Great River Road
Documenting the Great River: Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

In general, we take geography for granted. In our era of satellite navigation and global positioning systems, one click in the right place will map out an entire country for our use. In the 19th Century, however, the only mapping tools were the human eye and the trained quill pen, driving geographers to leave their offices for several-month expeditions into the unknown. One of the great geographers of the Mississippi was Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who was an integral part of several expeditions to map the source of the Mississippi River.

The Mississippi played a major role in the politics of American history, acting as an indisputable natural border. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the Treaty of Paris drew the northern border of the United States from the northernmost point of the Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota due westward to the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, neither the British nor the Americans knew that the Mississippi's source lay well to the south of the Lake of the Woods. To prevent further problems, Governor Lewis Cass undertook an expedition in 1821 to determine the source of the Mississippi and the geography and natural resources of the area.

Schoolcraft practiced a passion for geography and geology throughout his life. He had spearheaded an expedition into the Ozark Mountains, and became the first to publish a written account of the region's resources. With his experience, Schoolcraft was a natural choice for the Cass Expedition, who determined the source of the Mississippi as Lake Cass.

Schoolcraft would make Minnesota his home after the Cass Expedition. He married Jane Johnson, a half-Ojibwe woman who taught him the language and lore of the local Indian population. He served as Indian Agent for several years, and it was during a settlement in 1832 that he discovered the true source of the Mississippi, a lake he named Lake Itasca. Schoolcraft's memoirs would also inspire Longfellow's immortal poem Hiawatha.

Schoolcraft's life work shows another facet of the great importance of the Mississippi. Today, you can follow the Great River Road through to the source at Lake Itasca State Park, and discover the Mississippi for yourself.

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