07-02-2025
Growing up by Grand Mound
The burial mounds at Grand Mound have been a part of Joann Johnson's family since her grandfather, Fred Smith, purchased the land in 1889.
Smith left his home near Rochester when he was 10 years old to go out into the working world, Johnson said.
'I can't imagine a 10-year-old on their own,' Johnson said.
Smith went to work in the logging industry in Wisconsin, Big Falls and eventually had a logging camp along the Black River.
After carrying a cook stove on his back from Ely to a spot 17 miles west of International Falls, he bought from Samuel Pickering land which included the mounds and settled there.
That spot would later be named Laurel, after one of Smith's daughters who is the older sister of Johnson's mother. The Indians who built the mounds 2,200 years ago were given the name Laurel Indians after Smith's daughter.
Smith had plans to create a city in Laurel, Johnson said. A map of the proposed town was drawn, but it never came to be.
The steamboat, the Itasca, was the transportation on the river and would stop at Laurel, Johnson said. Grand Mound was called Mound Park and was a gathering place during Johnson's mother's time. Settlers picnics and social events were conducted at the mounds, Johnson said. Fourth of July celebrations at the mounds would include readings, music, shooting contests and dancing.
'They were big on dances,' Johnson said.
Johnson spent time walking along the river and around the mounds as a child, she said.
'We didn't think about it as being cemetery burial mounds. It was just part of the farm,' she said.
Growing up, Johnson saw two archaeological teams study the mounds, she said.
When she walked along the mounds as an adult, she always had a calm feeling.
'It has a special peaceful feeling to me,' she said.
While her grandfather owned the land the mounds were on, he protected it and understood that the mounds were part of history, Johnson said.
Protecting the mounds was only one of Smith's jobs. He was the first Koochiching County commissioner after the county split from Itasca County. He also worked as a post master, co-owner of a steamboat company and managed a general store.
'He kinda had his finger in a lot of things,' Johnson said.
Smith died when Johnson was 6 years old and the land then went to her uncle, Ted Smith, who worked to preserve the mounds. He allowed people to see the mounds upon request, only if they promised to stay off the mounds, Johnson said.
Her uncle sold the land to the Minnesota Historical Society because he wanted to see it preserved as a place people could come to appreciate history, she said.
'He thought there was so much history there,' she said. 'My family was so happy when they built that mound center.'
Johnson said her mother and uncle would have been saddened by the closing of the center.
She added she would like to see the building reopened to educate people about the mounds, but said she understands if Indian people want the mounds closed because of its designation as a burial ground.
