Be sure to check out Henry David Thoreau’s, “The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau”, edited by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, pages 44 – 62, Thoreau writes about his journey on the Minnesota River traveling by steamboat, (sometimes referred to as its original name, St. Peter, to the Fort Ridgely, Redwood Falls, and the Lower Sioux Agency.
Thoreau’s Minnesota Journey ‘a tragic failure’ published by the Post Bulletin in the Health Section October 13, 2018 by Tom Weber
Thoreau’s Minnesota journey ‘a tragic failure’
A public domain image of Henry David Thoreau, as he appeared in 1856, five years before he traveled to Minnesota to seek a cure for his ailing health.
By Tom Weber weber@postbulletin.com
October 13, 2018 at 4:00 AM
“I have at last concluded that it will be most expedient for me to try the air of Minnesota, say somewhere about St. Paul,” Henry David Thoreau wrote to a friend in the spring of 1861. “The inland air may help me at once, or it may not.”
Thoreau, 43 at the time and suffering from advanced tuberculosis, had read the promotional brochures that advertised Minnesota’s clear and healthy air. It was said to be a tonic for those with breathing difficulties.
So, taking 17-year-old budding naturalist Horace Mann Jr. as his traveling assistant, Thoreau embarked on the longest and probably most bittersweet journey of his life. He expected to be gone three months, traveling west from his home in Concord, Mass., via boat and train to Chicago and finally East Dubuque, Ill., where he boarded a steamboat bound for St. Paul.
“They traveled by train during the day so they could see more,” said Corinne Smith, who has written a book about Thoreau’s trip to Minnesota.
Part of Thoreau’s interest in the state, Smith said, was due to his fascination with Native Americans. He met and knew several in New England, of course. But, she said, “The native population was so much closer in Minnesota at that time.”
As for the effect of the Minnesota climate, Smith said, “I think he knew his health would not recover.”
So, for Thoreau, the trip to Minnesota was a chance to see and experience a part of the country he had thus far missed. In fact, before he headed to Minnesota, Thoreau had never been farther west than Philadelphia.
Thoreau made notes along the way, jotting his impressions of the landscape, the foliage and the people. He noted, for instance, that as the steamboat passed river towns, everyone would come to the wharf, including dogs and pigs. He saw an Indian camp near Wabasha with what he described as “Dakotah-shaped wigwams.”
Thoreau and Mann stayed in St. Paul and St. Anthony and explored area sites, including Fort Snelling, where they observed 600 volunteers for the Union Army in training. For a while, they lived in a Mrs. Hamilton’s boarding house in the woods between Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, where they were harassed by mosquitoes.
Then, with a little luck, Thoreau and Mann managed to book passage on a steamboat trip along the Minnesota River to the Lower Sioux Agency at Redwood Falls. Finally, Thoreau would see frontier Dakota people up close.
The expedition included Gov. Alexander Ramsey and federal officials who were distributing an annual payment to the Dakota.
Along the way, the steamboat stopped in New Ulm to deliver supplies. “It consists wholly of Germans,” Thoreau wrote of the town.
At the Sioux Agency, the party witnessed a ceremonial dance. “Some dancers blew flutes and kept good time, moving their feet or their shoulders,” Thoreau noted. “They wore no shirts.”
Thoreau saw the famous chief, Little Crow, and sensed the unrest of the Dakota. “They were quite dissatisfied with the white man’s treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so,” he wrote.
As Smith noted, Thoreau did not live long enough to learn that Little Crow and his people would engage in a frontier war against the white man a year later.
Thoreau returned home via Red Wing, Milwaukee, Lake Michigan, Mackinaw City, Lake Huron, Toronto and Boston, arriving on July 9 in Concord. But his health had not improved, and the rigors of travel perhaps hastened his demise. Thoreau died less than a year later, on May 6, 1862.
“The Minnesota journey,” wrote Thoreau biographer Walter Harding, “had been a tragic failure.”
Geologists have one explanation for the existence of Barn Bluff regarding glaciers and erosion, but there’s a Native American legend that is much more colorful.
According to the WPA Guide to Minnesota, published in 1938, the legend is that a much larger mountain once stood where Barn Bluff is now located. But two Dakota villages argued over possession of the mountain. To settle the dispute, the Great Spirit divided it in two. One half stayed in Red Wing as Barn Bluff. The other half was floated down the river to Winona, where it is now known as Sugar Loaf.
Henry David Thoreau stayed at the Metropolitan Hotel (far right building) at the base of Barn Bluff when he visited Red Wing in 1861. Photo courtesy of the Goodhue County Historical Society.
Henry David Thoreau’s: The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau”
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Posted: January 26, 2026 by Renville County Historical Society
Be sure to check out Henry David Thoreau’s, “The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau”, edited by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, pages 44 – 62, Thoreau writes about his journey on the Minnesota River traveling by steamboat, (sometimes referred to as its original name, St. Peter, to the Fort Ridgely, Redwood Falls, and the Lower Sioux Agency.
Online PDF of Henry David Thoreau’s “The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau”.
“He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.”
‐-‐ Henry David Thoreau (
Henry David Thoreau’s Final Journey: Minnesota
by David P. Steensma, MD; Carol A. Roede, MA; and Robert A. Kyle, MD
Thoreau’s Journey along the Minnesota River
by Rose James, Scott County Historical Society Program Manager.
Thoreau’s Minnesota Journey ‘a tragic failure’ published by the Post Bulletin in the Health Section October 13, 2018 by Tom Weber
Thoreau’s Minnesota journey ‘a tragic failure’
By Tom Weber weber@postbulletin.com
October 13, 2018 at 4:00 AM
“I have at last concluded that it will be most expedient for me to try the air of Minnesota, say somewhere about St. Paul,” Henry David Thoreau wrote to a friend in the spring of 1861. “The inland air may help me at once, or it may not.”
Thoreau, 43 at the time and suffering from advanced tuberculosis, had read the promotional brochures that advertised Minnesota’s clear and healthy air. It was said to be a tonic for those with breathing difficulties.
So, taking 17-year-old budding naturalist Horace Mann Jr. as his traveling assistant, Thoreau embarked on the longest and probably most bittersweet journey of his life. He expected to be gone three months, traveling west from his home in Concord, Mass., via boat and train to Chicago and finally East Dubuque, Ill., where he boarded a steamboat bound for St. Paul.
“They traveled by train during the day so they could see more,” said Corinne Smith, who has written a book about Thoreau’s trip to Minnesota.
Part of Thoreau’s interest in the state, Smith said, was due to his fascination with Native Americans. He met and knew several in New England, of course. But, she said, “The native population was so much closer in Minnesota at that time.”
As for the effect of the Minnesota climate, Smith said, “I think he knew his health would not recover.”
So, for Thoreau, the trip to Minnesota was a chance to see and experience a part of the country he had thus far missed. In fact, before he headed to Minnesota, Thoreau had never been farther west than Philadelphia.
Thoreau made notes along the way, jotting his impressions of the landscape, the foliage and the people. He noted, for instance, that as the steamboat passed river towns, everyone would come to the wharf, including dogs and pigs. He saw an Indian camp near Wabasha with what he described as “Dakotah-shaped wigwams.”
Thoreau and Mann stayed in St. Paul and St. Anthony and explored area sites, including Fort Snelling, where they observed 600 volunteers for the Union Army in training. For a while, they lived in a Mrs. Hamilton’s boarding house in the woods between Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, where they were harassed by mosquitoes.
Then, with a little luck, Thoreau and Mann managed to book passage on a steamboat trip along the Minnesota River to the Lower Sioux Agency at Redwood Falls. Finally, Thoreau would see frontier Dakota people up close.
The expedition included Gov. Alexander Ramsey and federal officials who were distributing an annual payment to the Dakota.
Along the way, the steamboat stopped in New Ulm to deliver supplies. “It consists wholly of Germans,” Thoreau wrote of the town.
At the Sioux Agency, the party witnessed a ceremonial dance. “Some dancers blew flutes and kept good time, moving their feet or their shoulders,” Thoreau noted. “They wore no shirts.”
Thoreau saw the famous chief, Little Crow, and sensed the unrest of the Dakota. “They were quite dissatisfied with the white man’s treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so,” he wrote.
As Smith noted, Thoreau did not live long enough to learn that Little Crow and his people would engage in a frontier war against the white man a year later.
Thoreau returned home via Red Wing, Milwaukee, Lake Michigan, Mackinaw City, Lake Huron, Toronto and Boston, arriving on July 9 in Concord. But his health had not improved, and the rigors of travel perhaps hastened his demise. Thoreau died less than a year later, on May 6, 1862.
“The Minnesota journey,” wrote Thoreau biographer Walter Harding, “had been a tragic failure.”
Geologists have one explanation for the existence of Barn Bluff regarding glaciers and erosion, but there’s a Native American legend that is much more colorful.
According to the WPA Guide to Minnesota, published in 1938, the legend is that a much larger mountain once stood where Barn Bluff is now located. But two Dakota villages argued over possession of the mountain. To settle the dispute, the Great Spirit divided it in two. One half stayed in Red Wing as Barn Bluff. The other half was floated down the river to Winona, where it is now known as Sugar Loaf.
Category: Historical Society, History, Minnesota, Minnesota River, Steamboats Tags: Henry David Thoreau, history, minnesota, minnesota river, Renville County MN, st peter river