Faith and Uncharted Lands

Faith and Uncharted Lands. . Pere Marquette State Park gets its name from Father Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary priest who came to North America to share his faith with the native people. Father Marquette joined an expedition led by Louis Jolliet, commissioned in 1673 by the Governor of New France to explore the Mississippi River and determine if it was inland water route to the Pacific Ocean., Marquette and Jolliet set out from St. Ignace in birch bark canoes and traveled on the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi River. They continued as far south as the Arkansas River. Convinced that the Mississippi flowed to the Gulf of Mexico, they worked their way back upstream. On their return voyage they traveled up the Illinois River, passing by what is now the park., Marquette's journal provides the first written description of the land that is now Illinois:, We have seen nothing like this river[the Illinois]…for the fertility of the land, its prairies, woods, wild cattle, elk, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parrots, and even beaver; its many small lakes and rivers. That on which we sail is wide, deep and still., (aside:), Painted Monsters, Prior to the start of their voyage, some Menominee Indians warned Marquette that he would encounter "horrible monsters, which devoured men and canoes…" As Marquette and Jolliet neared the area that is present day Alton, Illinois, they saw a painting high up on the river bluffs., "While skirting some rocks, which by their height and length, inspired awe, we saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made us afraid and upon which the boldest savages dare not rest their eyes". (from Marquette's journal, 1673, translated), Most people have come to know the legendary figures painted on the bluffs near Alton as "The Piasa Bird", but the creatures in Father Marquette's version do not have wings., Weathering erased the image from the bluffs only decades after Marquette's observation. People can only speculate about its actual location and appearance.