page_title: Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville
section_title: The 'Lead Plate' Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville / Biography / The 'Lead Plate' Expedition
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: En 1749 l'explorateur français Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville affirme la souveraineté française sur la vallée de l'Ohio en enterrant au confluent de l'Ohio et de la Kanawha une plaque de plomb, dite «&#160;de Point Pleasant&#160;».
context_page_description: Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville — also known as Celeron de Bienville — was a French Canadian Officer of Marine. In 1739 and '40 he led a detachment to Louisiana to fight the Chickasaw in the abortive Chickasaw Campaign of 1739. In 1749 he led the 'Lead Plate Expedition' to advance France's territorial claim on the Ohio Valley.
context_section_description: From 1743 to 1748, Britain and France fought King George's War. During this war, England blockaded New France, breaking down the French fur trade. The British became the major trading partners with Native Americans in the Ohio valley.
  France claimed the Ohio Valley (and indeed the entire Mississippi basin) on the basis of the explorations made by La Salle in 1669 and 1682. Great Britain claimed the Ohio Valley on the basis of purchases from Native Americans in 1744. In fact, both the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania had claims on the Ohio valley, although in the 1740s and 1750s, Virginia was more active in pressing her claim.
  In 1748, Comte de la Galissoniere, the governor of Canada, ordered Céloron to strengthen the French claim on the Ohio Valley. Céloron carried out this mission in the summer of 1749 by means of an expedition through the contested territory. He set out from Montreal on June 15, 1749, in a flotilla consisting of large boats and canoes. The expedition included 216 French Canadians and 55 Native Americans. On the shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek in present-day Westfield, New York, the expedition cut a road over the French Portage Road, and carried their boats and equipment overland to Chautauqua Lake, then followed the Chadakoin River and Conewango Creek to the Allegheny River, reaching it on July 29, 1749.
  As it progressed, the expedition sought to strengthen France's claim to the territory by marking it at the mouths of several principal tributaries. At each point, a tin or copper plate bearing the French royal arms was nailed to a tree. Below, an inscribed leaden plate was buried, declaring the claims of France. This was a traditional European mode of marking territory, but it might have contributed to Native American anxieties about the intentions of the French, and thus ultimately had a counterproductive effect.
  Reaching the Monongahela River, the party boated past the current site of Pittsburgh, and down the Ohio River. At Logstown, in present-day western Pennsylvania, Céloron discovered English traders. Incensed, he evicted the 
  traders and wrote a scolding note to the governor of Pennsylvania. He then hectored the Native Americans about French dominance of the region. This overbearing behavior offended the Iroquois in his party, some of whom returned to their homeland in present-day New York, tearing down copper plates as they went.
  A plate was buried at the mouth of the Muskingum River on August 15, 1749 and the mouth of the Kanawha River on August 18, 1749. Arriving at Lower Shawneetown at the Scioto River's mouth on August 21, he again encountered English traders. Céloron summoned them to his camp on August 25 and demanded that they leave, stating that "they had no right to trade or aught else on the [Ohio] River," but most refused.
  Five months after the expedition began, it returned to Montreal, arriving November 10, 1749. Céloron's journal is archived at Archives of the Department de la Marine, Paris, France (Galbreath, 12).
  In total, Céloron buried at least six lead plates. One was stolen by curious Indians almost immediately, possibly before it was even buried, and placed in British hands. Two more were found in the early 19th Century. Measuring about eleven inches long and seven and one-half inches wide, each lead plate was marked with an inscription as follows (Galbreath, 110-111):
  French: 
  L'AN 1749 DV REGNE DE LOVIS XV ROY DE
  
  FRANCE, NOVS CÉLORON, COMMANDANT D'VN 
  
  DETACHEMENT ENVOIE PAR MONSIEVR LE MIS.
  
  DE LA GALISSONIERE, COMMANDANT GENERAL DE 
  
  LA NOUVELLE FRANCE POVR RETABLIR LA 
  
  TRANQUILLITE DANS QUELQUES VILLAGES SAUVAGES
  
  DE CES CANTONS, AVONS ENTERRE CETTE PLAQUE
  
  AU CONFLUENT DE L'OHIO ET DE TCHADAKOIN CE 29 JVILLET,
  
  PRES DE LA RIVIERE OYO AUTREMENT BELLE 
  
  RIVIERE, POUR MONUMENT DU RENOUVELLEMENT DE
  
  POSSESSION QUE NOUS AVONS PRIS DE LA DITTE
  
  RIVIERE OYO, ET DE TOUTES CELLES QUI Y
  
  TOMBENT, et de TOUTES LES TERRES DES DEUX
  
  COTES JVSQVE AVX SOURCES DES DITTES RIVIERES
  
  AINSI QV'EN ONT JOVY OU DÛ JOVIR LES
  
  PRECEDENTS ROIS DE FRANCE, ET QU'ILS S'Y
caption: In 1749 French explorer Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville asserts sovereignty of France over the Ohio valley by burying a lead plaque called "of Point Pleasant".[1] See picture.
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