Expeditions to the Source of the Mississippi River
Intrepid explorers search for and find the top of the Mississippi, hidden in the heart of Minnesota. Take two literally death-defying journeys (1820 and 1822) into undefined, unsurveyed Minnesota territory. Experts in geology, navigation, and law, adventurers, soldiers, the governor of Michigan territory, serving the War Department, in canoes, high winds and rainstorms, through Lake Superior, preaching peace, seeking copper and silver. And one member of the team was Henry R. Schoolcraft, the author of this book.
The source was, and is, a tiny, serene body of water - Itasca - flowing north and west, twisting, gathering tributaries. That initial water would soon foster the bustling, thunderous territory that became towns, factories, railways, farms, and new life in the new U.S. - in a land where war still came before farming, steamboats were still downriver, and the character of the land was still decidedly "wild west".
The book consists of 220 pages, bound in cloth printed with a recent photograph of Lake Itasca. The overall dimensions are 76 x 76 mm (3 x 3 inches). Price $45 with free packing and shipping.
