Watab River

The name Watab comes from the word watap, as the cordage used for sewing together the birch-bark panels on the Ojibwe canoes was often made from spruce tree roots.

[3] In 1825[4] the Watab River formed the first part of the border on the west side of the Mississippi between the Ojibwe people migrating from the north and the Dakota people to the south, and 20 years later the southern boundary for the Winnebago Reservation based in Long Prairie, Minnesota and lasting for less than ten years' duration.

Writing in 1915, journalist and local historian William Bell Mitchell recalled that as of 1850, "The Winnebagoes then had one of their main villages on the West bank of the Mississippi River, opposite Watab, and instead of remaining at home, were roaming around looking for a chance to play poker or some other gambling game, at which many of them were experts, or to obtain whiskey, for which they would give their last blanket.

Near the southwest corner of Stager's addition to Sauk Rapids was Calvin Potter's place, the primary attraction of which was a bar, and here were encounters between the Indians and White men, which resulted in the loss of life on both sides.

One of these affairs in 1850 resulted in the sending of a party of government soldiers on the Governor Ramsey [steamboat] to Sauk Rapids, where a number of the Indians were arrested and taken to Watab, but afterwards released.