Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-27

ushea the accuracy of the observations re-
corded by Nicollet and Brewer. The recent
contention of Capt. Glazier is set at nauSht'
and a much-vexed geographical question
may now be considered as finally settled.
II have stepped across the Mississippi
river" said DIR. Coces yesterday. II was
lasy, for the stream was only about eight
inches vile and Two inches deep. nave
seen the Father of Waters where ne rises
literally out of the ground and starts as an
infant riyulet destined TO cut the United
States in twain with the mighty volume OF
his adult flood. To reach the sources is
long and difficult journey. From Duluth 1
went to the terminus of the Duluth and
Winnipeg railway, at the little village of
Deer Lake, Itasca county, Mimi. There l
hired a birch-bark caroe and a man to
paddle, and proceeded up the river to Lake
Itasca.
IT reached rne LAKE after ten days pad
ding through a painless wilderness. Hard
ly any inhabitants were to be found in the
region, save a few Chippeway Indians In
occasional villages, chiefly in the neighbor-
hood of Cass Lake and Lake Winnibigosh-
ish. Making nv camp on Schoolcraft Is
land in Lake Itasca, / made a thorough ex-
ploration of that body of water and the
surrounding country. My visit was inspir-
ed chiefly by the circumstance that i was
about to publish a new edition of Pixies
Travels, with critical notes. and 1 found it
desirable to examine the sources of the
Mississippi for myself. particularly In view
of the recent dispute on the SUBJECT
The Lake Itasca.
The whole of the Itascan basin, .ompris-
ing thirty-five square miles,has been set
apart by the legislature of Minnesota as a
state park, in order that the natural beauty
of the region of the sources of the Missis-
sippi may be preserved. Timber and game
within the limits of the park are protected
by law from depredations Lake Itasca is a
lovely Sheet of water embosomed in the
primeval forest, 1,4I0 feet above the sea.
1t used to be called ELK Lake by the In
dians, because IL has three-pronged shape,
like the head of an elk with antlers out
spread. Comparatively narrow throughout
IL Is about three miles in extreme length
Almost in the center Is wooded island
nar1ed after the explorer and historian,
Schoolcraft On the north arm of the lake
are a few white settlers. Lake Itasca is by
far the biggest of several hundred lakes and
pools in the Itascan basin.
Lake ItaSca Is a mere expansion or the
infant Mississippi. Into 1t flows a small
stream which is the veritable Father of
Waters-the Graded Achilles, as Nicollet
called IL. 1t rises from springs at a dis
lance of only half dozen miles from the
lake. The beauties of the region are likely
to attract tourists before long. Few per-
sons would care to make the canoe journey
which 1 undertook for 200 miles up the
river, but Lake Itasca can be reached in
one day by wagon from Park Rapids, which
Is the terminus of a branch of the Great
Northern railway. From Lake Itasca the
voyage down the Mississippi Is comparative
ly easy.
The Early Explorations.
1.-THE story of the search for the source of
the Mississippi reads like romance. After
the discovery of the upper river in 1878 by
Joliet and Marquette, and the discovery of
the falls of st. Anthony in 1880 by Henne-
pin, little more was known of the father of
waters for nearly century. In 1866 Capt.
Jonathan Carver assembled the stream as
far as the mouth of Rum river. In 1I9S the
famous English astronomer and surveyor,
David Thompson, In the service of the
Northwest Company, reached Turtle Lake.
This lake, which sends tributary to the
Mississippi, was for some time supposed to
be the true source.
'"The first white man known to have visit
ed the neighborhood of the actual source Of
the Mississippi was William Morrison, a
fur trader, who was certainly at Lake
Itasca in 1893 or 1904. He never published
anything on the subject, and 1T is only very
recently that his priority of discovery has
been known. The next explorer of the
sources of the river was Lieut.. Zebulon
Montgomery Pike. He was the first Ameri-
Gdh GlllLen 10 nag the united
States into northern Minnesota. He was
sent by the government to treat with the
Indians, and stop the sale of liquor in that
region. incidentally, he purchase for $3.50
and some whisky tract of land nine miles
square, which included the present site of
the city of Minneapolis. Congress subse-
quently voted an additional payment to the
Indians for this tract of 5000
Lieut.. Pike proceeded by boat to the
vicinity of the present Little Falls, in Nor
rison county, Mimi. He could get no fur
Their with boats, and so built a stockade on
me west bank OF the Mississippi at the
mouth of Swan river. There he left half of
his men and continued his journey through
the winter of 1866 on snowshoes and with
sledges northward. He finally reached
Leech Lake, which he mistook for the
source of the Mississippi and his report on
this subject was held to be correct for
some years afterwaFd. lie did, however,
get on the true Mississippi higher up, at
Cass Lake. His map shows no trace of
anything beyond.
schoolcrnft's Method of Naming.
I'm 1870 the Hon. Lewis Cass, accom-
panied by Henry X. Schoolcraft, the his
torian, went on an exploring expedition UP
the Mississippi as far as Cass Lake, 50
named at the time by Schoolcraft. In 1929
an Italian traveller, j. G.. Beltrami, went
over David Thompson's route to Turtle Lake
and reported that lake TO be the true source
Evidently, however, he heard from the In
dams about Lake ItaSea, for he mapped ii
with approximate accuracy, though he was
never there, and did not imagine that the
Father of Waters sprang thence.
Lake Itasca was rediscovered in 1882
when SchoOlcraft, accompanied by Lieut.
Allen, U. s. A., the Rev. MIR. Boutwell, and
others, was guided to the lake by Chip
peway Indian named Oza Windib, other
wise known Yellow Head. On this &C.
Casion Lake Itasca received it's present
name, which was made up of parts of the
words Neritas Caput-signifying the true
head OF the river. The Latin was bad, fol
1t ought to have been 'Verum Caput.' The
lake had previously been known by the
French name of Lac a la Biche, meaning
Elk Lake. This was merely a transla ton
of the Chippeway 'Omoshkos Sogiagon'
have already spoken of the shape of the
lake as resembling an elk's antlers
''Schoolcraft was very fond of such verbal
5ugglery as he used in forming the name OF
Lake 1tasca. An island in Cass Lake he
called Colaspi Island. the designation beins
made up of fragments of the names School
craft, Cass and Pike. The name he gave 10
Lake Shiba was composed of the initials of
Schoolcraft, Houghton, Johnston, Bout
well and Allen. The j of Johnston was
made to serve as an L.
Modern Expeditions
'Schoolcrafts party made hurried ex-