Cultural History
Archaeological evidence found outside the park confirms that prehistoric Native Americans inhabited the Cottonwood River valley. A few sites were as much as 7,000 years old, though most were 2,000 years old or less. At the time of European contact in the mid-17th century the area was home to the Dakota. Pioneers began settling the Cottonwood Valley in the 1830s. In less than a century, though, the valley floor was largely abandoned due to the periodic flooding.
Read more about this topic: Flandrau State Park
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or history:
“A society that has made nostalgia a marketable commodity on the cultural exchange quickly repudiates the suggestion that life in the past was in any important way better than life today.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)
“Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.”
—Mao Zedong (18931976)