New Ulm, Mankato & Pipestone: German Heritage, Dakota History & Sacred Stone

The Hermann the German monument is a 102-foot bronze statue of Arminius — the Germanic chieftain who defeated three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD — erected atop a bluff at the edge of New Ulm overlooking the Minnesota River valley. The statue was constructed by the Sons of Hermann fraternal organization and dedicated in 1897; it is one of the largest bronze statues in the United States and remains the defining landmark of New Ulm, a city founded in 1854 by the German Land Association and the Turner Society of Cincinnati. The view from the monument's base takes in the Minnesota River bottomland below and the surrounding prairie horizon stretching south toward the Iowa border.

August Schell founded his brewery in New Ulm in 1860 — it survived the Dakota War of 1862 because Schell and his wife had maintained good relations with the Dakota people, who chose not to burn it when attacking the town. Today Schell's Brewery is the second-oldest family-owned brewery in the United States, still operated by the Marti family, descendants of August Schell through six generations. The brewery grounds include a deer park, formal gardens planted by August Schell's wife Theresa, a museum of 19th-century brewing equipment, and tours of the production facility; Schell's produces both traditional German-style lagers including Firebrick and Deer Brand and the Grain Belt brand, which Schell's rescued from closure in 2002.

New Ulm was settled in 1854 by German intellectuals and workers from the Turner Society of Cincinnati — freethinkers who sought to establish a utopian German community in Minnesota. The original 1860s and 1880s commercial buildings on German-named streets retain their Central European scale and architectural character; the Glockenspiel on Fourth North Street is a 45-bell carillon housed in a 45-foot clock tower that performs three times daily at noon, 3pm, and 5pm with carved figures depicting New Ulm's history. The Brown County Historical Museum documents the 1862 Dakota War, during which New Ulm was twice attacked and partially burned, and the community's extraordinary resilience in rebuilding.

Flandrau State Park on the Cottonwood River at the edge of New Ulm offers swimming, hiking, and camping within walking distance of the city's historic district. The park's sandstone bluffs above the Cottonwood River are a remnant of the ancient glacial terrain that once surrounded the Minnesota River valley; the swimming pond is spring-fed and one of the more pleasant park swimming areas in southern Minnesota, and the short river trail through the valley bottom connects the park to the pedestrian bridge at the edge of the New Ulm city park system.

Reconciliation Park in downtown Mankato commemorates the largest mass execution in United States history — on December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged simultaneously in the town square following the Dakota War of 1862. President Lincoln reviewed the case of 303 condemned men and commuted all but 38 sentences; the execution attracted thousands of spectators and was reported in newspapers across the world. The park's central sculpture — Wokiksuye (Remembrance) by artist Jeffie Whipple — depicts a Dakota woman in mourning. The park serves as a site of ongoing reconciliation between Dakota people and the state of Minnesota, including annual December 26 ceremonies that draw Dakota community members from across the region.

Minneopa State Park contains the largest and most accessible waterfall in southern Minnesota — Minneopa Falls drops in two stages over Sioux quartzite outcrops, with a viewing platform between the two falls; Minneopa is the Dakota word for water falling twice. The park also contains a restored 1862 stone grist mill and the Seppmann Windmill, a 40-foot stone Dutch-style windmill built in 1864 that is the best-preserved stone windmill in Minnesota. The park's bison range is home to a small herd of American bison that can be viewed from a 3-mile auto tour route through the native grassland.

The Blue Earth River meets the Minnesota River at Mankato — the confluence that gave the area strategic importance to both the Dakota people and to 19th-century traders moving through the river system. The Minneopa State Park bison range along the Blue Earth River valley floor provides access to the native prairie and bison herd in a landscape that closely resembles the pre-European grassland ecosystem of southern Minnesota. The Blue Earth River corridor supports populations of sandhill cranes, white pelicans, and great blue herons during migration, and the valley's cottonwood forest provides shade along the river's meandering channel.

The city park on the Minnesota River in Mankato occupies the site of the 1862 Dakota internment camp where 1,700 Dakota women, children, and elderly were held in winter conditions following the Dakota War — conditions that killed an estimated 300 people before the survivors were removed to Dakota Territory in 1863. A granite marker identifies the camp site. The park also contains one of the finest river overlooks in the Minnesota River valley, looking upstream toward New Ulm across the wide floodplain that the river carved through the glacial lake sediments of ancient Lake Agassiz.

Pipestone National Monument protects one of the most sacred sites in Native American culture — a deposit of red catlinite (pipestone) in the southwestern Minnesota prairie that has been actively quarried by Native American tribes for more than 3,000 years. Catlinite is a soft red stone formed from ancient mudstone compressed by glacial overburden that can be carved with stone tools and hardens when exposed to air; the carved stone pipes — chanunpas — made from Pipestone are central objects in Plains Indian ceremonial life. The site was designated a national monument in 1937 and the active quarrying rights are legally reserved exclusively to Native American tribes; Dakota, Lakota, Ojibwe, and other tribal members continue to quarry the stone each summer in an unbroken chain of use extending back beyond recorded history.

Use the afternoon to explore a different side of Pipestone National Monument — Quarry Circle Trail — there's more to discover beyond the morning highlights.

Use the afternoon to explore a different side of Pipestone National Monument — Quarry Circle Trail — there's more to discover beyond the morning highlights.

Split Rock Creek State Park south of Pipestone sits on the edge of the Buffalo Ridge — the highest ground in Minnesota — in a landscape of native prairie grassland and Sioux quartzite outcrops. The park's lake is unusual for the southwestern Minnesota prairie and provides swimming, fishing, and camping; the surrounding tallgrass prairie remnants support eastern meadowlarks, bobolinks, and upland sandpipers in the grass above the lake. At sunset the pink Sioux quartzite outcrops take on the same warm color as the catlinite in the national monument two miles north.

The dining room in the 1888 Calumet Hotel is the finest dinner option in Pipestone — the quartzite-walled building on Hiawatha Avenue serves steaks, walleye, and Minnesota comfort food in a Victorian hotel dining room that is among the most architecturally distinctive small-city restaurants in Minnesota. The building's Sioux quartzite walls match the color of the catlinite from the national monument two miles away, and the dining room's pressed-tin ceiling and original wainscoting have survived intact from the hotel's 1888 opening.