Winona (legend)

Winona or Wenonah is a Dakota Sioux character in a "Lover's Leap" romantic legend set at Maiden Rock, which is on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin in the United States.

Rather than marry a suitor she does not love, Winona chooses to leap from the cliff of Maiden Rock to her death.

Similar tales are told in many places in the Midwestern United States,[1] as well as the apocryphal legend of a young Cherokee woman of Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama.

[1] In the traditional Dakota language, "Winona" is not a personal name, but a general term for a first-born child of any class distinction who happens to be female.

"[2] Other Lover's Leap locations with a similar legend include Winona Falls in Pennsylvania, Camden County, Missouri and Cameron Park in Waco, Texas.

Maiden Rock
Photo of the statue in Central Park, Winona, MN, here seen on the cover of a promotional cookbook.
Maiden Rock at Lake Pepin. One of many bluffs said to be the precipice from which Winona jumped.