The Bemidji pioneer., 1901-06-06
Explorations
of Beltrami
Interesting Account Of ExpIora-
tons in This County Nearly
100 Years Ago.

Haner the court house library has
been increased with two volumes
which will forever be of great in
terest to the people Of this county
as we'll as of the world Of historical
students. These books are the
most valuable from the fact that
there is only one other set known
to be in existence. They were
printed in 1928. II was only de-
tective work and ads in eastern
papers that Mr.. Haner succeeded
in securing the two volumes which
are the personal experiences Of J..
G. Beltrami, the Italian traveller,
from whom this county derives its
name.
But it is not the name of the
author which makes the book a
prize to this county. Beltrami
was the first white man to discover
the true sources of the Mississippi
and the Red rivers In Turtle River
township. In the SECOND volume
he tells Of this discovery and gives
a minute description Of the entire
upper length of the Mississippi and
surrounding country.
Beltrami was formerly judge
of a royal court in the ex-kingdom
of Italy. He came to America in
1923, and in the fall Of that year
had reached the country which
now bears his name MS a county.
He came up from St. Louis to Fort
st. Peter (nOw called Snelling),
up the St. Peter river (now Mime
sota), to Lake Traverse and along
the Red river to the Canadian
border Mt Pembina. There he left
the government expedition he had
travelled with and with twoIndi.
ans as guides he struck out for the
southeast, which section was as a
sealed book to the white race. AS
a newspaper we cannot spare the
space to repeat his thrilling ad !.
ventures among the semi hostile
Chippewns who then held nndis-
puted sway in the Red Lake conn
try at the source Of the Red River
Of the Moth Chen called Bloody
River and Lake). But we must
reproduce that part which deals
with his discovery of the height Of
land in the vicinity of what il now
the home Of j. w. Speelman, at
Buena Vista. In eloquent Ian
gaage, Beltrami speaks as follows:
We are now on the highest land
Of North America, if we except
the icy and unknown mountains
which ale lost in the prohlematic
regions of the pole Of that part of
the world. Yet all is here plain
and level, and the hill is merely
ali eminence formed, as it were,
for an. observatory.
Casting our eye around us we
perceive the flow of waters-to the
south towards the Gulf Of Mexico,
to the north towards the Frozen
sea, on the east to the Atlantic,
and on the west towards the Pacific
ocean.
A vast platform crowns this
distinguished supreme elevation,
| and what is still more astonishing,
| in the midst of it rises a lake.
How is this lake formed !?
Whence do its waters proceed /?
These questions can be solved by
the grand architect alone; man
can merely Suggest conjectures.
This lake has no issue, and my
eyes, which are not deficient in
sharpness, cannot discover in the
Il s ~ L. = =
whole extent of the clearest and
widest horizon, and land which
| rises above the level Of it. All
places around it are, OH the con
trary, considerable lower. / have
made long excursions in nil its en-
yirons, and have been unable to
perceive any volcanic traces Of
which its banks are equally desti.
tute. Yet it's waters boil up in
the middle and all nay sounding
lines have been insufficient to as.
certain its depths; which may in.
dictate that they spring from the
bottom of some gulf. the cavities
| of which extend far into the bowels