Editing Rockford, Minnesota (section)

==History==

Evidence of indigenous settlement in what is today Rockford can be found in burial mounds ranging from 500 to 1500 years old, as well as a trail which runs under the Bridge Street Bridge on the [[Hennepin County, Minnesota|Hennepin County]] side. 
The area was a natural border land between the [[Ojibwe]] and [[Dakota people|Dakota]], with both tribes utilizing the space for hunting and wintering. Though the space was primarily utilized by the Dakota, there also existed an Objibwe village near modern-day [[Dayton, Minnesota|Dayton]], on the [[Crow River (Minnesota)|Crow River]].

As colonial settlement widened in [[Wisconsin]], the [[Ho-Chunk]] were pushed west and forced to resettle near Rockford. Though the creation of a reservation at the site was proposed, concerns were raised about the proximity of an indigenous reservation so close to [[Minneapolis]], a rapidly-developing economic center at the time. 
After the [[Treaty of Traverse des Sioux|Treaty Traverse de Sioux]] in 1851, the land was opened to white settlers; after surveying was completed in 1854, plots became available for purchase to homesteaders.

In 1855,  brothers-in-law George F. Ames and Joel Florida of Illinois came up the Crow River with carpenter Guildford D. George with hopes of starting a mill town. Eventually the town would boast multiple thriving mills: a lumber, a flour, and a saw mill. Four years later, in 1859, the first US troops called to [[Minnesota]] were dispatched to Rockford in response to the so-called Wright County War, a period of rioting in the area.

A stockade was built in town during the [[Dakota War of 1862|Dakota Uprising]] of 1862, and again in 1863.

Rockford was incorporated in 1881, with a railroad running through the town being completed in 1886.