A rural Mississippi River island township in Washington County with the largest concentration of Native American burial mounds in the county, a private historic cemetery from 1873, and enduring ghost lore stretching back generations.
Grey Cloud Island Township, St. Paul Park, MN 55071
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The island township roads are public. The Grey Cloud Island Township Cemetery is a PRIVATE cemetery — not open to the public. Trespassing is actively enforced by local law enforcement. The Grey Cloud Lime Kiln, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, may be viewable from public roads.
Access
Limited Access
Rural unpaved township roads; no maintained public trails to historical sites.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1873 · Largest concentration of Native American burial mounds in Washington County · Named for Marpiyahotawin (Grey Cloud Woman), granddaughter of Dakota Chief Wabasha · Site of Mdewakanton Dakota settlement displaced by 1837 Treaties · Grey Cloud Lime Kiln (est. c. 1846) on National Register of Historic Places · Library of Congress holds 1912 historical notes: 'Historical notes of Grey Cloud Island and its vicinity' by John H. Case
Grey Cloud Island is a historically layered place in the Mississippi River in southern Washington County. The area contains the largest concentration of Native American burial mounds in Washington County — evidence of Woodland mound-builder activity from approximately 100 BCE to 600 CE, and subsequent Mississippian occupation around 1000 CE. Archaeological surveys have identified villages dating approximately 2,100 years ago on the island.
In the 1830s, around 40 families of the Mdewakanton band led by Medicine Bottle relocated to the island from Kaposia (South St. Paul). The Treaties of 1837, by which the Dakota ceded lands east of the Mississippi, required their removal; Medicine Bottle moved to Pine Bend in Dakota County in 1838. The abandoned bark houses were taken over by the families of fur trader Hazen Mooers and his son-in-law Andrew Robertson. Robertson named the island for his mother-in-law, Margaret Aird Mooers, whose Dakota name was Marpiyahotawin (Grey Cloud Woman) — she was the granddaughter of the famed Dakota leader Chief Wabasha.
Joseph Renshaw Brown and other traders established farms on the island in the late 1830s and 1840s, and French-Canadian voyageurs associated with the American Fur Company settled among them. In 1856, Brown and investors platted 'Gray Cloud City' with 400 proposed lots; the 1857 financial panic ended the development, and proposed lots were submerged by the dam at Hastings.
The Grey Cloud Island Township Cemetery was established in 1873, with early burials from French-Canadian settler families including Bourcier, Brunell, LaBathe, Leith, Mavis, McCoy, and Turpin. The John Stringer family donated the first formal cemetery land in 1894. The Grey Cloud Lime Kiln, dating to at least 1846, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and processed limestone for mortar, plaster, and fertilizer.
A steel bridge replacing an 1882 timber structure was erected in 1946. Today, Grey Cloud Island Township has approximately 300 residents and remains rural along the Mississippi.
Sources
Grey Cloud Island has accumulated one of Minnesota's densest collections of regional ghost lore, centered primarily on the private township cemetery. According to accounts aggregated by regional paranormal sources, the most persistent apparition is a man wandering the cemetery grounds carrying a green lantern, sometimes described as an Indigenous chief, other times simply as a glowing orb reflecting off the river. A white pickup truck is reported to appear from nowhere and follow drivers on the island road before vanishing; local residents have noted that this is likely workers from an active gravel pit whose white work trucks travel the roads at night.
A motorcyclist apparition — a translucent figure riding silently past late-night walkers and drivers — is described in the Shadowlands account. Additional reports include disembodied voices, screams attributed to a woman, and a row of nuns' graves that yield different counts upon recounting.
Importantly, the Grey Cloud Island Township has published an explicit denial of all paranormal activity at the cemetery and requests that visitors respect the land. The cemetery is locked and actively policed; trespassers have been ticketed and removed. The township office contact for cemetery access is Patty Bestler (651-600-1041).
The paranormal lore appears to be primarily a modern folk tradition amplified by aggregator sites and social media, not corroborated by historical newspaper accounts or independent investigators. Several specific legends have been debunked by local residents (the white truck, a supposed KKK camp that is actually a church camp). The island's genuine historical depth — displaced Dakota, ancient burial mounds, 19th-century fur-trade settlement — provides the emotional resonance that sustains the folklore.
Media Appearances
Drive the rural roads of Grey Cloud Island Township along the Mississippi River, viewing the historic landscape and the exterior of the Grey Cloud Lime Kiln (NRHP). The private cemetery is not accessible; visitors should not attempt to enter.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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