Brief History of Itasca State Park 



By General C. C. Andrews, Secretary of the Minnesota 



State Forestry Board. 



In May 1832, Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft (born at 

 Watervliet, N. Y., March 28, 1793, died in Washington, 

 I). ( 1 ., Dec. 10, 1864), who had served as geologist in 

 Lewis Cass' expedition to Lake Superior in 1820, was 

 instructed by the U. S. War Department to visit the 

 headwaters of the Mississippi river, to promote more 

 peaceful relations between the Chippewa and Sioux 

 Indians and to gather and report information on the 

 condition and needs of the Indians. He was engaged 

 in these duties in the summer of 1832, and his "Nar- 

 rative of an Expedition through the Upper Missis- 

 sippi to Itasca Lake" was published by Harper 

 Brothers in 1834. His party consisting of sixteen 

 persons, Rev. William T. Boutwell, Lieut. James Allen 

 and several Chippewa Indians, in five canoes ascend- 

 ed the Mississippi river from Cass Lake in July, and 

 on the 13th of that month reached Itasca Lake. He 

 writes in his -narrative: "What had been long 

 sought, at last appeared suddenly. On turning out 

 of a thicket into a small weedy opening, the cheer- 

 ing site of a transparent body of water burst upon 

 our view. It was Itasca Lake the source of the 

 Mississippi. ' ' 



He then goes on in a succeeding chapter of his 

 narrative to describe the lake as follows: 



"Itasca Lake, the Lac la Biche of the French, is, 

 in every respect, a beautiful sheet of water, seven or 



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