St Lawrence township was originally platted in 1858. The area was nestled up against the Minnesota River, situated between Belle Plaine and Jordan on the Eastern side of Scott County.
“Gathering Wild Rice”. Painted by Seth Eastman around 1850
The Minnesota River had long been an essential part of transportation for communities in what is now Scott County. Dakota towns along the river had used it for transportation, trade and food. Trade networks branched throughout the continent, facilitated by the Minnesota river and other waterways. Fish were speared in the river, and wild rice was cultivated and harvested in its waters.
The state is named after the Minnesota river. The Dakota name for the river was “Mnisota”, meaning (roughly) sky-tinted water. When European Americans originally entered the area, they called the river St Peters. In 1852, the US Congress, acting on are request of the MN territorial government, decreed that the river should be “renamed” with it’s Dakota name.
When European Americans began to resettle the region after the treaties in the early 1850s, they also wanted to live near the river. Rivers were the superhighways of the time, providing conveyance for keelboats, flatboats and, most importantly, steamboats. The first steamboat attempt on the Minnesota River was in June of 1842. The boat made from Fort Snelling to the Dakota town that would later be called Shakopee. This was the first of several expeditions between 1842 and 1850, each reaching farther down the river. Many of these expeditions had the air of a big party. Prominent elected officials and business leaders would be aboard. Copious amounts of drink would be served, and bands played to lighten the mood.
Steamboat at the Lewis Street Bridge in Shakopee, 1880. Photo from the SCHS Collections.
River travel was essential to early European Americans in Scott County. Settlers, goods, and news came along the Minnesota River via steamboat. Many people came to the area to farm, but the region grew too fast to ever be entirely self- sufficient. Steamboats carried in needed goods and supplies, and later brought goods grown in Scott County to other parts of the nation to be sold.
St Lawrence was platted and community structures were built with this in mind. The goal was to turn St Lawrence into the premier river port of the area, and capitalize on the Minnesota River and the stagecoach lines that ran alongside it.