Text is © W.O.S.Sutherland 1997.
Excerpts from North Country and North Country History are © Hilda R. Rachuy as indicated.
Photographs courtesy of the Leonard Dickinson Collection are the property of Mrs. Agnes Dickinson and used with permission.
Text from the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society is copyrighted by the Minnesota Historical Society and used with permission.
Photograph of the portrait of Beltrami is the property of the Minnesota Historical Society and used with permission.
Photographs courtesy of the Beltrami County Historical Society are the property of the Beltrami County Historical Society and used with permission.
Photograph in the possession of Ms. Sharon Tate used with permission
The authors are indebted to several persons and institutions for their assistance. Mrs. Hilda R. Rachuy began her collections of stories and recollections from the pioneers and their families in 1973. Her issues of North Country and North Country History are an invaluable record of personal history. We are fortunate to have the histories of Dr. Charles Vandersluis, dean of historians of Beltrami County, and of Professor Harold T. Hagg. Anyone working on Buena Vista is indebted to Steven Hoffbeck for his fine thesis Frontier Hotel Keeper: John Wesley Speelman and Buena Vista.
Leonard Bergstrom first took us along sections of the Leech Lake Trail, whetting our appetites to learn more.
Wanda Hoyum and Greg Norum, Director and former Director of the Beltrami County Historical Society have been most generous and helpful. We have been helped and kindly treated by the staffs of the Clearwater County Historical Society, the Cass County Historical Society, the Polk County Historical Society, the Hubbard County Historical Society, and the Bemidji State University A.C.Clark Library. The staffs of the Research Center of the Minnesota Historical Society and of the General Libraries and Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin have been helpful and accommodating. We also wish to thank Ms. Kathryn "Jody" Beaulieu, Director of the Red Lake Nation Archives and Library. Leo Soukup has given us significant material and commented helpfully on the text.
Dr. Scott Anfinson, National Register Archaeologist, gave generously of his advice in the successful attempt to have the Buena Vista Archeological Historic District entered on the National Register of Historic Places.
Most of the townsite of Buena Vista has been on the property of Leonard and Agnes Dickinson. They have been faithful stewards of history in preserving the townsite and the memories of the Speelman and Dickinson founders of the town. Their children and grandchildren have continued the tradition. Earle Dickinson has been Buena Vista's indefatigable historian and guide.
William and Madeline Sutherland