This log-only cache is at one of three cabin sites on the east side
of East Okoboji marked by the DAR with a monument. The actual
location of the Howe cabin is probably closer to the lake in the
area of YMCA Camp Foster.
Take care when parking --- find a place to pull off the busy
road completely. Bring your own pen. The container is not
camouflaged, so please hide it out of plain sight.
This is what happened here 150 years ago according to an account
reported by Bob Brown in the book Inkpaduta by Parsons and Kennedy:
"The Sioux rose early the Monday (March 9) morning. (They had
killed 20 settlers the day before near what is now Arnolds Park and
taken 13 year old Abbie Gardner captive.) They daubed their faces
with charcoal from the fires and started out for their second day
of slaughter. Black is the traditional war color for the
Sioux."
"While advancing along the south shore of East Okoboji, the
Indians came upon Joel Howe about a quarter mile from Howe's cabin.
The Howe family had exhausted its supply of flour that morning and
Howe had started out to the cabin of one of his neighbors to borrow
some until he could replenish his supply that spring. He never saw
spring. Howe's empty grain sack was found alongside his body. His
head had been severed from his body and thrown onto the ice of the
lake."
"The band then proceeded to the cabin of their latest victim. In
the crude house were Mrs. Howe; Howe's son Jonathan, about 17; a
teenage daughter Sardis; and three smaller children. The rifles and
tomahawks did their work once more and minutes later the yard of
the Howe cabin was littered with six more bodies. The toll stood at
27."
When the Indians started back to the Gardner cabin after killing
4 and taking 2 women captive at the Noble-Thatcher cabin a little
to the north, "they decided to check the Howe cabin to make sure
none had survived the attack. Here the captive women saw the
horrible sight of the mutilated bodies of the Howe family; Mrs.
Noble saw the dead body of her mother, Mrs. Howe, under a bed where
she obviously crawled to hide after being beaten with a flatiron.
In the yard, Mrs. Noble found her 13-year old brother, Jacob. He
was still alive, but brutally beaten. He had propped himself up
against a tree. Mrs. Noble urged him to crawl to the house and hide
in the bed covers. While trying to accomplish this, the boy was
spotted by a brave. One more shot from the rifle finished the job
that was only partly done."
