A Life on the American Frontiers: Collected Works of Henry Schoolcraft. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

up the bruises and chafings they complained of, but it replenished them with strength; they commenced the week’s labor with renewed zest, and this zest was, in a measure, kept up by the reflection, that the ensuing Sabbath would be a day of rest. It was found by computing the whole route, and comparing the time employed, with that which had been devoted on similar routes, in this part of the world, that an equal space had been gone over, in less time, than it had ever been known to be performed, by loaded canoes, or (as the fact is) by light canoes, before. And the whole expedition, its incidents and results, have been of a character furnishing strong reasons for uniting in ascriptions of praise to that Eternal Power, who hath been our shield from “the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day.”

      EXPLORATORY TRIP

       THROUGH THE

       ST. CROIX AND BURNTWOOD

       (OR BRULÉ) RIVERS.

       Table of Contents

       ST. CROIX and MISACODA or BURNTWOOD RIVERS.

      INTRODUCTORY MEMORANDA.

       Table of Contents

      The principal points at which the waters of the Mississippi river communicate, by interlocking rivers and portages, with the lakes, are the following, proceeding from south to north, namely,

      1. By the Illinois and Chicago Creek, (with Lake Michigan.)

      2. By the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, (with Green Bay.)

      3. By the Chippewa and Mushkee (or Mauvais) Rivers, (with Lake Superior.)

      4. By the St. Croix and Burntwood (or Brulé) Rivers, (do.)

      5. By the Savanne and St. Louis Rivers, (do.)

      The routes by the Illinois, and by the Wisconsin, were first laid open by French enterprise, and have been used for canoes and flat-bottomed boats in their natural state, and without any practical improvement which as yet, facilitates the communication, about a hundred and sixty years. They are so familiar in our geography, have been so much explored, and are so well appreciated, as prominent points for effecting canal and railroad routes, that it is only to be desired that early and efficient measures should be taken for opening them.

      The route of the Chippewa (or Sauteaux) River, is imperfectly known, and has never been fully and accurately delineated and described. It is a long river, having a number of fingered branches, which spread over a large area of interior midland country. They are connected, at distant points, with the principal sources of the St. Croix and the Wisconsin of the Mississippi; with the Mushkee, the Montreal, and the Ontonagon of Lake Superior; and with the Monomonee, and the North Branch of Fox River of Green Bay. The portages are of no great length, but being at considerable altitudes above both the Mississippi and the lakes, and remote from either, they are impracticable for boats.

      In 1766 or ’67, J. Carver ascended the Chippewa River to the Ottawa Fork. He ascended it no higher, and his delineations of it, on the map which accompanied his original work, published in London, cannot now be referred to. Dr. Douglass Houghton, and Lieut. Robert E. Clary, U. S. A. delineated this stream, in 1831, to the junction of the Red Cedar Fork, and up that fork to its source in Lac Chetac; they continued the delineation of the route thence, by portages, into the Ottawa Fork of the Chippewa, up that river to Lac Courtorielle, or Ottawa Lake, and thence by a series of short portages, to the Namakagon Branch of the St. Croix, and up that branch, to the commencement of the series of portages, which connect it with the Mushkee or Mauvais River of Lake Superior. The latter river was delineated in its entire length. These topographical observations, were commenced at the most easterly point of the route. They remain in manuscript. Duplicates of them have been communicated to the government.

      The route of the St. Croix and Brulé, describes a shorter line between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, than the preceeding; and it is one, that has been, and continues to be, much used by the traders and by the resident Indian population. We cannot refer, however, to any accurate delineation of it, or to any printed account of the country. Carver, in his way to the Kiministiquoia, or Grand Portage, visited the upper forks of the St. Croix, and descended the Burntwood, or Brulé, to which he gave the name of Goddard’s River.

      The channel of communication which exists through the Savanne and St. Louis Rivers, was delineated by Capt. D. B. Douglass, as a member of the expedition sent into that quarter by the government in 1820. But the result of his observations, has not been given to the public. The route has been again delineated with care, in its whole extent, from Fond du Lac to Sandy Lake, during the present year, by Lieut. James Allen, of the U. S. Army, and will with his other delineations, be transmitted for the use of the Topographical Bureau at Washington.

      Lieut. Allen’s delineations, also, embrace the St. Croix and Burntwood Rivers, in their whole length; and exhibit the first actual survey of these streams, which the topographical history of the region, presents.

      Portions of these surveys have been prepared by the officer making them, to illustrate the present volume, together with the octavo sketches, which accompany the Narrative to Itasca, Cass and Leech Lakes.

      EXPLORATION

       OF THE

       ST. CROIX AND BURNTWOOD RIVERS.

      CHAPTER I.

       Table of Contents

       Interval of the banks of the Mississippi, between the mouths of the River De Corbeau and St. Croix, adverted to.—Plains above St. Anthony’s Falls, agricultural.—Fact respecting the recession of the bison.—Geological change in the character of the Mississippi, in crossing 45 deg. parallel.—Fort Snelling.—Council.—Reach the mouth of the St. Croix.—Picturesque character of St. Croix Lake.—Traits of its natural history.—Encamp near a diminutive kind of barrows.—“Standing Cedars.”—An Indian trader.—Green-stone rock.—Falls of the St. Croix.—Traditionary account of an ancient Indian battle, fought at these falls by the Chippewas, Saucs, Foxes, and Sioux.—Wahb Ojeeg.

      That portion of the Upper Mississippi, lying between the junction of the De Corbeau and St. Anthony’s Falls, presents to the eye a succession of prairie and forest land, which has the characteristics of a valuable agricultural country. It is difficult in passing it, to resist the idea, that it will, at some future day, sustain a dense population. It is so elevated above the bed of the Mississippi, as to be out of the reach of its periodical floods. The banks are rendered permanent by resting upon a basis of fixed rocks, (the primitive,) which appear in the channel of the river. The soil is arable upland, apparently light, but of that ferruginous character, which has turned out so durable and fertile in Michigan. Like the prairies of the latter, the plough might be set in motion, without the labor of clearing and grubbing, and a farm reclaimed with no additional labor but that of fencing. Wood is often wanting on the immediate margin of the river. It is not always so; and when thus wanting, forests may be observed on the hilly grounds, at a distance. Wild hay might be cut in any quantity. It is among the facts which mark the natural history of the region, that the buffalo, or more strictly speaking, the bison, which fed on these plains, in 1820, has not appeared here since. The Virginia deer and the elk are, however, still abundant. The absence of lime stone will probably prove the most formidable bar to its settlement. Nothing of this kind is found except in its southern borders. There appears to be no formations of rock elevated above the soil, but the limited district called the Pètites Roches. And the strata here are exclusively referable to the primitive series.

      The entrances of a small river called Nokassippi,