Historic Towns
How to get there: One block off of downtown Sleepy Eye
What you will find: Exhibits on the telegraph, Chief Sleepy Eye pottery, and musical instruments and a building named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Services at this site: Yes
The Chief Sleepy Eye Monument and The Depot Museum is a place to get lost in Minnesota History.
Incorporated in 1872, the community of Sleepy Eye is named after a Sisseton Dakota Chief, Ish Tak Ha Ba, which means Sleepy Eyes, because of his droopy eyelids. Sleepy Eyes and his band lived on the north side of Sleepy Eye Lake, also named for the kind and friendly chief. In 1824, he and seven other Dakota and Ojibwe leaders went to Washington D.C. to meet President James Monroe and sign treaties. Chief Sleepy Eye is the most important chief to sign the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851. He died in 1859 or 1860 in Roberts County, South Dakota and was buried there. but in 1902, his remains were moved to Sleepy Eye and buried in a plot set aside for that purpose next to the newly built depot. The granite monument that marks his gravesite was dedicated on October 17, 1902.
The Winona and St. Peter Railroad first reached Sleepy Eye in 1872. A plat map for the Village of Sleepy Eye was filed on September 18, 1887.
Things to Do: Historic Town, Museum, Outdoor Activities
Location
100 Oak St. NW
Sleepy Eye, MN 56085
