Sword and Pen Part 48

"I have also to express to you the high appreciation in which the Society holds the valuable contribution to geographical knowledge resulting from your explorations among the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and your discovery of the remotest lake that contributes to the perennial birth of this hydra-headed 'Father of Waters,' whose genesis near the Arctic regions gives it a length of more than three thousand miles to the tropical gulf, to which it bears upon its ample bosom in safety the freightage of an empire.

"I desire, too, to thank you for the interesting lecture just given us upon the achievements of the heroic old explorers, who have, in centuries past, preceded you in investigations of the characteristics of this river. But whilst past investigations have made us familiar with the general character of the stream, and the peculiarities of its many mouths, yet we know very little of its source; and should be gratified, I am sure, if you could give us, this evening, a brief account of the circ.u.mstances attending your explorations in that direction, and of the difficulties you had to encounter in the accomplishment of your object."

In compliance with Captain Bent's request that he would give some account of the events connected with the expedition to the source of the Mississippi, Captain Glazier then briefly narrated the leading incidents of his voyage and explorations. At the conclusion, several gentlemen came forward to congratulate him upon the practical results of his undertaking and expressed their appreciation of the work he had accomplished. The _Itasca_, which occupied a prominent position on the platform, was duly inspected, and afterwards removed to the rooms of the Historical Society.

III. LETTERS PERTINENT TO THE SUBJECT.

A letter from Captain Glazier which appeared in the Saint Paul _Pioneer Press_ in December, 1886, and was copied into several Eastern papers, is here introduced as an epitomized narrative of the discovery. The journey to the headwaters of the Mississippi, the launch of the canoes on Lake Itasca, the search for its feeders and the finding of one larger than the others which the Indian guides said flowed from another lake to the south of it; the pa.s.sage of the canoes up this feeder and the entrance of the explorers upon a beautiful lake which they ascertained by sounding and measurement to be wider and deeper than Itasca, and _the veritable source of the Great River_; all this is succinctly told in the following letter of the leader of the expedition, and we respectfully commend its perusal to the reader:

"_To the Editor--Pioneer Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota_:

"I solicit the favor of replying through your columns to articles in one or two New York dailies calling in question my claim to have definitely located, in 1881, the true source of the Mississippi River.

"When my attention was first drawn to the articles of those who seem so much exercised by my expedition to the headwaters of the Mississippi, I had no intention of replying, but have finally yielded to the reasoning of friends who feel that longer silence might possibly be construed to my disadvantage.

"I am well aware that I a.s.sume grave responsibility in locating the source of the greatest river of North America and correcting a geographical error of half a century's standing, especially since I follow in the footsteps of such eminent explorers as Pike, Beltrami, Schoolcraft and Nicollet; and in view of the fact that I have presumed to pa.s.s the limit of their explorations.

"For many years prior to 1881, I had been of the opinion that Lake Itasca occupied an erroneous position in our geography. In fact I had become satisfied through conversations with straggling Chippewas in the Northwest, that the red man's ideal river did not rise in the lake described by his white brother, but that there were other lakes and streams beyond that lake and that some day the truth of their statements would be verified.

"Thoroughly convinced that there was yet a field for exploration in the wilds of Northern Minnesota I resolved, in 1876, to attempt a settlement of the vexed question concerning the source of the Mississippi at an early day. Finding the opportunity I sought in 1881 I proceeded to Saint Paul in June of that year accompanied by Pearce Giles, of Camden, New Jersey. Here I was joined by my brother George, of Chicago, and Barrett Channing Paine, then an attache of the _Pioneer Press_.

"Having completed arrangements we moved from Saint Paul on the morning of July Fourth with Brainerd as our immediate objective.

Short stops were made at Minneapolis, Monticello, Saint Cloud and Little Falls on our way up the river. Brainerd was reached July seventh. This enterprising town is situated near the boundary of the Chippewa Indian Reservation and is the nearest place of consequence to Lake Itasca. Here I again halted to further inform myself concerning the topography of the country; to decide upon the most practicable route to our destination, and to provide such extra supplies of rations and clothing as might be considered adequate to the requirements of our undertaking.

"After consulting our maps I concluded that while Schoolcraft and Nicollet had found Itasca by going up the river through Lakes Winnibegos.h.i.+sh, Ca.s.s and Bemidji, a more direct course would be by way of Leech Lake and the Kabekanka River.

"A careful study of the route to Leech Lake, with a few valuable suggestions from Warren Leland, of Brainerd, one of its oldest pioneers, led us to seek conveyance to the former place over what is known in Northern Minnesota as the Government Road. This road stretches for seventy-five miles, through immense pine forests, and the only habitations to be seen from it are the 'half-way houses'

erected for the accommodation of teamsters who are engaged in hauling government supplies; and the occasional wigwams of wandering Indians.

"While at the Leech Lake Agency it was our good fortune to meet the post-missionary, Rev. Edwin Benedict; Major A. C. Ruffe, the Indian Agent; Paul Beaulieu, the veteran Government Interpreter; White-Cloud, chief of the Mississippi Indians; Flat-Mouth, head chief of the Chippewas, and others well known at the Agency.

Through conversations with these parties I learned that pioneers of that region were of the opinion that the lake located by Schoolcraft was the source of the Mississippi, but that the Indians invariably claimed that the Great River had its origin above and beyond Itasca, in a beautiful lake known to them as Pokegama, signifying the 'place where the waters gather.'

"Beaulieu, who is perhaps the best authority in Minnesota, having lived for more than sixty years within its borders, said that Chenowagesic, who afterwards became my chief guide, was the most intelligent Chippewa of his acquaintance, had made his home for many years in the vicinity of the headwaters of the Mississippi, and that he had always a.s.serted, when maps were shown him, that a lake above Itasca would in time change a feature of those maps and confirm his statement that Lake Itasca could not longer maintain its claim to being the fountain-head of the Great River.

"Three days were spent at Leech Lake, during which time we secured an interpreter, Indian guides and birch bark canoes. Everything being in order we launched our canoes on the morning of July seventeenth. Wis.h.i.+ng, as previously explained, to approach Itasca by a different route from that adopted by Schoolcraft and Nicollet who went up the Mississippi from Lake Winnibegos.h.i.+sh, I crossed Leech Lake and ascended the Kabekanka River, thence proceeding in a direct westerly course through twenty-one lakes, alternated by as many portages, reaching Itasca between two and three o'clock on the afternoon of the twenty-first. The region traversed, we were told by the guides, had never before been trodden by white men; and considering the nature of the country it is not to be wondered at, as swamps, floating bogs, and dense undergrowth were encountered throughout the entire journey.

"The work of coasting Itasca for its feeders was begun at an early hour on the morning of the twenty-second. We found the outlets of six small streams, two having well-defined mouths, and four filtering into the lake through bogs. The upper or southern end of the south-western arm of Lake Itasca is heavily margined with reeds and rushes, and it was not without considerable difficulty that we forced our way through this barrier into the larger of the two open streams which enter at this point. This stream, at its mouth, is seven feet wide and about three feet deep.

"Slow and sinuous progress of between two and three hundred yards brought us to a blockade of logs and shallow water. Determined to float in my canoe upon the surface of the lake towards which we were paddling, I directed the guides to remove the obstructions, and continued to urge the canoes rapidly forward, although opposed by a strong and constantly increasing current. On pulling and pus.h.i.+ng our way through a network of rushes, similar to that encountered on leaving Lake Itasca, the cheering sight of a tranquil and limpid sheet of water burst upon our view.

"This lake, the Chippewa name of which is _Pokegama_, is about a mile and a half in its greatest diameter, covers an area of two hundred and fifty acres, and would be nearly an oval in form but for a single promontory, which extends its sh.o.r.es into the lake, so as to give it in outline the appearance of a heart. Its feeders are three small creeks, two of which enter on the right and left of the headland, and have their origin in springs at the foot of sand hills from two to three miles distant. The third stream is but little more than a rivulet of a mile in length, has no clearly defined course, and is the outlet of a small pond or lakelet to the south-westward.

"The lat.i.tude of the lake in question is about 47; its height above the Atlantic Ocean 1,582 feet, and its distance from the Gulf of Mexico 3,184 miles.

"The statement that the lake now very generally accepted by geographers, and educational publishers as the True Source of the Mississippi was so regarded prior to the organization of my expedition cannot be substantiated; for, on the contrary, both press and people throughout Minnesota were ignorant of its existence, so far as we were able to ascertain by diligent inquiry from Saint Paul to Brainerd; and, in fact, I may add that the missionary, Indian agent, and post-trader at Leech Lake knew no other source of the Mississippi than Lake Itasca, except what they had been told by my chief guide, Chenowagesic, and a few other Chippewas in that vicinity. Barrett Channing Paine, fully confirms this statement in his letters to the Brainerd, Minneapolis, and Saint Paul papers of that period. These letters prove most conclusively that the people of Northern Minnesota had no knowledge whatever of the lake beyond Itasca until its existence was announced by me through the medium of the press in 1881.

"If the a.s.sumption by some writers that the lake to the south of Itasca had been seen before my visit to that region in 1881 is well grounded, I need only say in reply that it had not been a.s.signed any geographical importance prior to my visit; in other words, it had not been recognized by any one as the true source of the Mississippi.

"When William Morrison, the fur-trader, pitched his tent on Schoolcraft Island in 1804, he evidently did not know that the outlet of the lake on which he looked was a part of the mighty river. Schoolcraft followed, at the head of an expedition twenty-eight years later, and claimed the lake as the source of the Mississippi. It is very generally admitted that Morrison had seen Itasca before Schoolcraft, but no one questioned that the latter was ent.i.tled to the credit of discovery, since he was the first to establish the fact that the Mississippi was its outlet. My claim to have definitely located the _true source_ in the lake beyond Itasca stands on precisely the same ground.

"I do not desire to pa.s.s a reasonable limit in an effort to insure justice, but having consumed considerable time and money in locating lakes and streams in Northern Minnesota, and having established that the lake to the south of Itasca is the primal reservoir of the Mississippi, I do not feel disposed to allow myself to be thrust aside by those who know comparatively little or nothing of that region.

"a.s.suming that the statements of my party are incontrovertible concerning the lake which we claim as the True Source of the Great River, it follows naturally:

"I. That Lake Itasca cannot longer be recognized as the fountain-head of the Mississippi, for the reason that it is the custom, agreeably to the definition of geographers, to fix upon the remotest water, and a lake if possible, as the source of a river.

"II. That the lake to the south of Itasca, and connected therewith by a perennial stream, is the primal reservoir or True Source of the Mississippi; that it was not so considered prior to the visit of my expedition in 1881; and that my party was the first to locate its feeders correctly, and discover its true relation to the Great River.

"III. That Schoolcraft could not have seen the lake located by me, else he would have a.s.signed it its true character in the narrative of his expedition.

"IV. That Nicollet, who followed Schoolcraft, could not have been aware of its existence, as he gives it no place upon his maps, or description in the accounts of his explorations.

"V. That the lake known as Pokegama by the Chippewas was not christened 'Glazier' by me, or through my instrumentality, but was so named by my companions, in opposition to my wish that it should retain its Indian appellation.

"Finally, whatever the verdict may be upon the merits of my claim to have been the first to locate the _source_ of the Mississippi River and publish it to the world, if any person had seen this lake prior to 1881 it was certainly not known to the white residents of Northern Minnesota, or to the Indian tribes in the vicinity of its headwaters. Lake Itasca was still recognized as the fountain-head, was so placed upon maps, and taught as such in all the schools of the country.

"I simply claim to have established the fact that there is a beautiful lake above and beyond Itasca--wider and deeper than that lake--with woodland sh.o.r.es--with three constantly flowing streams for its feeders--and in every way worthy of the position it occupies as the primal reservoir or TRUE SOURCE of the Father of Waters.

"Willard Glazier.

Syracuse, New York, December, 1886."

A letter from Pearce Giles, of Camden, New Jersey, who was identified with the GLAZIER expedition from its inception to its close:

"_To the Editor--Boston Herald_:

"In 1832 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft led an expedition through the wilds of Northern Minnesota and discovered what he believed to be the source of the Mississippi. Being at a loss for an appropriate name to bestow upon the lake which const.i.tuted this supposed source, so the story goes, he asked a companion what were the Latin words signifying 'true head,' and received in reply '_veritas caput_.'

This was rather a ponderous name to give a comparatively small body of water, even though the Father of Waters here took his first start in the world. The explorer, therefore, conceived the idea of uniting the last two syllables of the first word with the first syllable of the second, thus, by a novel mode of orthography, forming a name which might easily pa.s.s for one of Indian origin--_Itasca_. A person versed in orthographical science would probably perceive at once that the name did not belong to the same family of harsh Indian appellations which have affixed themselves permanently to many towns and rivers in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but was more allied to the softer language of southern Indian nations. But it has now been discovered that Lake Itasca is not _veritas caput_; and LAKE GLAZIER, discovered in July, 1881, by Captain Willard Glazier, must be regarded by all future generations as the true head of the Mississippi.

"The Mississippi, on its first stages, flows in a northerly direction, the whole system of small lakes which contribute to it being surrounded on the north and west by an amphitheatre of hills.

LAKE GLAZIER lies above and beyond Lake Itasca, and its waters have an elevation of probably seven feet above that lake, being connected therewith by a small, swift stream. Lake Itasca is composed of three arms, extending in the form of a trefoil, having a length of five miles and an average width of about one mile. The upper, or southern end of its middle arm apparently terminates in a swamp, which might easily have deceived any one not familiar with the country. But Chenowagesic, Captain Glazier's Indian guide, who had for years used the region of these lakes for his hunting-ground, readily made his way through the reeds and rushes at the mouth of the connecting stream. LAKE GLAZIER at its outlet presents another barricade of reeds, through which the party made their way in their canoes.

"LAKE GLAZIER is about two miles in length by a mile and a half in breadth. Its sh.o.r.es, instead of being low and marshy, as are those of many of the neighboring lakes, present finely wooded slopes and surround the lake in what would have been the shape of a perfect oval, had not a bold, rocky promontory indented its southern end, and given to it the outline of a heart. On the point of this promontory is a spring from which flows ice-cold water. The waters of the lake are exceedingly clear and pure, proceeding from springs, some of them in the bottom of the lake itself, and the others at a greater or less distance from its sh.o.r.es.

"LAKE GLAZIER has three small feeders, one of them named Eagle Creek, entering it near its outlet, and taking its rise a mile or so farther south, in a small pond or lakelet, upon which Captain Glazier bestowed the name of 'Alice,' after his daughter. Eagle Creek runs nearly parallel with the western sh.o.r.e of the lake, a little distance from it. Two streams, two or three miles in length, flow northward into LAKE GLAZIER at its southern extremity on either side of the indenting promontory. Excelsior Creek, so named because it represents the very highest water of the Mississippi, is the longer of these. Deer Creek, to the eastward, and rising a little nearer the lake, has been so named for the reason that numbers of deer were seen in its vicinity.

"LAKE GLAZIER is thus supplied by three feeders, Eagle, Excelsior and Deer Creeks, now named in the order of their importance, and as uniting these waters in one common reservoir, this lake is undoubtedly ent.i.tled to be regarded as the _veritas caput_--the true head of the Mississippi.

"Pearce Giles.