Mississippi Headwaters History

When Moccasins Tred the Ground

The first people to wander widespread over the North American continent most likely arrived here beginning around 10,000 BC. We call them Native Americans of the Archaic Period. There is evidence of their presence in the Headwaters Region of northern Minnesota. At an excavation along Nicollet Creek, remains of their encampments have been found and dated to approx. 8,000 BC. They were primitive tool makers who hunted game with stone tip spears. They were nomadic and traveled in small groups of twenty to forty members. Remains of bison kills have been found at their camps along with artifacts made from bison bones and hide.

Also discovered in the Lake Itasca Area are burial mounds consistent with those built by Native Americans from the Woodland period (1,000 BC to 900 AD). You can see these mounds today if you visit the park. These Native Americans were more settled than their Archaic ancestors. They hunted with bows and arrows and ate a wider variety of foods including fruits and grains. They likely harvested the wild rice that you can still see growing along the lake shore. The mounds tell us that these people had developed some degree of religious and or ritualistic practices that required them to follow strict rules for burial of their deceased.

There is no evidence that the civilization of the Mississippians extended as far north as the Mississippi Headwaters. When Europeans arrived en masse in the region, the Native Americans they met lived in tribal groups. Although they did not have a written language, they possessed a strong oral tradition and elaborate set of religious beliefs and practices. They were semi-nomadic, hunting game and foraging for fruits and grains. Many of the tribes were fiercely territorial and sporadically at war with neighboring tribes. Tribes that inhabited the Headwaters region included the Dakota and Anishinabe, or Chippewa. Anishinabe, Ojibwe and Chippewa are different names given to the same tribal group. They call themselves Anishinabe which means "original men." In Canada they are called Ojibwe and in the States Chippewa. By the time Europeans began sloshing around the Mississippi Headwaters the Anishinabe had run the Dakota out of the territory. The story of their lives and culture as it clashed and mingled with that of the European settlers is both fascinating and instructive. I refer you to the list of links that accompanies this section.

The Imprint of Hard Leather Soles

In 1673 Pere Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet traveled through the Great Lakes to the Fox River which they followed to a portage that took them to the Wisconsin River. They traveled down the Wisconsin in search of the Mississippi which of course they found (the Wisconsin flows into the Mississippi). Their hope was to discover a water route to the Pacific Ocean and they believed the Mississippi was that route ultimately emptying into the Gulf of California. (Lewis and Clark over a hundred years later would make the same mistake concerning the Missouri). Marquette and Jolliet traveled down the Mississippi as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas River where they finally turned back convinced that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. Although they did not find what they had searched for, they did for the first time firmly establish the course of The Father of Waters.

The search by Europeans for the Mississippi Headwaters was on. Quite a few went looking for it including none other than La Salle who had already visited the Mississippi's outlet and Zebulon Pike of Pike's Peak fame. Some claimed they discovered it like Giacomo Beltrami, and Lewis Cass who proclaimed Cass Lake (what else) the river's source. Now all this time the Chippewa knew exactly where the river's source was. They even had detailed maps drawn of the area. In fact Europeans (French fur traders) had repeatedly visited Lake Itasca, then know as Lake La Biche, they simply didn't realize it was the Mississippi's source. Finally after more than a hundred and fifty years since Marquette and Jolliet had mapped the major portion of the river, a European man came along with enough sense to ask for directions (I can hear all you ladies out there snickering). Henry Schoolcraft asked the Chippewa OzaWindib if he knew the location of the river's source. OzaWindib, as Schoolcraft relates, literally pulled out a map and showed him the lake he would later name Itasca. Schoolcraft then asked OzaWindib if he would take him there. The Chippewa agreed and so on July 13, 1832 Henry Schoolcraft became the first European to visit Lake Itasca with the intent of finding the Mississippi's source. Given that he was hand guided there by a local inhabitant with an existing map of the area keeps me from agreeing to credit Mr. Schoolcraft with the "discovery" of the river's headwaters. As I have pointed out elsewhere in this site, the conquerors get to write the history books and we should read them with that in mind.

Henry Schoolcraft's pronouncement that Itasca was the source of the Mississippi river by no means settled the issue. In 1836 Jean Nicollet surveyed Lake Itasca and did a careful job of examining the streams that fed the lake. He then pronounced Nicollet Creek (what else) and Spring as the true source of the Mississippi. In 1872 Julius Chambers likewise visited Itasca and subsequently pronounced Elk Lake the source of the Mississippi, but nobody paid much attention. Then in 1881 Captain Willard Glazier mounted an expedition to explore the Mississippi Headwaters. Glazier was a popular figure and competent author of numerous historical adventure books. His publication of Down the Great River in 1887 succeed for a time in shifting the Mississippi's recognized source from Itasca to Elk Lake which the Glazier expedition renamed Lake Glazier (what else). In the maps published with this work Glazier's penchant for occasional exaggeration can be seen in the faulty proportion of Lake Glazier with Lake Itasca.

The Mississippi's True Source

Finally in 1889, under commission of the Minnesota Historical Society, Jacob Brower again surveyed the Itasca region, and it would seem that Mr. Brower gets the last word. What qualified Jacob Brower to have the final say? Probably having the right sponsors and the fact that he was a lawyer. Jacob Brower overturned Glazier's pronouncement that Elk (Glazier) Lake was the river's source and returned Itasca to that position. And, although nowhere further back into it's watershed does the Mississippi flow like a river, Brower did correctly recognize that Hernando De Soto Lake is the final and true source of the water that becomes the great Mississippi River. Today Hernando de Soto Lake is located within the boundaries of Itasca State Park and is most directly accessible by hiking the length of Nicollet trail which ends at the lake.

Protecting a National Treasure

On April 20th 1891 Jacob Brower's herculean lobbying efforts finally convinced the Minnesota legislature to create Itasca State Park (Minnesota's first state park). The Governor (William Merriam) then named Jacob Brower the park's commissioner. Brower served in this capacity until 1895. He died in 1905.

The legislature's creation of the park did not provide for immediate protection of the land and it's resources. Logging was still conducted within the park boundaries until 1920. In one instance (1900) loggers dammed the infant Mississippi and flooded Itasca which they filled with cut timber. The dam persisted until 1903 when Mary Gibbs, the first woman to serve as park commissioner, managed, under mortal threat from the loggers, to serve a warrant that forced open the dam gates and relieved the flooding of the lake. Despite the logging, stands of virgin pine forest still survive in the park and champion sized Red and White Pines can be seen by park visitors willing to hike some of the park's many trails.

In 1933 with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and under the direction of the park office, the Mississippi Headwaters got a face lift. The first 2000 feet of the river channel was repositioned to make the river more accessible. 40,000 cubic yards of fill were used to build up the river channel and remove sections of the existing swamp. Sixteen acres of trees were planted, and finally, a concrete dam was placed across the lake outlet to stabilize the lake level and bolster the flow of the river. The dam was hidden beneath tarps and sand and "natural looking" rocks to create an appropriate aesthetic look for the birthplace of our greatest river. Work on these projects was completed in 1939.