To the editor:

I did like the little article about the Minnesota River, but I wish you would have mentioned that the Minnesota River and steam-powered boats were the main means of transportation after row boats in the early years.

In January 1870, an article in the New Ulm Post says the steamer made 39 trips to the river from May to Nov. 18, and of those trips, two were to Redwood Falls. A million pounds of freight was brought in and more than four million pounds of freight was taken out. Remember, this was before the railroad.

There is also a story of a freighter that went up the Minnesota River and got stuck below Ortenville (or Big Stone Lake). Then the boiler and working part was moved by Oken to a new boat at Georgetown on the Red River and worked there on the Red River.

I even found a story that a shipment of seed wheat from Dubuque went up the Mississippi River, then the Minnesota River, and down the Red River as early as 1820 to a settlement called Selkird by row boat.

Harley Vogel

Milford