Maintenance Outages: our website is experiencing some issues with pages loading as we undergo maintenance, please check back soon

Maiden Rock | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Maiden Rock

Maiden Rock | Wisconsin Historical Society

Hwy. 35, 1 mi. N of Stockholm, Pepin County 

The story of Maiden Rock has several versions. One by Mary Eastman was pub­lished in 1849. She heard the story from an old Indian friend, Checkered Cloud, who firmly believed the event happened around 1700. A more romantic version in verse was written by Margaret A. Persons. James Duane Dory accompanied the Henry Schoolcraft expedition into this area and on June 3, 1820, Doty wrote in his journal: "It is told that many years since, a young and beau­tiful Sioux girl was much attached to a young Indian of the same band, and who would have married her but for the interference of her relatives. They insisted upon her marrying another one whom she despised, and she contrived to avoid the con­nection for near a year. At length her relations, haveing sent away the young man she loved, on this point compelled her to marry the one they wished. It was evening, and she had not been united more than an hour, before they missed her from the lodge. Nothing could be found of her until morning, when they discovered her at the foot of this precipice, down which she probably precipitated herself."

Learn More

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]