Many, in coming to the "Northwest" by the way of Chicago, travel as far as La Crosse by rail, where abundant opportunities are had for steam transportation to St. Paul, and all intervening towns.
The islands have now so multiplied that here, and for some distance above, the river seems more an archipelago than anything else. Islands of all sizes and shapes, wooded and embowered with a great variety of shrubs and vines, so that in springtime they seem like emeralds set in this "flashing silver sea;" and when summer is ended, and the frost-king has come, they are robed in royal splendor—in crimson and purple and gold—seeming to be the fanciful and marvellous homes of strangest fairies, who, during this season of enchantment hold, it is said, at midnight, high carnival on the islands of this upper and beautiful river. Be that as it may, they certainly add to the attractions of a sail along this "Father of Waters," and give picturesqueness to the landscape which, before seeing, we had not credited with so much of interest and beauty as we found it to possess.
A couple of hours' additional steaming brings us to the lofty peaks standing on the left of the river, one of which, from the resemblance of its crest to the crown of England, has given rise to the names of Victoria and Albert. They are over five hundred feet in height, and believed to be the tallest of any of the cliffs along the river. Beyond, on the right, stands boldly the lone sentinel of Mountain Island, at the base of which is the small village of Trempeleau, where a moment's halt is made, and the wheels of the great ship splash through the water again, all tremulous with nervous energy and pent-up power as they bend slowly to their slavish labor; and, the only labor that man has any right to make a slave of is that with iron arms and metallic lungs. He may compel these to work and groan and sweat at every pore with honor to himself and the added respect of all mankind.
A few miles further and the city of
WINONA
is in view. This is the most populous town in the State of Minnesota south of St. Paul. It occupies a low, level tract projecting from the base of the bluffs, which circle its rear in the shape of an ox-bow, and, in times of high water, becomes an island, owing to its great depression at its junction with the bluffs. The town stands on the front of this low plateau, along the channel of the river, and has a population of nine thousand people, counting the nomadic lumbermen, who live half the year in the piny woods many hundred miles to the north, and the other half are floating on the rafts down the river; a rough but useful people, who betimes will lose their heads and winter's wages in a single drunken fray, which they seem to consider the highest pleasure vouchsafed to them each season as they return to the walks of civilized life.
The pleasant sounding name of Winona is one of the many Dakota words abounding along the river and over the State, and was the appellation of the beautiful Indian girl who so tragically ended her life by leaping from the top of Maiden's Bluff, bordering the eastern shore of Lake Pepin above, and of which we shall presently speak more in detail.
It is a name always given by the Dakotas to the first-born female child of a family. As was the maiden, celebrated in song and story, so is the town, quite handsome and interesting in many points of aspect. It is the objective point for great quantities of freight by boat up the river, to be from thence distributed through the whole southern section of Minnesota by means of the important railway line extending from this city to the interior, tapping the St. Paul and Milwaukee road at Owatanna, and the St. Paul and Sioux City at St. Peter's and Mankato; draining one of the most fertile districts in the commonwealth of its immense stores of wheat and other grains seeking an outlet and an eastern market. This road is known as the Winona and St. Peter's, and is a trunk line, with the sure promise of increasing importance to the State and profit to its projectors. By means of it the great lumber marts of Minneapolis and St. Anthony, and likewise the Capital, are brought in close proximity to this commercial city of Winona; and much of the trade and travel of the fertile valley of the Minnesota River must, by means of this line, prove tributary to the rapid growing town.
The march of progress is never ended in the life of the West; and, ere the present year passes, an entirely new line both north and east will have been completed, and then a new era of prosperity will be inaugurated. We refer to the St. Paul and Chicago Air-Line Railway, which, starting at St. Paul, follows the river banks to this place, where it is to cross to Wisconsin, thence direct to Chicago, leaving La Crosse forty miles below, and out of the line. Heretofore the means of travel to Chicago and the east has been either by rail to Owatanna, far to the west, or the more common practice of going by steamer in summer and stage in winter to La Crosse, thus of necessity paying both compliments and costs to this rival town, which has not been highly relished by the Winonians. The new route will make them entirely independent of the denizens of La Crosse. But both places have resources peculiar to themselves and quite sufficient to insure prosperity and fame.
Those visiting Winona are impressed with the general neatness of the place, and the number and finish of its business blocks and private residences. There are many fine churches erected, whose capacity, though large, is not much greater than seems demanded by the church-going inhabitants, which affords both a commentary and index to their general high character. Among the public buildings worthy of special attention is that of their Normal school, recently finished at a cost of over one hundred thousand dollars, being a model of elegance and convenience. This is a State institution, free to pupils of a certain class, and is one of three—all of the same character—erected under the patronage of the State, and for the location of which towns were invited to compete. Winona secured this, Mankato another, and St. Cloud the third, all noble buildings, as we can personally testify, and which give to the people of this State opportunities such as those of the older commonwealths were utterly destitute, and are still, so far as scope, scale, and affluence are concerned. Then there is the city school, costing over half a hundred thousand dollars, and likewise highly ornamental, as well as useful.