On This Date In Twin Cities History - June 20, 1823

On this date in 1823, Jesse Lee Reno is born in Wheeling, West Virginia. He is one of Minnesota’s “trail blazers” by virtue of the survey he made in 1853 for a military road from the mouth of the Big Sioux, near the present site of Council Bluffs, Iowa to Mendota, a distance of 279 miles.  The result was one of the most important of Minnesota’s pioneer highways.  Reno was killed in the Civil War in 1862 at the age of 39.