On This Date in Minnesota History: September 4

September 4, 1866 - Organized on this date, Pope county was named in honor of General John Pope.  He graduated from West Point in 1842, and served as a lieutenant in the Mexican war. “In the summer of 1849 he was a member of an exploring expedition, under the command of Major Samuel Woods, which went from Fort Snelling up the Mississippi and Sauk rivers and past White Bear lake (since named Lake Minnewaska), in the present Pope county, to the Red river, and thence northward by a route at a considerable distance west of the river to Pembina. On the return, in order to make a thorough examination of the Red river, Pope and a small number of the party embarked in canoes and ascended this river to Otter Tail lake, made the portage to Leaf lakes, and thence descended the Leaf, Crow Wing, and Mississippi rivers.”
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnpope/history/histpope.html

General John Pope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GenJohnPope.jpeg