Join the community read and discussion of Abercrombie Trail by SPUR award winning Author Candace Simar.  We will learn about the US-Dakota War of 1862 (also known as the Sioux Uprising of 1862) through a fictionalized account of the 19^th century settlers who lived along the trail in west central Minnesota during the conflict.  Abercrombie trail ran from Fort Snelling to Fort Abercrombie (south of Fargo) and stops included Sauk Centre.

12:00-1:00 Sauk Centre Historical Society and Museum Presentations

Join us for a look at the history of Sauk Centre through artifacts, drawings, photos, and slideshows. 

Book sales and signings will be held in the greeting area before and after the author talks.

1:00 p.m. Author Candace Simar

Candace Simar’s book, Abercrombie Trail, a fictionalized account of the Sioux Uprising of 1862, is inhabited by the 19th century settlers of west central Minnesota. It centers on the life of her fictional character Evan Jacobson, an immigrant Norwegian stage coach driver. The stops along Jacobson’s stage line reveal the families who live along the trail between Fort Snelling and Fort Abercrombie (just south of Fargo) and their ultimate fate in the, until now, untold story of the northern fringe of the 1862 Sioux (Dakota) Uprising and the siege of Fort Abercrombie. Jacobson struggles with learning English, falling in love and fulfilling his dreams while living with events of the war in the South and the one threatening on the next horizon.

1:45 Presentation by Michael Penrod, SCSU Dept. of Anthropology

Guarding the Northwest Frontier: The U.S. Military Post at Sauk Centre 1862-1865 Findings from the archeological research and dig on the Sauk Centre Stockade, a U.S. Military Post built during the U.S. Dakota War.  

2:15 Author Vincent P. Botz

Stearns County and the Dakota War of 1862 - During the year 1862, the United States was in turmoil as the Civil War continued. Minnesota would start its own war in August with the Dakota Indians. From the Dakota's loss of lands, encroachments by whites, embezzlement and questionable annuity dealings, the clash of cultures, starvation, drought, and previous conflicts, the tensions reached a climax. All these factors brought on war. This uprising would take over 600 white lives and an unknown number of Dakota. Stearns County was spared the bulk of the massacres, which mostly centered around the Minnesota River Valley. However, its people were still affected by the events taking place a short distance away. This book tells of the people and places in Stearns County affected by the Dakota Uprising of 1862, information found in museums and historical societies and other sources.