Discovery of the Mississippi / by John G. Shea

Exploring the History of the Mississippi River

Joseph N. Nicollet Maps. September 28-November 14, 1839*. Untitled pen-and-ink manuscript map, in French, of the Mississippi River from Fort Snelling (Minneapolis-St. Paul, in southeastern Minnesota) to the mouth of the Des Moines River (near present Keokuk, southeastern Iowa).

Joseph N. Nicollet Maps. September 28-November 14, 1839*. Untitled pen-and-ink manuscript map, in French, of the Mississippi River from Fort Snelling (Minneapolis-St. Paul, in southeastern Minnesota) to the mouth of the Des Moines River (near present Keokuk, southeastern Iowa); map charting the lower reaches of the La Crosse River east of the town of La Crosse.

*Note for the Nicollet maps: Joseph N. Nicollet’s western expedition of 1839 carried him on the steamboat "Antelope" from St. Louis to Fort Pierre, in present South Dakota. He was accompanied by John Charles Fremont, his assistant, and by Charles A. Geyer. On September 28, he began his return to St. Louis down the Mississippi River. Fremont remained behind; he was to have rejoined Nicollet at Praire du Chien, but events prevented him from doing so, and Nicollet completed the journey without him. Traveling by canoe, Nicollet mapped the river from his point of departure near Fort Snelling, Minnesota, to Warsaw, Illinois, at the mouth of the Des Moines River--- part of the modern boundary between Iowa and Missouri. Unfortunately, his field diary for the Mississippi River expedition has been lost; so details of the journey must largely be reconstructed from notes on the map. The map shows great detail of the river channel, as well as the course of Nicollet’s canoe (shown by a dashed line), and a multitude of natural and cultural features along both banks, including early townsites and Sioux and Fox Indian village locations.

Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters, 1856.

Memoirs of La Crosse County / Benjamin Bryant; 1907.

This work, along with History of La Crosse County, 1881, are the preeminent published sources for 19th century La Crosse history. Bryant’s Memoirs, as it is commonly called, is a wide-ranging work that covers the early history of La Crosse as well as the social, education, government, religious, and business institutions. The book is divided into 22 chapters and also includes brief histories of the smaller towns of La Crosse County. An alphabetical name index to Bryant’s Memoirs was prepared and digitized in 2004 and is available for searching at the “name index” button.

Waterways, Highways, and Railroads - The Mississippi River-Advantages of La Crosse for River Navigation- The First Steamboat-Early Packet Lines-Wharf Building-Increase of River Commerce and Travel-Recent Efforts to Increase River Traffic.

The Navigator : Containing Directions for Navigating the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers ..., 1824.

Recollections of a Pioneer Steamboat Pilot: Contributing to the Early History of the Mississippi / George C. Nichols, 1883.

Steamboating in the Old Days on the Mississippi / Joseph Brown, 1896.

Western Pilot containing charts of the Ohio River, and of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico, accompanied with directions for navigating the same, and a description of the town on their banks, tributary streams, etc. Also, a variety of matter interesting to all who are concerned in the navigation of those rivers / Cumings, Samuel, 1825.