Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom

The surveyor was C. B. Chapman. The village was incorporated in 1881. The commissioners appointed under the general act to effect the organization were Alphonso J. Demenles, Erasmus Cross, B. K. Knowlton. A wagon bridge built across the Mississippi at this point cost $25,000. It was greatly damaged by a storm, and partially destroyed by the cyclone of 1886. The dam across the Mississippi at Sauk Rapids was built in 1870 at a cost of $140,000. The east wing is owned by the Commodore Davidson estate; the west, by the Sauk Rapids Manufacturing Company. The rapids are formed by the eruption of granite ledges across the channel of the river. A flour mill built here with a capacity of three hundred barrels per day was totally destroyed by the cyclone of April 16, 1886, which was one of the most destructive on record. The estimated loss in Sauk Rapids was $300,000, of which $108,000 was made up by voluntary contributions from St. Paul, Minneapolis and other portions of the State. The public buildings, including the court house, school buildings and several churches, were destroyed, together with many fine stores and dwellings. Since the cyclone the village has been handsomely rebuilt. A new court house has replaced the old one at a cost of $6,000, a new school house has been built at a cost of $12,000--a model building with rooms for five departments. There are five new church buildings, an Episcopal, Congregational, Methodist and two Lutheran. WATAB. Watab appears to have been a noted Indian trading post from 1844 to