CHAPTER I. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 



EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS 



IN MINNESOTA. 



BY N. H. WJNCHELL. 



The geographical position of Minnesota is such that for the last two 

 hundred years it has been the ultima thule for western travelers and 

 adventurers. Before railroads and highways had made it possible to reach 

 the state from the Atlantic cities easily and quickly, it was the turning- 

 back point for most explorers, traders and adventurers. The route by the 

 great lakes terminated at Fond du Lac, the head of the great system of 

 inland lakes of North America. The route by the Mississippi for canoes 

 either ceased at the Falls of St. Anthony, or, if pushed further, was lost in 

 a labyrinth of small streams and lakes in which the Mississippi has its 

 origin. Westward from the Mississippi, or at least westward from the Red 

 river of the North, and the St. Peter's, extended the boundless prairies of 

 the continent, to cross which, or to enter on which, was, to most travelers, 

 too arduous and too fruitless an enterprise; and few were hardy enough to 

 penetrate so far as the "Shining Mountains," which constituted the next 

 natural goal of the explorer's ambition. Not only the zeal of the mis- 

 sionary, but the cupidity of the fur-trader avant coureurs of American 

 civilization found in Minnesota a long halting-place. Hence a multitude 

 of published "journals" and "expeditions," or "visits," have made Minne- 

 sota widely known throughout both English and French-speaking countries. 

 Many of these volumes are ignored in the following historical synopsis. 



