Location
Big Stone is in Big Stone County This county, established February 20, 1862, and organized April 13, 1874, derived its name from Big Stone Lake, through which the Minnesota River flows on the west boundary of the county and state. It is a translation of the Dakota name, alluding to the conspicuous outcrops of granite and gneiss, extensively quarried, which occur in the Minnesota valley from a half mile to three miles below the foot of the lake. The city and county building in Minneapolis is constructed of the stone from these quarries, which also supplied four massive columns of the state capitol rotunda, on its north and south sides. The Dakota name, poorly pronounced and indistinctly heard, was written Eatakeka by William H. Keating in his Narrative of Stephen H. Long's expedition in 1823, but Prof. A. W. Williamson more correctly spelled it in two words, Inyan tankinyanyan, the first meaning "stone," the second "very great," as shown by the repetition of the first word and duplication of its final syllable. From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
