Rum River - History

History

The early explorer Louis Hennepin is credited with being the first European to lay eyes upon the Rum. He was taken to see it during the spring of 1680, while under the captivity of a party of Dakota. He referred to it as the St. Francis river in his published journals, although obviously the name didn't stick. The current river bearing the name St. Francis River, located 12 miles west of the Rum, parallels the flow of the Rum.

The Rum River makes a sharp turn southward at Cambridge, Minnesota. During the spring floods, the Rum River forces itself through a wetland complex west of Cambridge as the sharp bend constricts the river's floodwaters. In the 1825 Treaty of Prairie du Chien, the outlet of this natural diversion channel located near Isanti, Minnesota, known as "Choking Creek", became a treaty boundary separating the Dakota from the Ojibwe.

In Princeton, Minnesota, the Rum divides between the Main Branch and the West Branch. When Mille Lacs County, Minnesota was created from Benton County, Minnesota, the West Branch of the Rum served as the counties' boundary. Today, Mille Lacs County's western boundary instead follows the public land survey line.

The Bogus Brook, which flows into the Rum River, was known to have been a refuge for moonshiners during Prohibition.