The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-12
EARLY Day EXPLORERS
GROSELLIERS AND RADISSON FIRST
WHITE MEN ON MINNIE
sofa SOIL
LANDED ON PRAIRIE ISLAND
Accompanied by Large Band of
Indians, They Passed the
Summer Near
WinOna.

| regular monthly meeting at the Cdpllol
building last night. The attendance was
much lighter, than usual and the pro-
gramme was short. Gen. John B. San
! born was elected second vice president
| to fill the vacancy and mention was
| made of the death of two members since
! the last meeting. They are William Daw-
! son, who died in this city Feb. 10, and
| DR., William H. Egle, who died at Har-
! risburg, Pa, on the same date The for
| mer was prominent in st. Paul and was
mayor from 1878 to 1881.
Samuel r. Thayer, Minneapolis, and
! Arthur M. Wickwire, st. Paul, were
elected by vote to life membership. Fifty
seven books, lis pamphlets, 20 newspa-
! pers 100 maps, l atlas, portraits, 10
articles for the museum We're received
/ during the month of February.
After the business meeting of the eX-
ecutiVe council Secretary Warren Upham
read a paper on Explorations and Maps
| of Minnesota" Which was in part as fol-
lows:
The earliest white men to explore any
part of Minnesota were two French adj
venturerS, seeking for the extension of
the fur trade in this far. Western region,
named GrOSeilliers and RadisSon. The
MARI alton Of their explorations, written
by Radisson in English when he later en-
tered the service of the Hudson Bay
company, remained unpublished until 1885.
Much discussion has arisen concerning
the exact dates of their two Western eX
petitions. Aided by the researches of
Campbell, and of the honored vice presi-
sell Blakeley, I refer the first Western
expedition of Groseiliers and RadisSOn
to the years 1854 to 1855, when the Jesuit
relations tell of two Frenchmen, but
! without giving their names, who were
absent from Quebec these two years, Wis
itiug the same remote region of which
we learn in Radissons narrative
In the spring of 1865, according to this
Interpretation of the somewhat obscure
and confused account given by Radisson,
before the snow and ice were gone
which forbade the use of canoes, these
two Frenchmen, with ABOUT $50 men and
women Of the native tribes, travelled al
most fifty leagues or snowshoes, coming
to river side where they spent three
weeks in making boats This journey
was, if l rightly Identify the route, from
. the vicinity of Green Bay, in Eastern
Wisconsin, across that state to the
= Mississippi, reaching this river near the
what further south. Thence they Voy-
aged up the river eight days to villages
Of two tribes, probably in the vicinity Of
Winona; where they obtained meal and
corn which supplied this large company
until they 'came to the first landing
isle
The description indicates that thew
passed along Lake Pepin and upward to
| the large Isle Pelee Cor Bald island.
now called Prairie island, on the Mime
sofa side of the main river channel above
rived its name from it's being partly
a prairie, a large number of Hurons,
fleeing from their enemies, the Iroquois,
had recently taken refuge, and had be-
gun the cultivation of corn. Their har-
vest the preceding year, on newly work
ed land, was SMALL but much corn
would be needed for food during the long
journey thence to Quebec with beaver
skins, which Groseilliers and Radisson
wished to begin soon after their arrival
on the island They were obliged to
! in f1Nn
ilers spent the summer on Isle Pelee and
in it's vicinity, one Of his chief objects
being to provide a large supply Of corn
for the return journey. Meanwhile Rad
isson went with hunting parties, and
Travelled four months without
doing anything but go from river to
river, He was enamored of the beau
ty and fertility of the country. and was
astonished at it's herds of buffaloes and
antelopes f1ocks Of pelicans. and the
shoVel-nosed sturgeon, all of which he
first year, 1856, of observations and ex-
plorations by white men in Minnesota,
and their earliest navigation of the up
per part of the Mississippi river Ac-
companied by several hundred Hurons
and other AlgonquinS, and carrying a
! Tiers and RadiSSon returned to Montreal
| and Quebec in August, 1856.
| The earliest recorded mapping of any
! part of Minnesota was by a Dakota or
Sioux chief, twenty-five years after the
| In the autumn of $780, Duluth, Hennepin,
| and their other French companions who
had spent the summer with the isanti
tribe of the Dakotas in the Mile Laos
region, were allowed to depart, having
promised to bring goods to establish
| trading post. The route chosen for their
! return to the East was by voyaging
from Mile Laos down the Rum river
| Called the st. Francis by Hennepin),
thence down the Mississippi to the Wis
| consin river, and thence up that stream
and over portages to Green Bay. For
this journey the chief of the Isanti tribe
| traced the route on a paper and marked
| it's portages.
In the ensuing part of this address,
the progress of explorations and map
ping of the area of Minnesota was fol-
| lowed through its three epochs: First,
Of the French, from 1855 to 1853, when
| New France passed to the possession of
| Great Britain; second, English colonial
and United States explorations, to 1919,
! when Minnesota was set apart and thus
named as a territory; and third. of tea
| rltorial and state developments with the
exact surveys by the United States So.
eminent, and the exploration of the re-
! sources of Minnesota, IT'S building
stones, iron ores, etc, by the state geo.
| logical survey.