Search for the Mississippi's Source - Itasca State Park - MN
N 47° 14.398 W 095° 12.478
15T E 332894 N 5234196
This Minnesota Historical Marker is located at Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, Minnesota.
Waymark Code: WMHZT4
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 09/02/2013
Views: 13
This Historical Marker is located by the Mary Gibbs Mississippi Headwaters Center along the path to the Headwaters of the Mississippi River viewing area.
Plaque text:
Search for the Mississippi's Source
The romantic 19th century quest for the source of the Mississippi river brought many explorers -- among them Zebulon Pike, Lewis Cass, and Glacomb Belframi -- to northern Minnesota. The search ended when Ojibwe chief Ozawindib guided Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to Lake Itasca in 1832.
Sent by the United States government to help negotiate a treaty between the Dakota and Ojibwe, Schoolcraft used the opportunity to explore the Mississippi's headwaters area. The expedition, numbering 30, left Sault Ste. Marie in early June and travelled by way of the St. Louis River and Savanna Portage to Sandy Lake, then up the Mississippi to Cass Lake. From there Ozawindib guided them to Lake Bemidji and up the Schoolcraft River, and over a portage to the river's source.
Sorely tried by "voracious long-billed and dyspeptic musketoes" and portages knee-deep in mud, the little band caught their first glimpse of the lake on July 13. It was known to the Indians and traders as "Omushkos" or "Lac la Biche," both meaning Elk Lake, but Schoolcraft renamed it "Itasca" from a combination of the Latin words for "truth" and "head." veritas caput.
Although public interest focused on the long- sought source, the Schoolcraft expedition also collected valuable scientific information inspected fur posts, vaccinated 2,000 Ojibwe against small pox, and achieved an internal peace treaty.
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