Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/258

 CHAPTER XV. TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES. Pine Island Township and Village — Progressive and Prosperous — Roscoe — Stanton — Vasa — Wacoota — Wanamingo — Wana- mingo Village — Warsaw — Dennison Village — Welch. When the first hardy pioneers penetrated the wilderness as far as the site of the present villain' of Pine Island in the early fifties, they found a beautiful spot called by the Indians "Wa-zu- wee-ta," which translated into English means •"Island of Pines," and here, owing to its natural advantages of wood and running water, combined with deep and fertile soil, the early settlers, in search of homes, stopped and built their cabins; and the erstwhile wilderness rapidly assumed the proportions of a center of civili- zation for a large surrounding country. The term "Wa-zu-wee-ta," or Island of Pines, referred to a strip of land on the south side of the river reaching from about where Main street now is well upon Newton's hill, which was heavily timbered with stalely white pines and was completely surrounded by a heavy growth of hardwood timber. This spot was a favorite resort of the Dakotah Indians, and here, in their skin tepees, they used to pass the cold months, sheltered from winter's storms by the surrounding hills and the heavy timber, through which roamed untold numbers of deer and elk. The Indian name was so appropriate that it was retained, but ' Wa-zu-wee-ta, " or Island of Pines, was too large a mouthful for the taciturn pioneers and the name speedily became Pine Island. A pretty story is told of Chief Wacoota. then at the head of the Red Wing band of Dakotah Indians, that when he was asked by the United States commissioners to sign the treaty that would require his people to relinquish their homes on the Missis- sippi river, replied that he would willingly sign if he could have his future home at Pine Island. The town is located on sections 31 and 32 of township 109, range 15, and is as above indicated, the early settlers found a eountry heavily wooded, for the most part with hardwood timber and watered by the middle branch of the Zumbro, which divides in what is now the eastern part of the village, the north branch 202