Trempealeau County, Wisconsin - Chapter 6: Explorers at Trempealeau Mountain, 1917

The scenery in the vicinity of Trempealeau Mountain is perhaps as beautiful as any in the great Mississippi Valley. The bluffs along the river extend about three miles above the village, from Liberty Peak to Trempealeau Mountain, and present many varieties of shape and form, from a low, graceful mound to a towering, rugged cUff. The highest elevation is Brady's Peak, which rises to a height of over five hundred feet above the river, and from its summit a broad view may be had of the surrounding country.

Looking up the river from this peak, Trempealeau Mountain appears far beneath, with its wooded sides sloping towards its crest of evergreens, and its base washed by the waters of the bay that separates it from the mainland. Extending from the bay is a chain of lakes ; farther up, is Trempealeau River, winding among the woods and tall grasses; and in every direction from the river gleam the waters of sloughs where the wild rice bends above the haunts of the wild duck. Far below, gliding in solemn majesty, is the tawny Mississippi, bounded by ragged bluffs and dotted with islands of innumerable shape and size, that rest on the glassy surface like huge wooded rafts. Across the river rise the Minnesota bluffs, holding in their embrace numerous cozy valleys. The hills seem to roll like great green waves, breaking the land into a succession of valleys ; and reposing among them are many sequestered homes.

Indian tradition early associated itself with one peculiarly situated mountain among the Trempealeau range. This, they believed, had been carried off by supernatural force from the neighborhood of a Sioux village on the site of modern Red Wing. When warriors of this tribe found it at its present location they are said to have called it Pah-hah-dah (The moved mountain) ; while the neighboring Winnebago gave it the appellation of Hay-nee-ah-chah (Soaking Mountain).' The French voyageurs translated these terms into La Montague qui trempe a I'eau (The mountain that is steeped in the water) .

The first civilizecl men - to gaze upon the towering crags of Trempealeau Mountain were probably Father Louis Hennepin, a priest of the Order of Recollects of St. Francis, and his two companions, Antoine du Gay Auguel, known from his birthplace as "le Picard," and Michel Accault.^ They were sent out by Robert Cavelier de La Salle from Fort Crevecoeur, near Lake Peoria, IlUnois, February 28, 1680. They were on their way up the Mississippi when they were captured by a band of Sioux warriors on the warpath against the Illinois and Miami nations. These Sioux took the white men to the Mille Lacs region, in northern Minnesota. Hennepin does not mention Trempealeau Mountain. He speaks of the Black River

(R. Noire) and declares that the Sioux called the stream Cha-be-de-ba or Cha-ba-ou-de-ba. He is believed to have spent a night at what is now the site of Winona. He mentions the Buffalo River (R. de Beeuf s) , which he said was full of turtles. It is probable that by Buffalo River he meant the Chippewa River, which he possibly entered through Beef Slough.^ He also speaks of Lake Pepin, which he calls the Lake of Tears (Lac des Pleurs). After spending a while in the Mille Lacs region, Hennepin and Auguel leaving Accault as a hostage, were taken down the Mississippi by the Indians looking for supplies which La Salle was to have sent to the mouth of the Wisconsin. On their way down the river, guarded by a chief Ouasicoude (Wacoota) and a company of Indians, Hennepin and Auguel came to St. Anthony Falls (near Minneapolis) which Hennepin named. They continued down the river, and again passed Trempealeau Mountain. July 11, 1680, while hunting for the mouth of the Wisconsin River, the party was overtaken by more Indians, headed by Aquipaguetin, a Sioux chief who had taken Hennepin into his family as an adopted son. Some time was spent in hunting in the region between the Chippewa River and the Wisconsin River. The squaws hid meat at the mouth of the Chippewa and on various islands. Then the party descended the river and hunted over the prairies further south. July 25, 1680, while again ascending the river, the party encountered Du Luth and a bodyguard of French soldiers. Daniel Greysolon, better known as the Sieur Du Luth (variously rendered), had started out from Montreal on September 1, 1678, explored the Lake Superior region and the territory westward, met the Sioux in the Mille Lacs region, and on July 2, 1779, set up the standard of New France at their village. He returned to Lake Superior from that lake the next summer, ascended the Brule River, made the portage to the St. Croix and was on his way down the Mississippi when he learned that Hennepin and his two companions were in slavery among the Sioux." Hastening to the rescue, Duluth journeyed down the Mississippi with an Indian and two Frenchmen, and after a canoe trip of two days and two nights, overtook Hennepin and about 1,000 Indians. This meeting probably took place near Trempealeau Mountain or possibly somewhat further south. Du Luth fearlessly took Hennepin in his own canoe and started up the river to the Mille Lacs region, which they reached August 14, 1680. There, at a council he upbraided the Indians in scathing terms. He told them that Hennepin was his brother; he denounced them for making Hennepin and the two companions slaves and taking away Hennepin's priestly robes ; he taunted them that after receiving his peace offerings and being associated with Frenchmen for a year, they should have kidnaped other Frenchmen on their way to make them a friendly visit. As a climax, Du Luth returned the peace calumets which the Indians gave him. The savages began to make excuses, but this did not deter Du Luth from his resolution to take Hennepin away. Hennepin himself was rebuked by Du Luth for suffering insult without resentment, as such conduct lowered the prestige of the French. Toward the end of September, Du Luth, Hennepin, and their party once more descended the Mississippi River and reached Canada by way of the Wisconsin River, the Portage, the Fox River and Green Bay.

Thus, in the fall of 1680, Hennepin and Du Luth and their companions beheld for the last time the picturesque surroundings of Trempealeau Mountain.

Hennepin's account of his adventures contains many interesting descriptions of life on this portion of the Mississippi in that far-distant time. One day the Indians in the party captured and killed a deer while it was swimming across the Mississippi. But the weather was so hot the flesh spoiled in a few hours. Thus left without food, the Indians caught a few turtles, but the capture was difficult, Hennepin says, because the turtles would plunge into the water and evade capture. They caught but four fish and were very thankful whenever they could secure a Buffalo fish dropped by an eagle. Hennepin was particularly interested in the peculiar appearance of the Shovelnose Sturgeon. He saw one which an otter caught, and Auguel declared that it reminded him of a devil in the paws of an animal. But after frightening the otter away, they ate the fish and found it very good.

The first white man to maintain a habitation beneath the shadows of Trempealeau Mountain was Nicolas Perrot, who for some twenty years was a trader and interpreter in the Northwest for the French." Perrot arrived at Green Bay, where he was already well known, in the late summer of the year 1685. He found the Indians restless and inclined to intertribal warfare, so that some time was spent in their pacification. It was later than he had planned, therefore, when he set out for the country of the Sioux, where he hoped to secure a great harvest of valuable furs. After crossing the Wisconsin portage, and proceeding down that river to its mouth, he turned his little fleet of canoes boldly upstream ; bur as the weather was growing cold and traveling difficult, they "found a place where there was timber, which served them for building a fort, and they took up their quarters at the foot of a mountain, behind which was a great prairie abounding in wild beasts."** To one familiar with the topography of this section, the description of the site of Perrot's wintering quarters in 1685-86 is very clearly that of the Trempealeau bluffs, because these are the only bluffs near the river having a large prairie in their rear, and Trempealeau Mountain, moreover, is a well-known landmark on the upper Mississippi.

In addition to this, ruins have been discovered which clearly prove the existence of a post at this point at an early period.-' To connect these ruins with Perrot's post, there is the well-known map of Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin, published in 1688, and based undoubtedly on information obtained from Perrot himself."' Franquelin, an engineer of repute and royal hydrographer, visited New France in 1683 and remained several years. His famous map of Louisiana in 1684, drawn to display La Salle's discoveries, has but few indications of upper Mississippi sites. That of 1688, however, records with much accuracy the upper Mississippi region, and since we know Perrot to have been in Quebec in the autumn of 1687, there is every reason to suppose that he furnished Franquelin with the data appearing thereon. Not far above the mouth of Riviere Noire - tne Black River of today - there is written La Butte d' Hyvernement (the hill of the wintering place), which seems to be intended for Trempealeau Mountain, near where the commandant and his party wintered. Fort St. Nicolas, at the mouth of the Wisconsin, and Fort St. Antoine, above the Chippewa, both founded by Perrot, are likewise indicated.

Just when Perrot left his wintering place on the Mississippi and built Fort St. Antoine higher up the river is not certain, but it was probably during the summer of 1686. He was continuously in the upper Mississippi region until the spring of 1687, when he was ordered to proceed eastward with allies and join the French in a war against certain Indians of New York State. In the meantime he had amassed a stock of furs worth 40,000 livres. In his absence on the warpath these were left at the mission house at Green Bay, which was burned by hostile Indians, with the loss of all his peltry."

In the autumn of 1687 he set out once more for the Northwest to retrieve his ruined fortunes. After the ice had begun to form on the Fox River he passed down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi and ascended the Mississippi to this region.'- Whether he then occupied the old wintering place at Trempealeau or Fort St. Antoine further up the river on the lake is not clear.'' At Fort St. Antoine, on May 8, 1689, he took possession of the Sioux country in the name of the King of France, annexing the Minnesota and St. Croix River districts and all headwaters of the Mississippi.'*

One of the witnesses to this document was Pierre Charles le Sueur, an explorer and trader, whose work added to the knowledge given to the world by Perrot. In 1695 Le Sueur built a fort on Pelee Island ( a short distance above Red Wing) , which was maintained about four years, during his own absence in France. He later returned and conducted an expedition in search of copper in the Blue Earth country, Minnesota. In ascending the Mississippi from its mouth, he found that the remains of Fort St. Antoine, on Lake Pepin, and his own island fort above Red Wing, were plainly to be seen.'"' He passed Trempealeau Mountain on his upward journey between September 10 and September 14, 1700. The Red (Black) River, the River Paquitanettes (possibly the Buffalo), the River Bon Secours (Chippewa) and Lake Bon Secours (Pepin) are mentioned in the account of the voyage, as are the prairies extending back from the bluffs."' In Trempealeau County one of the party killed a deer.

More than one-fourth of the eighteenth century passed away before another attempt was made to build a post on the upper Mississippi. The Fox Indian wars had made the Fox-Wisconsin waterway untenable, and any approach to the Sioux had to take the difficult route from the end of Lake Superior through the tangled marshes and ponds at the head of the Mississippi.

In 1727, however, the French government determined to establish a post among the Sioux. In September of the same year the new fort was erected near what is now Frontenac, on the Minnesota side of Lake Pepin, and dedicated amid imposing ceremonies as Fort Beauharnois. The failure of the expedition against the Foxes the following year made this post untenable, however, and it was hastily abandoned by the alarmed garrison.''

In writing from Fort Beauharnois, May 29, 1727, Father Michel Guignas describes the bluffs, islands and scenery in this vicinity, but makes no particular mention of Trempealeau Mountain.'*

In 1731 the Foxes, being temporarly subdued, another expedition to build a Sioux post was placed in charge of Rene Godefroy, sieur de Linctot. With him went his son, Louis Rene, Augustin Langlade, and his brother, Joseph Jolliet, grandson of the explorer; one Campeau, a skilled blacksmith, brother of the one at Detroit, and Father Michel Guignas, chaplain of the expedition.

They arrived on the Mississippi in the autumn of 1731, and, according to the official report, built "a fort On the Mississippy at a Place called the Mountain * * * (a Montagne qui trempe dans I'Eau) * * *"'^ The winter did not pass without events. During the deep snows food became so scarce that Linctot was obliged to send his voyageurs and traders to winter in the camps of the Indians. One of the voyageurs, named Dorval, had a thrilling experience with refugee Foxes, fleeing from an attack of mission Iroquois and Detroit Huron. Later some of the same fugitives came to Linctot to beg for their lives. The Sioux began coming in large numbers when they learned of Linctot's presence, and a camp of Winnebago wintered near by.

The succeeding years were replete with danger and difficulty for the officers and traders of the little Sioux post. Although the Foxes had been defeated and large numbers of them had been destroyed, desperate remnants remained scattered over the western country, and attacking parties of mission Indians and others allied with the French made frequent excursions to harass the wretched fugitives. The Sioux promised protection to the French, but their situation among the fierce belligerents was almost that of prisoners. In April, 1735, one of the Jesuits wrote from Quebec: "We are Much afraid that father Guignas has h^pn taken and burned by a tribe of savages called the renards."=" The anxiety in Canada over his fate was allayed, however, the same summer, when Linctot finally arrived in the colony, bringing an immense quantity of beaver skins and other peltry.-' He reported that he had left Father Guignas with but six men at the little fort in the Sioux country, and asked for himself that he be relieved from command.-

To succeed Linctot in the post of the Sioux the governor-general of New France chose Jacques le Gardeur, sieur de St. Pierre, sending him with a party of twenty-two men to make their way to the upper Mississippi. This small convoy reached its destination late in 1735, and early the following spring St. Pierre determined to remove the post twenty-five leagues (about sixty miles) higher up the Mississippi.^^ There for a year they held a hostile tribe at bay, employing every device of strategy and dissimulation and finally, on May 30, 1737, abandoned the post with all its goods and belongings in order to save their lives.=*

The records would seem to indicate that the post near Trempealeau occupied by Linctot in the autumn of 1731, was maintained until the removal to the fort on Lake Pepin in the spring of 1736.== anothei' Sioux post under the leadership of Captain Pierre Paul Marin, a well-known Wisconsin commandant.-" He was recalled two years later to serve on the Allegheny frontier, and his son Joseph succeeded to the command. The latter maintained his post for three years, but during the French and Indian War was obliged to withdraw the garrison and destroy the post - the last under French occupation upon the upper Mississippi.-'

While of these French commanders, from 1685 to 1755, Perrot, Linctot and St. Pierre were probably the only ones who located in Trempealeau County, it is apparent that this region was familiar to all the French voyageurs of the upper Mississippi throughout this period of French dominion.

French rule in the upper Mississippi Valley ended with the treaty of February 10, 1763, when the Mississippi, nearly to its mouth, became the boundary hne between the possessions of England and Spain.-'' Three years later, in 1766, Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, set out to explore the new British domains in the Northwest.^" Starting from Boston in June, 1766, Carver traveled to the Strait of Mackinaw and Green Bay, and thence, by the canoe route of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, to the Mississippi. Then he ascended the Mississippi, accompanied by a French- Canadian and a Mohawk Indian. He spent the winter of 1766-67 among the Sioux of the Northwest. In the spring of 1767 he descended the Mississippi to the present location of Prairie du Chien in the hope of securing goods. Disappointed there, he ascended the Mississippi to the Chippewa River and reached Lake Superior by way of that stream and the upper tributaries of the St. Croix. It was afterward claimed that he had made a treaty with the Sioux, granting him a tract of land about a hundred miles wide along the east bank of the Mississippi, from the Falls of St. Anthony (at Minneapolis) to the southeastern end of Lake Pepin.^" It included the north half of Trempealeau County, the south line running east and west somewhat north of Whitehall. On the strength of this alleged treaty many claims were from time to time presented to the United States Government, but Congress has always refused to recognize the claim of Carver's heirs and successors. .

"On the first of November I arrived at Lake Pepin, which is rather an extended part of the River Mississippi, that the French have thus denominated, about two hundred miles from the Ouisconsin. The Mississippi below this lake flows with a gentle current, but the breadth of it is very uncertain, in some places it being upwards of a mile, in others not more than a quarter. This river has a range of mountains on each side throughout the whole of the way ; which in particular parts approach near to it, in others he at a greater distance. The land betwixt the mountains, and on their sides, is generally covered with grass, with a few groves of trees interspersed, near which large droves of deer and elk are frequently seen feeding. In many places pyramids of rocks appeared, resembhng old ruinous towers ; at others amazing precipices ; and what is very remarkable.

whilst this scene presented itself on one side, the opposite side of the same mountain was covered with the finest herbage, which gradually ascended to its summit. From thence the most beautiful and extensive prospect that imagination can form opens to your view. Verdant plains, fruitful meadows, numerous islands, and all these abounding with a variety of trees that yield amazing quantities of fruit, without care or cultivation, such as the nut-tree, the maple which produces sugar, vines loaded with rich grapes and plum-trees bending under their blooming burdens, but above all, the fine river flowing gently beneath and reaching as far as the eye can extend, by turns attract your admiration and exci-te your wonder.

"The lake is about twenty miles long and near six in breadth ; in some places it is very deep and abounds with various kinds of fish. Great numbers of fowl frequent also this lake and rivers adjacent, such as storks, swans, geese, brants, and ducks ; and in the groves are found great plenty of turkeys and partridges. On the plains are the largest buffaloes of any in America. Here I observed the ruins of a French factory, where it was said Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on a very great trade with the Naudowessies. before the reduction of Canada.

"About sixty miles below this lake^' is a mountain remarkably situated ; for it stands by itself exactly in the middle of the river, and looks as if it had slidden from the adjacent shore into the stream. It cannot be termed an island, as it rises immediately from the brink of the water to a considerably height. Both the Indians and the French call it the Mountain in the River."^-

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the land east of the Mississippi became a part of the new United States by the treaty of September 3, 1783.^' Spain continued in possession of the land west of the Mississippi from 1762 to October 1, 1800,'* when the tract was receded to France, which nation, however, did not take possession until 1804,^= at which time a formal transfer was made from Spain to France, in order that France might formally transfer the tract to the United States under the treaty of April 30, 1803.="'

Two years later the Government determined to send an expedition into the Northwest, in charge of Zebulon M. Pike. He .was given orders to negotiate treaties with the Indians, to secure a conformity with the laws of the United States by the Northwest Company and others engaged in the fur trade, to secure the site for a fort near the head of Mississippi River navigation, and to extend geographical exploration. He started from St. Louis August 9, 1805, with twenty soldiers, spent the winter in northern Minnesota, started down the river April 7, 1806, and again reached St. Louis the latter part of that month. On his way up the river Pike slept near the foot of Trempealeau Mountain, on the night of September 13. He speaks of the mountain as le Montaigne qui Trompe a I'Eau.^*' He reached the mountain in a drizzling rain and left the next morning in a dense fog. On April 16, 1806, he again passed Trempealeau Mountain on his way down the river.

In his geographical notes Pike says : "La Montaigne qui Trompe dans I'Eau stands in the Mississippi near the east shore, about fifty miles below the Sauteauz (Chippewa) River, and is about two miles in circumference, with an elevation of 200 feet, covered with timber. There is a small river which empties into the Mississippi in the rear of the mountain, which I conceive once bounded the mountain on the lower side and the Mississippi on the upper, when the mountain was joined to the main land by a neck of low prairie ground, which in time was worn away by the spring freshets of the Mississippi, and thus formed an island of this celebrated mountain.^"*

Major Stephen H. Long led an expedition up the Mississippi in 1817. The voyage was made in a six-oared skiff. The party camped near Trempealeau on the night of Friday, July 11. In his entry for July 10 Long says, "Passed the Black River on our right, coming in from the northeast. It is navigable for pirogues somewhat more than 100 miles, to where the navigation is obstructed by rapids. On this river is an abundance of pine timber of an excellent quality. Much of the pine timber used at St. Louis is cut here. This river has three mouths, by which it discharges itself into the Mississippi, the lowermost of which is passable and communicates with the Mississippi twelve or fourteen miles below the junction of the valleys of the two rivers. The bluffs along the river today were unusually interesting. They were of an exceedingly wild and romantic character, being divided into numerous detached fragments, some of them of mountain size, while others in slender conical peaks seemed to tower aloft till their elevation rendered them invisible. Here might the poet or bard indulge his fancy in the wildest extravagance, while the philosopher would find a rich repast in examining the numerous phenomena here presented to his view, and in tracing the wonderful operations of nature that have taken place since the first formation of the world. A little above the mouth of the Black River, both shores of the Mississippi may be seen at the same time, which is the only instance of the kind we have met with on our way from Prairie du Chien to this place. One mile further ahead the bluffs on both sides approach within 800 yards of each other, and the river, in consequence, is narrower here than at any other place this side of Prairie du Chien. Notwithstanding this contraction of its channel, the river here imbosoms an island of considerable size. Encamped at sunset on a small island.

"Saturday, July 12. Within a few yards of the island where we camped is another, considerably smaller, which, for the sake of bi-evity, I called the Bluff Island, as its former name is very long and difficult to pronounce. It has been accounted a great curiosity by travelers. It is remarkable for being the third island in the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico to this place that has a rocky formation similar to that of the neighboring bluffs, and nearly the same altitude. Pike, in his account of it. states the height of it to be about 200 feet. We lay by this morning for the purpose of ascertaining its altitude, which we found by a trigometrical calculation, which my instruments would not enable me to make with much accuracy, to be a Httle more than 500 feet. It is a very handsome conical hill, but not sufficiently large to deserve the appellation of mountain, although it is called by the name of the Montaigne qui trompe de I'eau, or the mountain that is soaked in the water."'"

The party again landed at Trempealeau on the journey down the river, Sunday, July 20. At their former camping place they found their axe which they had lost there. They ascended Trempealeau Mountain and from there viewed the Indian village at Winona.^" As befoi'e. Long waxed enthusiastic over the wonderful scenery. He discovered that the bluffs which he had previously supposed to be the main river bluffs were in fact a broken range of high bluff hills, separated from the main bluffs by the wide expanse of Trempealeau prairie. He advances the theory that the Trempealeau bluffs are in reality the eastern point of a promontory originally extending from the Minnesota bluffs, and that the natural course of the river was originally between the Trempealeau bluffs and the main Wisconsin bluffs, Trempealeau prairie being the river's natural bed. While on the top of Trempealeau Mountain, Long and his companion were summoned by three Indians, one of whom had been bitten in the leg by a i-attlesnake. The Indians at once cut out a piece of flesh containing the wounded part and applied bandages above it. They refused, however, to allow Long to wash the wound. A short time later Long ascended Queen Bluff near Richmond. His observations there led him to believe that the Mississippi was originally a vast lake filling all the valley, to a height of many hundred feet above the present water level.

With the establishment in 1819 of Fort Snelling, Trempealeau County was placed within the pale of civilization, and thereafter soldiers, traders and visitors were frequently passing. The expedition which estabhshed the fort, headed by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Leavenworth and accompanied by Major Thomas Forsyth, the Indian agent, reached Trempealeau and continued its course up the river in August, 1819. In his journal Major Forsyth mentions that on the night of August 12 he camped five miles below La Montaigne qui trempe a I'eau.^'

That same year, on November 2, a sawmill was established on the falls of the Black River, "not much inferior to any in the United States." Seven chiefs of the Sioux nation granted the original permission to do this, and later Lefei (Wabasha), the head chief, made the permission permanent.''- The mill was soon destroyed by the Winnebago.

General Lewis Cass, with his party, including Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and James D. Doty, passed Trempealeau Mountain in 1820. They reached the upper Mississippi by way of Lake Superior, and after leaving the region of their explorations came down the Mississippi. On this trip down the river, Cass and Schoolcraft and their men landed at the present site of Winona and camped for the night on the Minnesota bank of the Mississippi, some five miles west of Trempealeau Mountain. Schoolcraft, in his notes, gave the following description of Trempealeau Mountain:

"A few miles below Wabasha's village an isolated mountain of singular appearance rises out of the center of the river to a height of four or five hundred feet, where it terminates in crumbling peaks of naked rock, whose lines of stratification and massy walls impress forcibly upon the mind the image of some gigantic battlement of former generations. Around its lower extremity the alluvion of the river has collected, forming a large island, covered with a heavy forest, whose deep green foliage forms a pleasing contrast with the barren grandeur of the impending rocks, which project their gothic pinnacles into the clouds and cast a sombre shadow over the broad and glittering bosom of the Mississippi. This singular feature in the topography of the country has long attracted the admiration and the wonder of the voyageurs of the Mississippi, who have bestowed upon it the appellation of The Mountain that sinks in the Water (La Montaigne qui Trompe dans I'Eau), an opinion being prevalent among them that it annually sinks a few feet. This island-mountain is four or five miles in circumference, with a mean width of half a mile, and by dividing the channel of the river into two equal halves, gives an immense width to the river, and thus increases the grandeur of the prosiJcct. It is further remarkable as being the only fast, or rocky island, in the whole course of this river, from the Falls of Peckagama, to the Mexican Gulf."*'

A mill was built in 1822 on the Menomonee branch of the Chippewa, by permission of Lawrence Taliaferro, the Indian agent at Fort Snelling, and with the consent of the Sioux. Joseph Rolette and Judge James Lockwood, both of Prairie du Chien, were the financial backers of the proposition, and Wabasha's band of Sioux were also interested in it.''*

On his expedition to Lake Winnipeg in 1823 Long again passed Trempealeau Mountain, accompanied by a part of his followers. From Prairie du Chien to Fort Snelling, a part of the expedition, under James F. Calhoun, made the trip on horseback along the west bank of the Mississippi. William H. Keating, who was with the expedition, mentions Trempealeau Mountain. Keating corrects many of Schoolcraft's statements and confirms some of Pike's observations. After giving the French term for the place as Montagne qui trempe dans I'eau, which he declares to be but a translation of the Indian name for it, "the mountain which soaks in the water" - he states that the island mountain is only about a mile in circumference, and instead of dividing the river into two equal halves, is very near the east bank. He admits, however, that seen from a distance, it has the delusive appearance of standing in the middle of the river.'"*

The first steamboat to ascend the upper Mississippi, the "Virginia," passed Trempealeau Mountain in May, 1823, and arrived at Fort Snelling, near the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. May 10. A number of prominent people were aboard. Steamboat traffic thus being opened, Trempealeau Mountain, a landmark and a point of interest to all travelers, became widely known. J. Constantine Beltrami, who explored the Red River of the North and the sources of the Mississippi River, was one of the passengers aboard the "Virginia" when it made its first trip to Fort Snelling. Of Trempealeau he says :

"From this spot (118 miles from Prairie du Chien) a chain of mountains, whose romantic character reminds one of the valley of the Rhine, between Bingen and Coblentz, leads to the Mountain which dips into the water. This place would exhaust all my powers of expression if I had not seen Longue Vue. Amid a number of delightful little islands, encircled by the river, rises a mountain of a conical form equally isolated. You climb amid cedars and cypresses, strikingly contrasted with the rocks which intersect them, and from the summit you command a view of valleys, prairies, and distances in whicTi the eye loses itself. From this point I saw both the last and the first rays of a splendid sun gild the lovely picture. The western bank presents another illusion to the eye. Mountains, ruggedly broken into abrupt rocks, which appear cut perpendicularly into towers, steeples, cottages, &c., appear precisely like towns and villages."^"

The period of exploration really ends in 1835, when this region was visited by George William Featherstonhaugh and William Williams Mather, by George Catlin, and by a military expedition under Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen W. Kearney, the topographer of the expedition being Albert Miller Lea.

Featherstonhaugh, in his reconnaissance, mentions Trempealeau Mountain, and while narrating the geological history of the landmark, describes the view from its summit. Wabasha's brother related to him that "the Indians called it Minnay Chonkaha, or bluff in the water, and that they resorted to it at the beginning of the wild-geese season, to make offerings to Wakon, or the deity, for success in hunting."^'

The mihtary expedition reached Winona overland from Iowa, entering the state southwest from what is now the city of Albert Lea. In July, 1835. the soldiers camped on the west bank of the Mississippi, within sight of what Lea called La Montaigne qui trempe a Teau.^*"

Catlin, the famous Indian painter, was forced to winter his boat near Richmond,^-' not far from Trempealeau Mountain, by reason of obstructing ice, late in 1835. On Catlin's Rocks, in Richmond Township, Winona County, he painted his name in great red letters, and the marks were to be plainly seen for many years thereafter.

Thus Trempealeau Mountain, which had watched the first white man penetrate these solitudes, was now known to the world, and the activities of civilization were soon to be throbbing at its feet. Frenchmen, Enghshmen and Americans had examined her wonderful formations, the whistle and chug of the steamboat had become familiar, the rich land over which for so many centuries it had stood guard awaited the axe of the pioneer, the plow of the husbandman.

2 - Dr. Warren Upham is of the opinion that Radisson and Grosseilliers made their headquarters at Prairie Island, above Red Wing, from April or May, 1655, to June, 1656. But this opinion is not generally accepted. As Dr. Louise Phelps Kellogg says: "The difficulty of interpreting Radisson 's text, written in a language unfamiliar to himself, and several years after the completion of his journeys, adds to the differences of opinion with regard to the route and the locations described." For Upham's conclusions see: TIpham, Grosseilliers and Radisson, Minnesota in Three Centuries (New York, 1908), I, 127-204. Also: Same author and title, Minn. Eist. Colls., X, Part 2, 449-594. Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites has reprinted portions of the accounts of the third and fourth voyages of these two adventurers, with copious notes in: Wis. Eist. Colls., XI, 64-69. Dr. Kellogg has reprinted the account of the third voyage, with an introduction, in: Early Narratives of tlie Northwest (New York, 1917), 29-65. Several writers are of the opinion that Father Menard ascended the Black River on his way to his tragic death in 1661, and quote Perrot in supporting their contentions. See: Nicholas Perrot, Memoire (Memoire nur Irs viopurs, coustumes, et relligion des sauvages de I'Amerique Sepientrionale) , reprinted in the original French with notes and translation by

Bev. Father Jules Tailhan (Paris, 1864), this in turn being reprinted in: Minn. Hist. Colls., II, Part 3, 24-30 (original edition). A reprint of the Memoire (Tailhan 's edition, 84-93), regarding the Flight of the Ottawa, whic-h Pcrrot says Menard followed, may be found: Thwaites, ed., French Regime in Wisconsin, Part 1, Wis. Hist. Colls., XVI, 14-21. But Menard's route is still an open qucftion. For Menard's last letter see: Edward D. Neill, Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota (Minneapolis, 1882), 3-4. For extract from Menard's letter (Jemdt Eelaiions, XLVI, 11-13, 127-145) and Menard's labors and death (Id., XLVIII, 12, 115-143) see: Thwaites, ed., French Eegime in Wisconsin, Part I, Wis. Hist. Colls., XVI, 21-25. For life and labors of Menard see also: H. C. Campbell, Pere Rene Menard, Parkman Club Publications, No. 11 (Milwaukee, 1897). Also see: Kellogg, Early Narratives of the Northwest, 25, note.

3 - Thwaites, ed., Hennepin's New Discovery (Chicago, 1903). Or John G. Shea, ed., A Description of Louisiana, by Father Louis Hennepin (New York, 1880).

4 - For a discussion of the identity of Hennepin's R. de.Beeuf 's with Chippewa River, see: Elliott Cones, ed.. Expeditions of Zcbulon M. Pike (New York, 1895), I, 58, 65, notes. Also: Bunnell, Winona and Its Environs, 52-54.

6 - The vanity of Hennepin did not allow him to admit that he was a captive and a slave, the cruel sport of the Indians. He represented that he accompanied Duluth because of the latter 's pleasure in his society and his desire for his companionship. Se^: Thwaites, ed., Hennepin 's Neio Discovery, 293-305.

9 - See : Eben D. Pierce, George H. Squier and Louise Phelps Kellogg, Remains of a French Post Near Trempealeau, Wis. Hist. Soc, Proceedings, 1915, 111-123. -

10 - For a reproduction of Franqiielin 's great map of 1688, see: Kellogg, Early Narratives of the Northwest, 342; also read J. Franklin Jameson's note (p. xiv) in the same volume. Also see account of Franquelin 's maps in: Parkman, LaSalle and the Discovery of the Northwest (Boston, 1891), 455-458. A partial reproduction of the map may be found: Neih, History of Minnesota (Minneapolis, 4th edition, 1882), frontispiece.

12 - Neill (Wis. Hist. Colls., X, 299-300) says that Perrot returning from the New York raid reoccupied the post where he had spent the winter of 1685-86. After writing the article, however, Dr. NeUl discovered that he had confused Ft. St. Antoine with Perrot 's post at Trempealeau (Ibid., 371).

14 - Thwaites, ed., Important Western Papers, Perrot 's Minutes of Taking Possession, Id., XI, 35-36 (reprinted from the New York Colonial Documents, IX, 418).

16 - Penicault in his Journal of Le Sueur's Expedition as reported in: Neill, Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, 41. Also: Thwaites, ed., French Regime in Wisconsin, Part 1, Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 183. See Ibid., 177, note, concerning Le Sueur's Journal, La Harpe's and Penicault 's versions, and Shea's and Thwaites' translations.

18 - Letter from Father Michel Guignas from the Brevort Manuscripts, printed in Shea's Early French Voyatics, and reprinted in Neill 's Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, 52; also in Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 22-28.

28 - For preliminary treaty "of Nov. 3, 1762 (reprinted from Gentleman's Magazine, XXXII, 569-573), and definite treaty of peace of Feb. 10, 1763 (reprinted from Id., XXXIII, 121-126), see: Thwaites, ed., Important Western State Papers, Wis. Hist. CoUs., XI., 36-46.

29 - For Carver Bibliography, see: John Thomas Lee, Wis. Hist. Soc., Proceedings, 1909, 143-183. Also see: Same author and subject. Additional Data, Id., 1912, 87-123.

30 - For text of the Carver deed and its history, see: Carver Centenary, Minn. Hist. Colls., II, Part 4, 17, 19-21, original edition. Also see: Daniel Steele Durrie, Jonathan Carver and Carver 's Grant, Wis. Hist. Colls., VI, 221-270.

31 - Possibly the word "Lake" was inserted in Carver's manuscript by an editor. In the preceding paragraph he mentions the St. Pierre ruins, on the east side of Lake Pepin, and he may have intended to locate Trempealeau as 60 miles below this (the ruin) rather than 60 miles below Lake Pepin.

39 - Stephen H. Long, Voyage in a Six Oar Skiff to the Falls of St. Anthony in 1817, Minn. Hist. Colls., II, Part 1, 15-17, original edition.

42 - Durrie, Jonathan Carver and Carver's Grant, Id., VI, 252, 266. Also: American State Papers, Public Lands, IV, 22. Also: James H. Lockwood, Early Times and Events in Wisconsin, Wis. Hist. Colls., II, 118, text and note. Also: Col. John Shaw, Narrative, Ibid., 230.

46 - J. C. Beltrami, A Pilgrimage in Europe and America Leading to the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bluodi/ Eivcr (London, 1S2S), II, 17S-179.

48 - Letter written from Corsieana, Texas, July 7, 1890, by Albert Miller Lee to H. W. Lathrop, librarian of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and published (October, 1890) under the title of Early Exploration in Iowa, Iowa Historical Hecord, vi. No. 4, 548.

49 - Richmond was originally called Catlin in honor of the painter. Later the name was changed to Forest City and still lat^r to Richmond. It is situated a little below Trempealeau on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi.

Portions of the introductory paragraphs have been copied from: Eben Douglas Pierce, Early Days of Trempealeau, Wis. Hist. Society, Proceedings, 1906, 246-255.

The original sources from which Dr. Thwaites obtained his material for Vol. XVII of the Wis. Hist. Collections, appear with the various documents therein printed, and no attempt has been made to repeat them here. By consulting that volume tlie inquiring student will find citations of tlie original sources.