Traverse (Minn.)

Traverse des Sioux is a historic site in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Once part of a pre-industrial trade route, it is preserved to commemorate that route, a busy river crossing on it, and a nineteenth-century settlement, trading post, and mission at that crossing place. It was a transshipment point for pelts in fur trading days, and the namesake for an important United States treaty that forced the Dakota people to cede part of their homeland and opened up much of southern Minnesota to European-American settlement. Formerly a Minnesota state park, the site of the old settlement and river ford is now a State Historic Site and a Minnesota State Monument. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Traverse des Sioux is located on the Minnesota River, once a major transportation route, in Nicollet County just north of the city of St. Peter. The site of the crossing was rediscovered in the early 2000s; its north and south ends were marked by PVC pipe, as the river has changed its route and the crossing is not obvious.