Six miles east of Dawson on TH 212, 5 ½ miles north on County Road 31, then ½ mile east on the township road to the village site. This prairie town and its cemetery lie above the scenic Lac qui Parle River Valley. Between 1871 and 1884 the village was the county seat, the only commercial center in the county, and a rendezvous point for Scandinavian, German, Irish, English and eastern United States emigrants. A centennial marker stands near the village’s first courthouse site. A cemetery ½ mile west of the village has early pioneers and a Civil War veteran buried in a beautiful prairie setting overlooking the river valley.

18. Red River Trails

Six miles east of Dawson on TH 212, 5 ½ miles north on County Road 31, then ½ mile east of the township road to Lac qui Parle Village, turning left on second street into the village to the bridge road. Retrace the path of midwestern settlers along the Red River trails by following ancient Indian pathways. The trails in Lac qui Parle were the earliest cart routes in Minnesota, beginning in the 1820s. Wagon ruts embedded in the prairie sod near Ten Mile Creek crossing and in Lac qui Parle Village are all that remain of the military road. Near the mission site a trail remnant can be seen in the prairie hillside above the Lac qui Parle River Valley.