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,
The Great South Land : An Epic Poem The Great South Land : An Epic Poem The Great South Land : An Epic Poem (1951) is a poem by Australian author Rex Ingamells. It consists of a sequence of twelve books, with an "Overture" and an epilogue, "The Timeless Covenant". It won the ALS Gold Medal, and the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, both in 1951. The poem is an examination of the history of the Australian continent: from the beginning of the creation of the world, through the arrival of the Aborigines, down to the European exploration and colonisation. James Devaney, in his review for "The Advocate"