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Mille Lacs Kathio State Park facts for kids

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Kathio Site
KathioDistrict.JPG
Kathio Archeological District
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Location Mille Lacs County, Minnesota
Nearest city Vineland, Minnesota
NRHP reference No. 66000403
Quick facts for kids
Significant dates
Added to NRHP October 15, 1966
Designated NHLD July 19, 1964

Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, also known as Kathio Site, is a Minnesota state park on Mille Lacs Lake. The park preserves habitation sites and mound groups, believed to date between 3000 BC and 1750 AD, that document Dakota Indian culture and Ojibwe-Dakota relationships. The park contains 19 identified archaeological sites, making it one of the most significant archaeological collections in Minnesota. The earliest site dates to the Archaic period and shows evidence of copper tool manufacture. The Dakota lived in this area roughly until the 18th century, when many bands of them were moving southward into the prairies and river areas of southern Minnesota. At the same time, Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) were moving in from the east. Ojibwe oral tradition, published by William Whipple Warren, suggests that there was a battle in which they successfully took control of the area from the Lakota.

Around the time of contact in the 1850s, loggers came to the area. The next 50 years resulted in a large quantity of trees being felled and floated down the Rum River or across Mille Lacs Lake to sawmills.

The name "Kathio" is actually a corruption of "Izatys", a name the Mdewakanton Dakota people gave themselves. Explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut visited the area in 1679. He named the area "Izatys", but his poor handwriting led people to mistake the "Iz" as a "K". Further errors led to the name being transliterated to "Kathio".

The Kathio Historic District site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

  • EntranceMilleLacsKathioStatePark

    Entrance sign

  • Millelacs

    Kayak dock

  • Kathiomounds

    Native burial mounds

  • OgechieLakeMN

    Ogechie Lake

  • WilfordSite

    Wilford Archeological Site

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