USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -On May 17, 1673, Father Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Joliet set out on a four-month voyage that carried them thousands of miles through the heart of North America to explore the path of the Mississippi River.

Detailed explanation-2: -On May 17, 1673, the Rev. Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet set out on a voyage that would take them thousands of miles into the North American interior, confirming that it was possible to travel by water from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and initiating some of the first white settlements in the region.

Detailed explanation-3: -But it Flows South! Marquette and Joliet soon realized that the Mississippi couldn’t possibly be the Northwest Passage they were hoping for because it flowed south. Nevertheless, the journey continued. Marquette and Joliet described some of the wildlife they encountered.

Detailed explanation-4: -It was this week in 1581, in the far northwestern corner of our state, that Spanish soldiers under Hernando de Soto became the first Europeans to see the Mississippi River. One hundred years later, French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur De La Salle led an expedition down the Mississippi River in canoes.

Detailed explanation-5: -French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary, were the first Europeans to travel down the Mississippi River.