"Lake Minnetonka has its outlet in a small stream..."
from Chapter XXXI of "Floral home; or, First years of Minnesota. Early sketches, later settlements, and further developments" by Harriet E. Bishop.
In which: our author bursts into rhyme
Lake Minnetonka has its outlet in a small stream, which, after a few miles, gathers again into that beautiful
chain, so celebrated by all visitors, Lake of the Isles, Calhoun, and Harriet. These discharge themselves into a
beautiful creek, which meanders through the loveliest of all prairies, and in one grand leap creates "Minnehaha
Falls," and then laughingly enters the Mississippi about six miles below the Falls of St. Anthony.
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Far away in the west, where the "Big Waters" rise,
And the fair verdant earth meets the blue-vaulted skies,
Where the graceful fawn gambols o'er flowery plain,
Or flies from the swift-winged arrow in vain;
Where the wail of the red man is caught by the breeze,
As the graves of his fathers in sadness he leaves;--
On scenes that are fairer the sun never shone,
'Tis our land of adoption, our chosen bright home.
Here anthems of Nature, sonorous and clear,
In Falls of St. Anthony ring on the ear;
And "Minnehaha," with a laugh and a leap,
From her green mossy bed sings a lullaby sweet;
And the records of nations are writ in the soil
Where their cities have stood, and the white men now toil. -- published in 1854
