Lake Shetek

Strange dancing light and invisible footsteps pushing down the grass are thought to be caused by the ghost of the local settlers Massacred by a band of Indians during the Sioux uprising of 1862. The victims of the massacre are buried under an earthen mound in an area that is now part of the state park.

This location is now being investigated by group founder John Savage. Photo's and the history of the massacred will be ready in two weeks.

Shetek Massacre

On the date of August 20^th, a group of Indians attacked the settlers of Shetek. They started from the North end of the lake and made their way down, killing men and women along the way. When the settlers found out they were coming, they all gathered together in the house of Mr. Wright, which was located on the south end of the lake. Soon after they arrived, the Indians came. The women and children were put into a wagon and they tried to escape. It didn't take much for the Indians to catch up. The settlers thought that they could find shelter in the tall prairie grass that was near by so that is where they laid for hours. The place is now called Slaughter Slough. The Indians outnumbered the settlers by such a quantity, they did not have a good chance of survival. The monument below is now standing in memory of the many people that lost their lives that day.

The monument reads:

The Shetek Monument

    At this site lie the bodies of fifteen people in a mass

grave ten feet long, four feet wide and four feet deep.

Contained in this grave are the remains of six adults

and nine children killed either at Lake Shetek or at Slaughter

Slough on August 20, 1862. The fifteenth victim, whose name

does not appear on the Monument , was a twelve year-old boy

killed in the late afternoon of the 20th. Mistakenly identified

as Frank Easlick, he lies with the rest, his name unknown to

this day.

    Originally, the bodies of the slain lay unburied from

August 20, to October 16, 1862. The bones were collected

and buried by the edge of Slaughter Slough in a shallow

grave and lay there until the following year. On October 31,

1863, a military burial party, commanded by Captain Starkey

and assisted by Wm. Duley, Captain of Scouts, with the aid

of Thomas Ireland, Charles Hatch and H. Watson Smith

reburied the remains at this present location

    The State of Minnesota began construction of this

monument in 1924. It was completed and dedicated in 1925.

( If you have more information on this haunting please E-mail it to us. )