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The Legend of Gardner Cabin
On July 16, 1856, a family of nine arrived by covered wagon in the West Okoboji Lake area. With no roads or bridges, the wagons were slowly pulled by oxen through rough terrain and mud across the prairie. It had been a long and tiring journey, but, like many, the family was eager to settle on the new frontier.
The area was experiencing a boon of pioneers settling in with their families to build log cabins before winter came. Rowland Gardner and his wife, Frances, brought their entire family to Iowa. Family members included their oldest daughter, Mary, her husband Harvey Luce and their two small children; and their younger daughters, Abbie, 13, and Eliza, 16. Also living with the family was Robert Clark.
Although the Dakota Bands had vacated the land around Okoboji and Spirit Lake after the Treaty of 1851, hunting parties remained in the area. The Gardners and others did not feel they were in jeopardy.
But
early in the spring of 1857, a renegade band of the Wahpekute Dakota Indian
tribe returned to the region. They were led by Inkpaduta, whose extreme
hatred for white settlers was exacerbated by hunger and ongoing conflicts
with those he came across, including members of his own tribe.
When Inkpaduta’s people came to Spirit Lake, they demanded food, particularly flour, from Mr. Gardner. Just as he turned to get to the flour, though, he was shot and killed by one of them. They then proceeded to kill the entire family, except for Abbie and Eliza. In all, 33 settlers perished. Abbie was taken prisoner along with three other women from the area and forced to travel north with Inkpaduta. The other women, who were in their late teens and twenties, suffered along with Abbie. Lydia Noble and Elizabeth Thatcher were both killed. Mary Ann Marble was ransomed. Soon Abbie was left alone with her captors.
It was not long, however, before an agent and two Wahpeton tribal men negotiated a trade with Inkpaduta’s people, who exchanged Abbie for two horses, 12 blankets, two kegs of powder, 20 pounds of tobacco, 32 yards of blue cloth and other articles. Abbie was reunited with sister Eliza a few months later. A few years later, Abbie married Casville Sharp, had two sons and returned to buy the cabin and surrounding grounds in 1891.
Abbie turned the cabin into one of Iowa’s first tourist attractions.
It remained in the family until 1941. She made many changes to the site,
including adding a framework and lattice to hide the cabin from view by
non-paying visitors. After the Iowa Conservation Commission purchased the
site, the cabin’s lattice was removed. The site was transferred to
the State Historical Society in 1974, at which time architects and archaeologists
conducted research to return the cabin to its original 1856 appearance.
Today, visitors are invited to tour the cabin at no charge, to view the
original pioneer furnishings and artifacts brought by the Gardner family
150 years before and to be reminded of one of Iowa’s tragic frontier
events.
