Narrative Journal of Travels Through the Northwestern Regions of the United States: Extending from Detroit Through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the Sources of the Mississippi River, Performed as a Member of the Expedition Under Governor Cass in the Year 1820

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Jan 1821 · E. & E. Hosford

About this ebook

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864) was an explorer, Indian agent, and early ethnologist of Native American culture who joined an expedition organized by Governor Cass of Michigan in 1819. Its purpose was to locate the Mississippi River's sources, to explore the Great Lakes region, and to describe its significant topographical features, natural history, and mineral wealth. Schoolcraft joined the expedition as a mineralogist, and this is the journal of his participation. He describes his preliminary journey from New York to Detroit, where the expedition embarks for Michilimackinac and presses on to Sault de Ste. Marie and Fond du Lac. Eventually the explorers locate Lake Itasca in Minnesota, where the Mississippi originates. Schoolcraft also highlights St. Peter's, Prairie du Chien, the lead mines at Dubuque, and Green Bay, and devotes a whole chapter to the Ontagenon River and its nearby copper mines. His journal blends narrative with historical, ethnographic and statistical information.