Maiden Rock
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MNSearchers
N 44° 29.580 W 092° 18.714
15T E 554708 N 4926861
Maiden Rock Historical Marker at the Lake Pepin Rest Area (originally known as the Frontenac Roadside Parking Area) on US 61/63 just north of Lake City, Minnesota.
Waymark Code: WM4KBB
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 09/02/2008
Views: 50
The Maiden Rock marker was constructed in 1939 by the NYA (National Youth Administration) working in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Highways. It is part of the Frontenac Roadside Parking Area which was designed by prominent landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols. It was built of grayish-tan roughly-cut limestone on a stone footing and is trimmed with red brick. Its rectangular bronze plaque has the seals of the Minnesota Department of Highways and the Minnesota Historical Society cast near the bottom.
The text of the plaque addresses the Maiden Rock which is located on the bluffs across the lake in Wisconsin: "On the east shore of Lake Pepin, opposite this point, juts out a high rock. From this pinnacle, according to accounts of early travelers, a Sioux maiden of Wabasha's band prevented from marrying the warrior of her choice, leapt to her death that she might avoid union with another and older man."
See the
GD-FLC-054 page in MNDOT's Historic Roadside Development Structures Inventory for more info on this marker and the Frontenac RPA.