Minneapolis–Saint Paul Grand Excursion, a trip into the Upper Midwest sponsored by the Rock Island Railroad, brought more than a thousand curious travelers into the area by rail and steamboat in 1854. The next year, in 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published "The Song of Hiawatha", an epic poem based on the Ojibwe legends of Hiawatha. A number of natural area landmarks were included in the story, such as Lake Minnetonka and Minnehaha Falls. Tourists inspired by the coverage of the Grand Excursion in eastern newspapers and those who read Longfellow's story flocked to the area in the following decades. At one time,
Winona, Kansas Winona, Kansas Winona is a city in Logan County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 162. Winona was originally known as Gopher, and under the latter name was founded in 1884. It was renamed Winona in 1887. The community is named after the character Wenonah, the mother of Hiawatha in Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855). Winona is located at (39.061639, -101.244995). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Winona has a semi-arid