The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-03-10
CORRESPONDENCE.
OUR MINNESOTA LETTER.

interested in it will give you another
chapter of Minnesota antiquities. In
1878 Marquette discovered the upper
Mississippi and sailed downit as far as the
Arkansas river. LaSalle, who was resid-
ing at Kingston, Canada, heard of Mar
quette's discovery and resolved to visit
the Father of Waters, so he got authori-
ty from France to claim all the land dis
covered, and went to the Niagara river
above the falls and built boat which he
called the Griffin. With this he and
Louis Hennepin, a franciscan priest.
started out to explore the lakes. They
continued their journey as far as Green
Bay, in Wisconsin; here the boat was
loaded with furs and ordered back to
Niagara but was never heard from. La
Sale and Father Hennepin, with few
of their followers, coasted on down the
Wisconsin shore of the lake and entered
Illinois river; about the middle of Jan
uary, 1850, they reached the sight of Pc
oria and built fort which they named
Peoria. On the last day of February,
Hennepin, with two oarsmen, left the
fort and went down the river to its
mouth, and then up the Mississippi to
the falls which he named st. Anthony,
after his patron saint. On their way up
the river the met party of Sioux war
riors who treated them kindly and took
them to their village, Kathao, on the
shores of Mile Laos Thousand Lakes.
Here they made headquarters while ex-
ploring the vicinity, and remained until
September, when they were agreeably
surprised by visit from party of
French, under Duluth, who had come
from Canada by way of Lake Superior.
They all went down the river together to
the mouth of the Wisconsin river, then
up that river to Green Bay and thence
to Quebec. In passing will notice that
in spite of the kind treatment that Hen
nepin received from his Sioux captors,
there was some unfriendly feeling to-
wards him, for in passing up the river
through Lake Pepin he named it Lake
of Tears because part of the warriors
wished to kill him, and spent the whole
night in a vain effort to persuade the
rest to consent to it.
The first forts and trading posts on the
Mississippi were built by Nicholas Per-
rot, who spent the winter of 1856 in a
post called ST. Nicholas, few miles
above the mouth of the Black river, in
Wisconsin. A post that he built on the
Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin he called
Fort St. Antoine; they had considerable
trade with the indians that winter, and
in May, 1889, he took possession of the
country for France. Gray Cloud Island
in the Mississippi, a little below st. Paul,
was named for an Indian maiden. The
French called it Isle Pelee, and PIERRE |
LeSueur planted French fort there in
1895; this was used by the French as a
rendezvous during their supremacy and
for over a century has been known as
trading post.
In 100 LeSueur took % persons with |
him and sailed up the Minnesota river
in a shallop, to the Blue Earth river and |
three miles up the latter they built
fort where they understood there was a
rich copper mine. copy statement
about the profits of the fur trade cat |
Leech Lake, in 1884, it took 80 beaver
skins, worth $l2O, to buy small key of
rum. A bear skin or buffalo robe was
equal in value to a beaver skin. The
traders often make one dollars worth of |
goods buy SIS worth of furs." Jean N.
Nicollet, a Frenchman who came here in |
1886, and spent several years in explor-
ing, seems to have won warm place in
the regard of the people for they
have named a street and an island in |
indianapolis, also county, township, |
a lake, and railroad station in his hon
or. He was born of poor parents in a
small French town and before the age of |
ten had to make living by playing on
the flute and violin. By the persevering |
efforts with which he sought knowledge |
he won good education and high hon
ors in his native land. l have not read |
his writings but he is said to have given
beautiful descriptions of his travels.
During my trip down the Mississippi
spoke of Maiden's Rock, or Lovers
leap, on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pc
pin. 1t is 400 feet high. Here is the In
dian legend which gave rise to the name.
''Winona, beautiful girl of Wabasha's
tribe, loved young hunter and prom
ised to become his bride. Her parents,
like too many in Christian lands, were
ambitious and promised her to distin-
guished young warrior, who had smitten
manfully the hostile Chippewas.
"The maiden refused the hand of the
brave and chung to the fortunes of the
hunter, who had been driven to the
the wilderness by menaces of death.
'The indignant father declared his de-
termination to wed her to the warrior
that very day.
"The family were encamped on Lake
Pepin in the shadow of the great rock.
Starting like frightened fawn at the
cruel announcement, she swiftly climbed
to the summit of the cliff, and there,
with L;tEar 'xvorde ranroaobad bar