This chapter examines the political history of the space focusing on two central features. First it will go through the names on the landscape, picking apart the various origins and meanings of the named landscape. In an under populated area that has had little written about it, the place names serve as a proxy for understanding the cultural mark on this landscape. Then it will look at the history of legal control over the quadrangle, using data about historic boundaries of the Indigenous tribes, territories, states, and counties. Finally, in order to understand the evolution of the legal approach to water in Minnesota, I’ve created a widget that will produce a random statue that would have held power over this area of land.
