other sites on the list were the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, the Comstock House in Moorhead, the Oliver H. Kelley farm in Elk River, and Historic Forestville near Preston.

Spearheaded by fund-raising efforts by the Redwood Area Development Corp, the Lower Sioux donated $90,000 to keep the site open. The Friends of Fort Ridgely began raising funds and are currently working on a management agreement with the MHS. Both sites are hopeful about being open through this summer.

In the meantime, politicos are looking at whether or not the MHS is using its money prudently. Society critics cite the six-figure salaries of MHS executives and a $4.8 million plan to restore Fort Snelling while the organization threatens to close much smaller sites due to state budget cuts.

Society execs argue that Fort Snelling draws the most traffic so spending money there would bring larger returns.

The Society's event calendar is posted at www.mnhs.org. For a free guide, call 1-800-657-3773.