This episode ties up the loose ends that remained at the end of the expedition of Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673. Among other things, we explore the ultimate fate of Jolliet’s optimistic vision that a canal could bridge the continental divide in Illinois, allowing sailing ships to travel from Lake Erie all the way to the Gulf. Along the way we learn all sorts of factoids, including the fate of the Carolina Parakeet, snippits from the earliest history of Chicago, including the origin of the name of that city, its first non-indigenous resident, and the resolution of Marquette’s pervasive gastrointestinal issues.

[Errata: About five minutes along I saw that Jolliet arrived at Quebec about July 29, 1673. Should have been1674. Oops.]

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Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)

Mark Walczynski, Jolliet and Marquette: A New History of the 1673 Expedition

John William Nelson, Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago’s Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent 

Francis Borgia Steck, The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673 (pdf)

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable