Cultural History
The earliest humans around Lake Shetek were likely following the bison that came there to drink. Archaeologists identify the first permanent inhabitants as members of the Great Oasis culture. Two burial mounds were identified in a 1973 archaeological survey. By the beginning of the historical period, the area was in the territory of the Dakota people.
White explorers documented the area in the 1830s and 40s: George Catlin, Joseph Nicollet, Philander Prescott, and John C. Frémont. The first settler arrived on the east shore of Lake Shetek in 1856.
Read more about this topic: Lake Shetek State Park
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or history:
“If we can learn ... to look at the ways in which various groups appropriate and use the mass-produced art of our culture ... we may well begin to understand that although the ideological power of contemporary cultural forms is enormous, indeed sometimes even frightening, that power is not yet all-pervasive, totally vigilant, or complete.”
—Janice A. Radway (b. 1949)
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)