Mendota
Posted by: 
MNSearchers
N 44° 53.276 W 093° 09.984
15T E 486859 N 4970514
Mendota is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The name comes from the Dakota word for "where the waters meet.
Waymark Code: WM390D
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 02/28/2008
Views: 35
This wide valley intersection between the two rivers known today as the Minnesota and Mississippi has been a meeting place for people for thousands of years.
The Dakota people lived on these prairie lands by the 1700s. They knew this place as Mdo'-t or the junction of one river with another. French explorers and traders who were here in the late 1600's named the Minnesota River Sans Pierres because the river was silty but had few rocks. British explorers and traders who arrived a few years later misunderstood the French name calling the river Saint Peters. In 1852 the territorial legislature changed the name of the river to Minnesota a version of its Dakota name.
The American military arrived here in 1805 when Lieutenant Zebulon Pike signed a treaty with the Dakota purchasing a parcel of land that included the river valleys and the high bluff accross the river on which Fort Snelling was built.
What had been a meeting spot for the Dakota became a trading hub for the entire region when the American Fur Company opened a post at mendota. Alexis Bailly took charge in 1826 followed by Henry Hastings Sibley in 1834. Sibley replaced the log buildings at the post with several permanent structures and others were added later. Four major structures remain today a limestone company storehouse, Sibley's limestone dwelling and store, the limestone and sandstone house of trader Jean Baptiste Faribault, and up the hill a brick house of trader Hypolite DuPuis.
Trade ended here in 1851 when the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota resulted in the removal of the Dakota to a reservation in the upper Minnesota Valley. Henry Sibley resided here until 1862 and led an active political career serving as Minnesota Territory's first delegate to Congress and the states first governor.
Marker Type:: Roadside
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Visit Instructions:
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