Abbie Gardner Monument

Located just north of the town of Redfield, Spink County, South Dakota, this monument reads: "Abbie Gardner was delivered to her rescuers on May 30, 1857, after eighty three days of captivity among the Sioux Indians following the Spirit Lake Massacre in Iowa." The tablet was placed by the Charlotte Warrington Turner Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Gardner family came to Lake Okoboji in July 1856 from New York. Because it was too late in the season to plant and harvest crops, the family brought enough food to last the winter months. They managed to build one cabin by winter, but weather prevented them from finishing a second. At the time of the massacre, Rowland Gardner, his wife, a son, two daughters, a son-in-law, and two grandchildren occupied the Gardner Cabin. A third daughter was in Springfield, Minnesota, at the time of the massacre.

By late winter in 1856, both the settlers and Dakota leader Inkpaduta's people were running out of supplies. Tensions ran high as Inkpaduta's people tried unsuccessfully to get food from the settlers. Finally, on March 8, anger turned into violence. Over several days, Inkpaduta's band killed 33 settlers and abducted four women, including Abbie Gardner. No one recorded the Dakota's losses. After the Okoboji attack, Inkpaduta's band travelled north, unsuccessfully attacked Springfield, Minnesota, settlers, and then fled west to the Dakotas where they killed two of the four captives. Later that spring, Inkpaduta released Abbie and another Okoboji captive after ransom was paid by Indian Agents from Minnesota.

After her release, Abbie Gardner joined her sister in Hampton, Iowa. In August 1857, she married Cassville Sharp. They raised two children before separating sometime in the 1880s.

Returning to Arnolds Park in 1891, Abbie purchased the cabin, operating it as one of Iowa's first tourist attractions until her death in 1921. For a quarter, or ten cents for children, visitors could see the displays in her log cabin museum and listen to her stories of the Spirit Lake Massacre, her captivity, and rescue. In her later years Abbie forgave the Native Americans and even developed a lifelong interest and admiration for Native-American culture. She collected many examples of Native-American artifacts which she displayed in her museum located in the log cabin. She collected pipestone from southwestern Minnesota and brought it back to Arnolds Park where she commissioned her neighbors to carve miniature replicas of the Spirit Lake Monument (dedicated in 1895). She sold these replicas as souvenirs in her museum shop. As part of her tourist business, Abbie Gardner-Sharp sold her book, The Spirit Lake Massacre, postcards, and other souvenirs.

Abbie died in Colfax, Iowa, in 1921.

Photos by J. Stephen Conn. Information source, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14621814