Search for the Mississippi's Source

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 Giacomo Beltrami , 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 intertribal peace treaty. , Financed by Natural Resources Fund , seal of The Minnesota Historical Society, Instituted 1849 , Erected by the Minnesota Historical Society , 1990.