Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette, fur trader Louis Jolliet and five voyageurs leave the recently established Indian mission at St. Ignace to explore a great river known by the Indians as the "Messissipi." The French have been exploring the Great Lakes since Etienne Brulé reached the St. Marys River around 1620. In two canoes, Marquette's party travels along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, enters Green Bay and crosses present-day Wisconsin. The explorers paddle down the Mississippi, but by mid-July they realize that the river is not the long-sought passageway across North America to China. Though Marquette will die in 1675, the French will continue to explore the Great Lakes, ship furs to Europe and Christianize the Indians. In 1679, Robert Cavelier Sieur de la Salle will direct the construction of the Griffin—the first sailing vessel on the upper Great Lakes. That same year, La Salle will build Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph--the first non-Indian community in the Lower peninsula.

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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