FATHER JACQUES MARQUETTE

Born June 10 1637 in Laon, France. Joined the Society of Jesus at age 17. Preached in France for several years. In 1666 was dispatched to Quebec to preach to the Native Americans.

In 1668 was sent by his superiors to missions farther up the St. Lawrence River in the western Great Lakes. Worked at Sault Ste. Marie and while working at the Mission of the Holy Spirit in La Pointe, near the present-day town of Ashland, Wisconsin, he came into contact with members of the Illinois tries, who told him of the existence of the Mississippi River and they invited him to come teach. However, due to the war between the Hurons at La Pointe and the neighboring Dakota people he had to relocate to the Straits of Mackinac. There he informed his superiors about the rumored river, and requested permission to explore it.

1673 leave was granted. Marquette was joined by Louis Joliet, a French Canadian explorer. They departed from St Ignance on May 17 1673. They followed Lake Michigan to the Bay of Green Bay and up the Fox River. From here, they went to the Wisconsin River, which they told led to the river they sought. June 17, 1673 they entered the Mississippi near Prairie du Chien, becoming the first Europeans to enter the river.

The Marquette-Joliet expedition traveled to within 435 miles of the Gulf of Mexico, turned back at the mouth of the Arkansas River. By this point they had encountered a number of natives carrying European trinkets, and feared an encounter with explorers or colonists from Spain. They followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which they learned from local natives was a shorter route back
to the Great Lakes. They returned to Lake Michigan at the point of modern-day Chicago.

Marquette and his party returned to the Illinois Territory in late 1674, becoming the first Europeans to winter in what would become the city of Chicago.

Spring of 1675 , the missionary again paddled westward, and celebrated a public Mass at the Grand Village of the Illinois near Starved Rock. A bout of dysentery picked up during the Mississippi expedition, however, had sapped his health. On the return trip to St. Ignace he died near the modern town of Ludingon, Michigan. The precise date and location are unknown.