The Rum River starts at Mille Lacs Lake and flows southerly through Sherburne, Isanti and Anoka Counties. It was the waterway between Mille Lacs and the Mississippi for birch bark canoes of the Chippewas.
Moving logs down the Rum was done near the peak of spring breakup and high water as the Rum is filled with bends and sharp turns.
According to Minnesota Historical Society collections, the first pine timber was floated down the Rum River in 1821, for use at Fort Snelling. Though good land trails had been established at that time, most travel was along the rivers, by canoes in summer and sleighs in the winter.
In 1849, after many prosperous communities had been established along the Mississippi, Captain John C. Pope made his way up the river. He reported, "The largest tributary is the Rum River, which is ferried at its mouth and is about 75 yards wide. From its appearance I should suppose that in a good stage of water, it could be ascended 40 - 50 miles by small steamers." His map shows a trading post just East of the mouth of the Rum River.
For nearly 200 years the river which divides the City of Anoka has been known as the Rum River, and down through the years sensitive souls and well-meaning crusaders have tried to change its name. However, the Rum it remains.
When Jonathan Carver explored the upper Mississippi in 1766, the Rum was apparently already known by that name, although for brief periods it was known as the "Anoka", the "Mille Lacs", the "Temperance", and the "St. Francis", according to Anoka Union news articles of years ago. These names were never really accepted and the river that gave Anoka its early start has always been the Rum.
There have been almost as many reasons advanced for naming it the Rum as there have been stories written about it. The Anoka Union of December 21, 1921, carried the following tongue-in-cheek article from the Minneapolis Daily News, and the rebuttal by the Union editor:
"Why should Minnesota, home of the nationally known Volstead (Prohibition leader) be traversed by a stream bearing such an incongruous alcoholic name as the 'Rum' River? Rising in the pure, pellucid waters of Lake Mille Lacs, the stream flows through four counties, all of which have been remarkably free from the ravages of the Demon Rum. So now a movement is on foot to erase from the Minnesota map the riotous name of Rum. But the river cannot be left nameless. What better name than Volstead?"
The Union editor commented: "There are several things Anoka people want to know. Why change the name of the Rum River at all? The water is free from alcoholic content, complies with the national prohibition laws, and what business is it of people who don't live on the river?
"The writer of the lingo in the News is respectfully referred to the English edition of Father Hennepin's Travels, published in London in 1689, 70 years before Carver made his explorations, and the name of Rum River at that time was the river of Isaati, or Nadouessians. He said: "We call this the river of St. Francis; and it was in this place we were made slaves by the Isaati."
"Old maps have the name St. Francis on them. Agitation to change the name to St. Francis, made some years ago by people who had nothing else to busy themselves about, fell through and St. Francis is a heap sight better than Volstead for a name. Why let outside meddlers plan for us, anyway?"
The following is taken from Albert M. Goodrich's History of Anoka County (1905): "Carver says -- 'It might, however, perhaps be necessary to observe that in a little tour I made about the Falls, after travelling 14 miles by the side of the Mississippi, I came to a river nearly 20 yards wide, which ran from the northeast, called Rum River."
"Carver undoubtedly translated the Chippeway name. It can hardly have been called Rum River by any others than the Indians, as Carver states that no one but himself and Hennepin had ever explored the Mississippi as far north as the mouth of the 'St. Francis' river.
"The Chippeway name for the river is usually written Isko de Wabo, but the pronunciation as preserved by white settlers sounds more like Skoot-a-wau-boo, and its meaning is broader than Carver's translation would indicate, viz.: liquor, broth; or any beverage. However, Carver's name has persistently stuck to the stream, notwithstanding some determined efforts to change it."
Commissioned by the Minnesota Historical Society in the 1930's, I.A. Caswell provided many accounts of Anoka's early history. Here, in an article from the Anoka Union in 1932, he presents his theory on how the Rum River received its name.
Early maps of this territory label the stream "Iskootawaboo." A literal translation of the works which form the compound one quoted is said to be "warm water."
The Chippewas noted that the river, which is generally a shallow stream and runs a great deal of its course through an open country, was a warm one, as compared with larger streams and those flowing through heavily wooded areas or fed by springs. Therefore, it was "Iskootawaboo,' warm water.
The Chippewa language had comparatively few words. To members of this tribe, all liquids were "waboo" - water. Whatever gave the senses the impression of warmth or heat was "iskoota."
Ardent spirits (whiskey and rum) furnished to these simple folk by the white traders were "hot" to their tastes. Therefore rum or whiskey was "iskootawaboo" --a hot liquid.
The traders and trappers who first came in contact with the Indians were most of them men of limited education and restricted vocabularies. It would be natural for them to give our river's name a short and quick translation. So it was, and is, and probably ever will be, "Rum River."
"Warm River," it has been suggested by some, would be an improvement over the name Rum River for our beautiful stream. But, as for the writer, he would prefer Iskootawaboo, despite the fact that it is by no means as musical as most words of the aboriginal language.
It will be recalled that others who speculated on the origin on the name of the river cite the fact that it starts at Mille Lacs lake, or Lake of the Great Spirit and the river was known by the Indians as Spirit River. As the lumberjacks knew little concerning spirits expept rum, Spirit river was to them Rum River.