JACQUES MARQUETTE & LOUIS JOLIET

In 1673, French explorer Louis Jolliet and Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette became the first Europeans to explore and map the Chicago River and Chicago Portage. While traveling north from the Mississippi, local indigenous guides directed the party to a waterway shortcut via what became the Illinois, Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers.

 

Their journey to discover the pathway to the Gulf of Mexico began in Wisconsin north of Milwaukee. Only on the return trip to Lake Michigan did they discover what later became known as the Chicago River.

 

We don’t know the names of those “local indigenous guides,” but we can thank them for making Chicago rather than Milwaukee the hub of the nation. This “short cut” might have remained a mystery to European settlers for years without their guidance. The Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848, finally opening up the possibilities foreseen by Joliet and Marquette and sealing the fate of Milwaukee as a second-class city!

 

The long ago journey reminds us of the relatively benign French influence in development of the Upper Midwest. Communities such as Bourbonnais, Eau Claire, Joliet, Marquette, Terre Haut and Vincennes testify to the lasting French impact. Alas, Bourbonnais is pronounced “Borbonnis” by locals today.