Opening the text

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

History

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

Name: Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832
Author: Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

Great Lakes (North America); Mississippi River -- Sources; Northwest, Old -- Description and travel

INTRODUCTION OF THE PALÆONTOLOGICAL ROCKS.--After passing some fifty
miles below this locality there are evidences that the river, in its
progress south, has now reached the vicinity of the great carboniferous
and metalliferous formations, which, for so great a length, and in so
striking a manner, characterize both banks of the Mississippi below St.
Anthony's Falls. About nine or ten miles before reaching these Falls,
this change of geological character is developed; and on reaching the
Falls the river is found to be precipitated, at one leap, over strata of
white sandstone, overlaid by the metalliferous limestone. The channel is
divided by an island, and drops in single sheets, about sixteen to
eighteen feet, exclusive of the swift water above the brink, or of the
rapids for several hundred yards below. This sandstone is composed of
grains of pure and nearly limpid quartz, held together by the cohesion
of aggregation. If my observations were well taken it embraces,
sparingly, orbicular masses of hornblende. It is horizontal, and
constitutes, in some places, walls of stratification, which are
remarkable for their whiteness and purity. This sandstone is overlaid by
the cliff limestone, the same in character, which assumes at some points
a silicious, and at others, a magnesian character. It is manifestly the
same great metalliferous rock which accompanies the lead ore of Missouri
and mines of Peosta or Dubuque. There rests upon it the elder drift
stratum of boulders, pebble, and loam, which marks the entire valley.
This latter embraces boulders of quartz and hornblende rock, along with
limestones and sandstones. It is overlaid by about eighteen inches of
black alluvial carbonaceous mould.

From St. Anthony's Falls the river is perpetually walled on either side
with those high and picturesque cliffs which give it so imposing and
varied an appearance, and its current flows on with a majesty which
seems to the imagination to make it rejoice in its might, confident of a
power which will enable it to reach and carry its name to the ocean in
its unchanged integrity.

ST. PETER'S RIVER AND VALLEY.--The importance, fertility, and value of
this tributary have particularly impressed every member of the party.
Its position as the central point of the Sioux power, and its border
position to the Chippewas, the representative tribe of the great
Algonquin family, render it now a place of note, which fully justifies
the policy of the department in establishing a military post at the
confluence of the river; and the importance cannot soon pass away, in
the progress of the settlement of the Mississippi Valley.[229] It is the
great route of communication with the valley of the Red River of the
North, and the agricultural and trading settlements of Lord Selkirk in
that fertile valley, and its complete exploration by a public officer is
desirable, if not demanded.[230]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

History

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

Great Lakes (North America); Mississippi River -- Sources; Northwest, Old -- Description and travel

INTRODUCTION OF THE PALÆONTOLOGICAL ROCKS.--After passing some fifty
miles below this locality there are evidences that the river, in its
progress south, has now reached the vicinity of the great carboniferous
and metalliferous formations, which, for so great a length, and in so
striking a manner, characterize both banks of the Mississippi below St.
Anthony's Falls. About nine or ten miles before reaching these Falls,
this change of geological character is developed; and on reaching the
Falls the river is found to be precipitated, at one leap, over strata of
white sandstone, overlaid by the metalliferous limestone. The channel is
divided by an island, and drops in single sheets, about sixteen to
eighteen feet, exclusive of the swift water above the brink, or of the
rapids for several hundred yards below. This sandstone is composed of
grains of pure and nearly limpid quartz, held together by the cohesion
of aggregation. If my observations were well taken it embraces,
sparingly, orbicular masses of hornblende. It is horizontal, and
constitutes, in some places, walls of stratification, which are
remarkable for their whiteness and purity. This sandstone is overlaid by
the cliff limestone, the same in character, which assumes at some points
a silicious, and at others, a magnesian character. It is manifestly the
same great metalliferous rock which accompanies the lead ore of Missouri
and mines of Peosta or Dubuque. There rests upon it the elder drift
stratum of boulders, pebble, and loam, which marks the entire valley.
This latter embraces boulders of quartz and hornblende rock, along with
limestones and sandstones. It is overlaid by about eighteen inches of
black alluvial carbonaceous mould.

From St. Anthony's Falls the river is perpetually walled on either side
with those high and picturesque cliffs which give it so imposing and
varied an appearance, and its current flows on with a majesty which
seems to the imagination to make it rejoice in its might, confident of a
power which will enable it to reach and carry its name to the ocean in
its unchanged integrity.

ST. PETER'S RIVER AND VALLEY.--The importance, fertility, and value of
this tributary have particularly impressed every member of the party.
Its position as the central point of the Sioux power, and its border
position to the Chippewas, the representative tribe of the great
Algonquin family, render it now a place of note, which fully justifies
the policy of the department in establishing a military post at the
confluence of the river; and the importance cannot soon pass away, in
the progress of the settlement of the Mississippi Valley.[229] It is the
great route of communication with the valley of the Red River of the
North, and the agricultural and trading settlements of Lord Selkirk in
that fertile valley, and its complete exploration by a public officer is
desirable, if not demanded.[230]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

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