Description:

In September 2005, a request was made by the Historic Properties Office (HPO) of the Minnesota Historical Society for a condition assessment of the two cast iron bells currently at the Lac Qui Parle Mission Historic Site, Montevideo, MN. A mission and fur post overlooked the Minnesota River 150 years ago, and today the mission still stands after being reconstructed
in 1940.
In 1826 Joseph Renville, an explorer and fur trader whose mother was Dakota Indian and father was French, established a fur post on the Chippewa River at a wide portion called Lac qui Parle. He invited missionaries to the area, and undertook the development of the Dakota alphabet and the translation of the Bible into the Dakota language. After Renville’s death in 1846, Dakota opposition to the mission forced the missionaries out. This Minnesota Historical Society site is currently managed by the Chippewa County Historical Society under a contract agreement.