The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-09-08


May, 1866, to June, l6j6, about four
teen months.
My Identification, as thus stated, of
/ Radisson's first landing isle accord
ing with Il suggestion of Henry Camp
bell, differs widely from the view taken
by the late Capt. Russell Blakeley, the
honored and beloved vice president of
the Minnesota Historical society, in his
paper published severaI years ago in
! Volume VIII. of its Historical Colec-
tions. He thought that island to be
probably in Lake Saganaga, on the
northern boundary of Minnesota. There
fore it is desirable to give quite eXplic-
lilly my reasons in favor of Prairie
island. These may be received as con
elusive, yet while indulging much len
iency toward other views, because even
the Indian geographic names, and also
the direction of journeys, as northward
or southwark, are generally wanting in
| the crude account of these earliest eX-
plorcrs in Il previously unknown region.
First, the geographic features and dis
tances of the route from Green bay or
Lake Winnebago to the Mississippi, and
up this river to Prairie island seem to
me harmonious with Radisson's nara
Lake Superior and northward to Sagan-
aga lake differs greatly from what is
narrated of the snowshoe and canoe
journeys.
Second Many of the Hurons and OF
tawas, escaping from their foes, the
fierce Iroquis, are known, by other and
contemporaneous historical testimony,
to have fled to the Mississippi and set
tied at Prairie island about this time,
and the narration shows that the In
dams who are said to have come newly
there were Huron refugees. These In
dams never penetrated to the far north
ern and cold country beyond Lake Su-
perior
! Third-Ihe cool climate and predom-
| inantly rocky land of our northern
boundary from Lake Superior to the
mouth of Rainy lake. l,434 feet above
the sea, and the many islands, making
corn raising there on II large scale, quite
| impossible; whereas the extensive
Prairie island, go to 735 feet above the
sea, and situated three and IL half de-
grees farther south, with an easily cul-
tivated and very productive alluvial
soil, is by nature most admirably
adapted for the primitive agriculture of
the aborigines and for their most val
liable crop, Indian corn.
Fourth Radisson distinctly says
that in starting toward the great river
and its first landing isle" they babe
farewell to the Indians of the Sault
Ste. Marie and of the north.
Fifth-IIe also states that in the re-
gion of that island beavers were not so
plentiful as lin the north part" show
ing that they were then farther south
than during the preceding winter, which
they had spent about the northern end
of Lake Michigan.
Sixth-The journey of return from
that island was first to the south and
then to the north. This description APP
plies to the canoe voyage from Prairie
island southwark down the Mississippi,
and then northward up the Wisconsin
river and down the Fox river to Green
bay. 1t could not describe any route of
return from Lake Saganaga.
No other locality on or near the
isfy the requirements of the narration !;
nor can any other island in the Missis-
sippi or in any other river of this re-
gion, meet these requirements so sat
isfactorily as Prairie island, which is
the largest in all the course of the Mis-
sissippi. The Identification seems to me
to stand in the clearest light, without
a shadow of reason for distrust.
Many islands had been passed in the
long canoe journey up the Mississippi,
but the first landing ISLE was the first
having sufficient height and extent to
be adapted for permanent settlement by
the Indians and later by white men.
This name seems to imply a second isle
farther up the river, rising likewise
above its highest flood stage and there
| fore permanently habitable, which con-
ditions mark Gray Cloud island, about
! four miles long and one to two miles
wide. situated about ten miles above
Prairie Island and five miles above
| Hastings. Both these islands were in
| habited before the coming of white i'm
migration, and even at the time of this
first expedition of Groseilliers and Rad
isson they were probably already known
| by the Indians as the first and second
landing isles" Each shows traces of
very ancient occupancy, made known by
the late Hon. j. V. Brewers archaeo-
logical examination and mapping of
their aboriginal mounds, village sites,
and places of canoe landings.
| Isle Pelee, as Prairie Island was call
ed by the French, is ten and a half