Pipestone

Pipestone, city, seat of Pipestone county, southwestern Minnesota, U.S. It lies on the Coteau des Prairies, near the South Dakota state line, about 40 miles (65 km) northeast of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Settlers were attracted to the Pipestone area by Native American legends of a quarry where red stone for ceremonial pipes was found. From about 1200 ce several Plains tribes, particularly the Sioux, quarried stone there (rock drawings in the area date from about 2000 bce). Artist and author George Catlin visited the site in 1836 and recorded it in both painting and writing. Settlement began in 1873 when Iowa druggist Charles Bennett arrived, and the city was laid out in 1876. It grew as a trade centre with the arrival of the railroad (1879), the production of building blocks made from the area’s quartzite deposits, and farming on the fertile prairie soil. Agriculture (including sheep, hogs and pigs, soybeans, and corn [maize]) is a mainstay of the economy, and meatpacking, the manufacture of boats, and tourism are also important. The city is home to a community and technical college campus. Pipestone National Monument is immediately northwest, and Split Rock Creek State Park is southwest. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow popularized the quarries in The Song of Hiawatha (1855); the city has a Hiawatha Club that stages an annual theatrical pageant. Inc. village, 1881; city, 1901. Pop. (2000) 4,280; (2010) 4,317.