Explorations of Verendrje and His Sons zyy 



{^Papcr A'.] 



EXPLORATIONS OF VERENDRYE AND HIS SONS, 



FROJVI LAKE SUPERIOR TO THE ROCKY 



MOUNTAINS, 1728 TO 1749. 



By Warren Upham, 



My first interest in the life and work of Verendrye. the 

 heroic first explorer of the northern border of Minnesota, came 

 from my search for the origin, meaning, and earliest use of our 

 Minnesota geographic names. In the year 1728, when Pierre 

 Gautier Varennes, more commonly known by his title as the 

 Sieur de la Verendrye, was stationed as an agent of the fur 

 trade at lake Nipigon, north of lake Superior, a rudely sketched 

 map was drawn for him by an intelligent Assiniboine Indian, 

 named Ochagach, with aid by other Indians, tracing the canoe 

 route of streams, lakes, and portages, from lake Superior 

 along the north boundary of the present state of Minnesota to 

 the Lake of the Woods, and thence northwestward to lake 

 Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan river. This aboriginal de- 

 lineation of geographic features northwest of lake Superior, 

 with some names inserted by the French as derived from the 

 Indians, was shown by Verendrye to Beauharnois, the gov- 

 ernor of Canada, and about the year 1730 it was sent to France. 

 The noted French geographer, Bellin, writing at Paris twen- 

 ty-five years later, mentioned this sketch drawn by Ochagach 

 for Verendrye as the earliest map of the country beyond lake 

 Superior in the archives of the French Department of the 

 Colonies. It remained unpublished, however, more than a 

 hundred and fifty years, until a tracing of it was printed by 

 Dr. Edward D. Neill, in 1882, in the fourth edition of his 

 History of Minnesota. Two years afterward it was reprinted 

 by Prof. N. H. Winchell in the first volume of his final report 

 on the Geological and Natural History Survey of this state. 



The series of many small lakes on our northern boundary 

 is conspicuous on this map, and the thirteenth lake outlined, 

 larger than any of the twelve others preceding it on the route 

 going westward, is named Lac Sesakinaga, evidently the same 

 as our present lake Saganaga. Rainy lake is called Lac 

 Tecamamisuen ; but the lake of the Woods and lake Winni- 



