We know all about the Mississippi River. It flows 2,350 miles (3,782 km) through the center of the United States. But in the 1600s, the river remained a mystery. European explorers didn’t even know where the Mississippi River ended. Two men led a trip to change that 350 years ago!
Louis Joliet was a fur trader born near Quebec in 1645. Back then, Quebec was part of a large French in North America called New France. French leaders wanted to explore farther west. They had heard about a “great river.” Officials believed it might reach the Pacific Ocean. In 1672, they assigned Joliet to find out.
Joliet’s partner was Jacques Marquette. He was born in France in 1637. Marquette knew five Native American languages. Joliet and Marquette set out from Saint Ignace (now in Michigan) on May 17, 1673. With five other boatmen, they climbed into two canoes. Together, they entered the Mississippi River on June 17 in an area that is now Wisconsin. They had to see where the mighty river went.
Ruth D. Nelson wrote a book about Marquette and Joliet’s journey. “Locating the great river was the main goal of the ,” she told News-O-Matic. “These men were completely on their own,” Nelson added.
Marquette and Joliet did not discover the river. Native Americans had lived along its shores for years. The explorers met many along the way. “I noticed on our more than 80 villages, each of 60 to 100 houses,” Joliet later wrote. “All their canoes were wooden,” he added. Joliet described “fruits such as plums, wild apples, and several small fruits we did not know.”
The explorers found that the river ran toward the south — and not west. That means the Mississippi River did not reach the Pacific Ocean. By July 16, 1673, the group had crossed into Arkansas. There, they had to turn around. That’s because Spain owned the land to the south. Still, Marquette and Joliet had solved a mystery about the Mississippi River.
“We could not be more than 2 or 3 days’ journey from [the Gulf of Mexico],” wrote Marquette. He believed “beyond a doubt” the Mississippi River flowed into that. That meant the river reached the Atlantic Ocean.
“The impact was huge,” explained Nelson. The French now had a path to the Atlantic Ocean. The French would later create “a 4,000-mile (6,437 km) network of trading posts,” said Nelson. The author said that “opened up huge areas for trade and .”
Marquette died in 1675. Joliet died in 1700. But several cities on the Mississippi River still carry their names. For example, you can visit Joliet, Illinois, or Joliet, Montana. And you can explore Marquette, Iowa, as well.
Updated May 16, 2023, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Tyler Burdick
