Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-22
The First Vessel on the Lakes.

to the activity of the naval fleets of those
countries rather than to the merchant ma
rine.
The First Vessel on the Lakes.
The first vessel that ever sailed the waters
of the great lakes was called the Griffin
1t was built by Cavalier de La Sale at or
near the present town of Tonawanda in
May 1919 La Sale landed at the mouth
of Niagara river the December previous, and
made friends with the Seneca Indians, who
occupied that country. The Griffin was or
about sixty tons burden An engraving
which appears in a little book published by
Father Hennepin in I'LL shows her to have
been built on the model of Spanish cara
vel and similar to the Santa Maria the
flagship of Columbus, which may now be
seen in the lagoon in South Park, Chicago.
She sailed out of the Niagara river into
Lake Erie August {. 1879, navigated by an
old French saltwater sailor. Detroit was
reached in five days and Mackinac Island in
about two weeks. After a short stay there
she went to Green Bay. took on a cargo of
furs. and, on September 10, 1919, started
on her return voyage to the Niagara river.
La Sale and a portion of his company re-
manned behind and explored the Illinois
river. The Griffin never reached her des-
tination, and her fate remains mystery
to this day. No trace OF her was ever
found, nor were the bodies of any of her
crew ever reported.
The fur companies had several sailing
vessels on Lake Superior. most of them of
small tonnage, which brought furs from
the various station on the lake shore to
headquarters at the 500.
The First Lake Steamer
The first steamer to sail the waters of
Lake Superior was the Independent Of go
tons burden, which was built in Detroit
and hauled UP "the rapids of the Sault Ste.
Marie by oxen.
Thara hoe haap trau,apJons obopoo In
the size, tonnage and capacity of the feet
or Lake Superior since those days, as you
might see by'comparings the picture Of the
little Griffin in Father Hennepins book with
those floating palaces, the Manitou, the
Northwest and the Northland which meas
ure 4.442 tons. and the big ore carriers of
the United States Steel Corporation. The
Great Northern steamers carry over 400
passengers and the Manitou $50, and the
four largest freight carriers have a capacity
of $500 tons of ore.
Many sentimental people and several pro-
fessional geographers have traced the trail
of Cavalier de La Sale through northern
Mime sofa to the Mississippi. At a little
hamlet called Wawina. a station on the Da-
kota Air Line of the Great Northern rail-
way sixty miles west of Duluth, there Is a
portage of only six miles, where he crossed
from the waters that flow into the Atlantic
through the great lakes, Niagara river ana
the st. Lawrence to the waters that flow
to the gulf through the Mississippi. Wa
wilma Is on the left bank Of the latter river
about one hundred miles in an air line
south from its sources in Itasca Bemidji.
Cass and other lakes and ponds. At that
point 1t is about a hundred feet wide and
four feet deep and Is quite rapid.
By following the trail six miles from
Wawina one may reach the bank of the
F'loOdwood river, a small stream not over
ten miles long. which drains a large tract
of marshy ground and empties into the st.
Louis river, which flows into Lake Superior
at Duluth Millions of logs are foated
down that stream every spring.
La Sale padded up the ST. Louis and
the FloodwOod, and was guided by the In
dams across the portage to their landing
ON the banks Of the Mississippi at the pres
ent site OF WaWina.