 The name " Minnehaha Falls " was the common name by 1855 , when the publication of The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow brought the falls world @-@ wide fame . Longfellow 's epic poem features Hiawatha , a Native American hero who falls in love with Minnehaha , a Native American woman who later dies during a severe winter . Longfellow never visited the falls himself ; he was inspired by the stories of Mary H. Eastman and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft , and by a photograph created by Alexander Hessler , when he chose the name for Hiawatha 's lover . The photograph was taken in 1851 , according to a tribute written for Hessler when he died in 1895 . The author of the eulogy wrote : " It has been the subject of much comment among artists and poets that it was Mr. Hessler who was principally responsible for the inspiration which induced Henry W. Longfellow to write ' Hiawatha ' . " 
