The Black Hawk War called national attention to the western country. The troops had explored a wilderness little known to the Americans, and the story of their march into Wisconsin had been published in full in the newspapers of the East. Guide-books were issued, painting in brilliant colors the charms of the region, and a tide of westward immigration followed the sale of public lands by the government. Northern Illinois gained a large population, and Wisconsin was made a territory within four years. The foundation of the lake states had been laid; the Northwest had been Americanized. PART III OCCUPATION AND DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER XVII GATEWAYS OF THE GREAT LAKES The Great Lakes are entered from the outer world by a series of natural gateways extending from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the westernmost end of Lake Superior. With a shrewd instinct the savages selected these spots as the centres for their forest trails and as the crossing places over which they could carry their boats from river to lake and lake to river. At these points the French and English erected stockades and forts around which gathered small settlements. Americans, entering at the beginning of the nineteenth century into possession of the country, built there the towns and cities which to-day command the commerce of the Great Lakes. With the founding of these cities the period of permanent occupation begins. The French approached the Great Lakes from Quebec and Montreal. Because of Iroquois hostility they avoided the southern route by Niagara and along Lake Erie, and ascended instead the Ottawa River, crossed Lake Nipissing, and passed through Georgian Bay into Lake Huron. At Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac they built their missions and trading posts. Here Marquette and Joliet heard tales of the great river to the south and the rich copper country to the west, and from these centres the French explorers started on their expeditions into Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. Before the English had explored more than a narrow strip of seaboard the French were travelling up the Fox-Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi, or by way of the Chicago and Illinois rivers to the southern country. Returning parties often proceeded by way of the Kankakee River to the St. Joseph, or by the Wabash and the Maumee to Toledo on Lake Erie.