Highway of Exploration

Highway of Exploration. . , The Rum and the Mississippi were highways for the earliest recorded European explorers of Minnesota. Many explorers traveled past The Point and some may have camped here including Radission, Hennepin, Du Luth, Pike, Faribault and Nicollet. , Father Louis Hennepin canoed by The Point in July of 1680 as a captive of the Dakota and again in August of 1680 in the company of Daniel Sieur Du Lhut. , In November of 1767 Jonathan Carver stopped at The Point. He is credited with naming the Rum River from a faulty translation of the Dakota words meaning "spirit river" which flowed out of "spirit lake" or Mille Lacs. , In 1836 explorer Joseph N. Nicollet stood at The Point looking down the Mississippi River and recorded this in his diary: "We stopped here so that I could make a geographical reading at this confluence while breakfast was being prepared. The site is charming. The view is unobstructed on the left bank, which is higher than the densely wooded right bank. There is an endless prairie on one side and an impenetrable forest on the other; obvious sterility on the left, seeming fertility on the right. It looks as if one part awaits the plow and the spade, the other the ax and fire."