 |
 |
|---|---|
| 75th Anniversary of settlement at the Monument, 1925, with MN Governor Christiansen. | Scandia Creamery, ca. 1915 |
First Swedish Settlers
Scandia is best known as the home of the first Swedish settlers in Minnesota—a settlement that dates from 1850, when three young men from Sweden established a farm near Hay Lake.
They were Carl A. Fernstrom, Oscar Roos and August Sandahl. Fernstrom and Roos emigrated to American in 1849, stopping first in Illinois. The following spring Fernstrom traveled to the Marine area. He choose a site for a farm west of Hay Lake and built a shelter, then returned to Illinois to persuade Roos and Sandahl, another newly arrived Swede, to come to Minnesota. The trio stayed only a year, then moved on, selling the farm in 1851 to another Swedish immigrant, Daniel Nilson. Nilson and his family are the true beginning of the Scandia community. The first Swedish Lutheran congregation (now Elim Church) was organized and met in his log cabin in 1854. The first school also met there.
Other Swedes, many from Skåne and Varmland provinces, arrived during the early 1850s. A monument inscribed with the names of these first settlers stands near the site of the original log house, at Hay Lake Historic Corner, about a mile-and-a-half south of downtown Scandia.
Scandia became a city on January 1, 2007. It was formerly New Scandia Township and originally a part of Vasa Township, which was organized (or at least named) in 1858 when Minnesota became a state. Vasa, named for the Swedish king Gustavus Vasa, was united with Marine Township in 1860. In 1893 New Scandia was formed from the northern part of Marine and named for its Scandinavian heritage. The population center, known as Scandia, was never incorporated as a village. Today there are about 4,000 people in the city, up about 20 percent from 1990.
Variety of People in the Valley
Indigenous people lived and traded in the St. Croix valley for many years before the white settlers arrived. A mound-building culture built at least 30 burial mounds on the plateau later platted as Vasa (now Copas). One large one still can be seen near the Copas School. These mound-builders were kin to the Dakota (called Sioux by the early settlers) who succeeded them. By the 1830s the Dakota had left the township except for hunting and war parties, as they feared the Chippewa (Ojibwe) whose villages were to the north.
In 1825 the Indian agent at Fort Snelling brought these nations together to call an end to warfare. The army marked out a boundary line between the tribes that ran just south of the present Washington-Chisago county line. In 1837 the two Indian nations signed treaties that turned the land between the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers over to the U.S. government. However, when the first immigrants from Europe appeared in the area, there were still members of the Ojibwe bands of the St. Croix River living in the area. These Indians did some trading of game and skins with the settlers and, in spite of some fears on both sides, the St. Croix valley remained peaceful.
The Indians and their traders used the St. Croix as a highway. When white settlers began to arrive, they, too, came by the river on steamboats. Many came through the Marine Mills settlement, but others arrived at a place called Loghouse Landing about three miles north of Marine. Strangely, no settlement grew up on the St. Croix, although several were started.
Partly, this was became a passable road was built from Stillwater to Marine by 1841, and a Territorial Road from Point Douglas to the St. Louis River was completed through the township in 1853. This, coupled with the coming of the railroad to Stillwater in 1867, gave the immigrants other routes into Washington County. By 1868 there were trains from St. Paul to Forest Lake, and by 1886 depots had been built at Copas and Maple Island Farm, making it easier for immigrants to travel to their new land.
Several Communities Started
The first community on the river, in what was then Vasa Township, was also called Vasa. Benjamin Otis came to settle the area in 1849, keeping a hotel called the Vasa House. This hotel was a half-way stop on the road from Stillwater to Taylors Falls and stood across the road from the Copas School (still standing). A land developer platted Vasa townsite from the riverbank back 400 feet on the plateau in 1856. A sawmill was built, and a store, post office and saloon. The settlement fell prey to the depression of 1857, and in 1860 the post office was discontinued. Vasa reverted to wheat fields. The area became known as Copas for an early Italian settler, John Copas, who built the log store there in 1854.
The town languished until the railroad came through in 1886, then got new life as buildings were built along the Soo Line tracks just north of the William O'Brien State Park. In its heyday, Copas processed about 100,000 bushels of potatoes annually. Eventually trucking supplanted rail, and the railroad phased out passenger service. In 1963 the Copas depot was moved away. The last building was razed that same year, and Copas disappeared.
The community that grew up at the original Loghouse Landing was given the name of Otisville at a meeting of the pioneers in 1859. Loghouse Landing survived for a while as a destination for steamboat excursions. Now it, too, has completely disappeared.
The hamlet of Scandia grew up around the original Swedish settlement, where in 1860 a more spacious church was built for the Lutheran congregation. The settlement got a post office in 1878, but lost it for a time when the railroad came through to Copas. However, the village prospered and over the years acquired several stores selling groceries, dry goods, hardware, farm machinery and other necessities to local farmers. The first creamery was built in the village in 1894, a telephone exchange in 1914, and by the 1920s the community could boast a dentist, doctor, barber and milliner as well as a bank and auto dealer.
The Big Lake Community, on the west side of Big Marine Lake, thrived from the 1860s through the 1890s. Mayberry Trail was then an oxcart trail cut through the woods by the pioneers. This settlement of mostly Swedes, many from Småland, revolved around the Kuno Store and Big Lake School on what is now County Road 15 (Manning Trail), but the nucleus of a village never developed.
Popular Recreation Area
The neighborhood around Big Marine Lake was a popular vacation area, and there are many stories that St. Paul mobsters liked to hang out at the various resorts back in the 1920s and '30s. John Dillinger is supposed to have hid out in a cabin on Big Marine Lake, and the local story is that he bought his eggs and milk from neighbor Joseph Dahlquist. Mobsters were also said to have been seen in Scandia.
William O'Brien State Park occupies about a mile of riverfront south of the early village of Vasa. This land, purchased by lumberman William O'Brien about 1919, was given to the state by his daughter Alice in the 1940s to be used as a park. Locals as well as St. Paulites flocked to resorts on Big Marine Lake. The Veterans’ Rest Camp and a Girl Scout camp were also established on the lake.. Washington County is now developing the land west and south of the lake as Big Marine Park Reserve.