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Lake Poinsett lies
in the heart of the Coteau Des Prairies, one
elongated plateau of the glacial moraine left
here by the last ice age. The landscape is
a variety of physical features of gently rolling
to rugged hills. Other places are quite
flat and lades and pot holes dot the
landscape. The area is all drained by the
Sioux River Flood Plain.
Several
glacial periods occurred in the distant
past. The last ended roughly 13,000 years
ago. As the ice age ended, the climate
warmed turning this area into an abundant region
of plants, animals, fish and birds.
Initially, our climate was like that
which spans sub-artic North America of
today. This was a region of evergreens,
spruce, aspen, and willow trees. Small
bands of early Paleo Indians hunted now extinct
animals such as mammoth, mastodon and huge
bison. Artifacts from these people and
animals are still occasionally found in the
area.
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Between 6000 and 7000
years ago, the climate changed considerably. As
much warmer conditions took effect, the woodlands
changed to grasslands. The large animals became
extinct. The area population of Indians and
animals gradually changed throughout this
period. The transition from pans
archaic
to
woodland culture was roughly 1-90 AD. That culture
transition gave way to the Plains village people and was
influence by the Mississippian culture of large
settlements like Chokia near modern day St. Louis,
Missouri and Des Moines River systems into the Plains
regions. These were the first known farmers of the
Lake Poinsett area. The Plains village period has
been subdivided into seven time frames extending up to
historic times.
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The first Europeans to
arrive at Lake Poinsett were French trappers and
traders. The time of their first visit is
unknown, but was probably in the
1700s. Lake Poinsett was explored and
named by Joseph N. Nicollett and John Charles
Fremont during their exploration and mapping of
the area in 1838. At the time, the lake
was known by the French as Lac Des
Amourettes and as Unkeceota
by the Sioux Indians, who held claim to the
area.
Fishermen and fish
buyers drove to the lake in wagons from all
directions. A buyer would pay 4 to 5 cents
for a two foot fish frozen in the winter.
Many homesteaders raised the required $30 per
quarter (160 acres) for their homestead rights
from the fish they caught and sold from Lake
Poinsett. |
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Life for
these early settlers was hard due to the severe
winters. In 1878, the nearest town was Oakwood where black
powder and essentials could be bought. Flour
was ground at home using flat rocks until a flour mill
was built. Such luxury to walk into the mill with
a sack of wheat and to return home with a sack
of flour! The winter of 1880 and the Blizzard of
1888 claimed a number of those early settlers'
lives. Mail for this area arrived at the Poinsett Post
Office after it was established in 1878 on the northwest shore
of the lake.
These early
settlers, a visionary people, carved the beginnings of
the towns, churches, schools, and farms we see
today. Many of those hardy souls lie in rest in
the cemeteries on the east, west, and north side of the
lake. The Indians and settlers are gone, lost in
the circle of time. They survived blizzards,
tornados, dust storms, prairie fires, grasshoppers, and
droughts on a land which was hot in the summer and cold
in the winter. They used hay and buffalo chips to
heat their homes and cook their meals. The
abundance of the land's animals, fish and birds have fed
and clothed those residential groups since the time the
mammoth walked the ground. People have always
adapted to the changes in the environment to provide the
necessities of life throughout the length of time
people have called Lake Poinsett home. Let us not
forget them.
