The Lewis Cass expedition of 1820 was a survey of the western part of

Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit w ...

led by

Lewis Cass Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782June 17, 1866) was an American military officer, politician, and statesman. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan. He w ...

, governor of the territory. On January 14, 1820,

United States Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the President of the United States, U.S. president's United States Cabinet, Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's Presidency of George Washington, administration. A similar position, called either "Se ...

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...

authorized Cass to lead a party of scientists, soldiers, Canadian

voyageurs The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including the ' ...

, and Native Americans into the wilderness of western Michigan Territory. The purpose of the expedition was to:Doty, James Duane
"Official Journal, 1820"
''Wisconsin Historical Collections'', 13(1895):163-219.Smith, Alice Elizabeth ''James Duane Doty Frontier Promoter'' Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1954. pp.10-20. *survey the geography and topography of the region in order to produce a complete map *survey the flora and fauna of the region *survey the Indians of the region, their numbers, tribes, customs, and loyalties, whether to the United States or

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

*select and purchase sites for forts, especially at

Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie is a cross-border region of Canada and the United States located on St. Marys River, which drains Lake Superior into Lake Huron. Founded as a single settlement in 1668, Sault Ste. Marie was divided in 1817 by the establishment of ...

*survey the geology of the region, especially with regard to commercially valuable minerals *search for the source of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

Members

The expedition consisted of 42 men as follows: *Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory *Captain

David Bates Douglass David Bates Douglass (March 21, 1790 – October 21, 1849) was a civil and military engineer, who worked on a broad set of projects throughout his career. For fifteen years he was a professor at the United States Military Academy, and after his r ...

, Corps of Engineers, Professor of Mathematics at the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

at West Point, served as topographer with additional responsibility for surveying plants and animals * Henry Schoolcraft, mineralogist and geologist *Dr. Alexander Wolcott Jr., physician, Indian Agent at

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

* James Duane Doty, secretary to the expedition *Lieutenant Aeneus Mackay, artillery *Robert A. Forsyth, private secretary to Governor Cass * Charles C. Trowbridge, assistant to Captain Douglass *Alexander R. Chase, assistant to Captain Douglass *James Riley, interpreter *Roy, a Frenchman, served as pilot on

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

*Baptiste, a soldier, served as cook *10 Canadian voyageurs managed the canoes *10 United States soldiers served as escort *10 Native Americans served as hunters, their names and tribes as follows: **Joseph Parks,

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

, served as interpreter **Kewaychoskum, an

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

chief **Manitouwaba (the devil's view), Ottawa **Haepsanze, Ottawa **Wyangding (source of the winds),

Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

**Oshashebaquato (many openings in the clouds), Ojibwa **Wyamgboyeausha (scattered by the wind), Ojibwa **Waubonequet (pale cloud), Ojibwa **Omezekekezchie (the rays of light striking the earth), Ojibwa **Macatawasim (black dog),

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

, discharged at Grosse Pointe

From Detroit to the Mississippi

The expedition departed

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

in four large canoes on May 24, 1820. It took three days to reach

Fort Gratiot Fort Gratiot was an American stockade fort in Fort Gratiot, Michigan, in Saint Clair County, Michigan. The former location of the fort was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. History The Army constructed Fort Gratiot in ...

, located near the entrance to

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

. The commander of the fort, Major Cummings, exchanged five of his sixty soldiers for two from the expedition who had become ill. On June 6 the expedition reached Michilimackinac where they awaited the arrival of additional supplies. On June 13 the party departed Michilimackinac bound for Sault Ste. Marie escorted by a twelve-oared barge carrying a military detachment intended to overawe the Native Americans. At Sault Ste. Marie, Cass called a council of the Ojibwa to obtain their permission to establish an Indian agency. The Ojibwa, many of whom were loyal to the British, expressed their displeasure with the American proposal. One of their chiefs known as "the count", dressed in the uniform of a British officer, raised a British flag near the expedition's camp. Cass tore down the flag and trampled it under foot, which brought about the submission of the Native Americans, who ceded on the St. Mary's River where Fort Brady was constructed two years later. The expedition proceeded west along the southern shore of Lake Superior portaging across the

Keweenaw Peninsula The Keweenaw Peninsula ( , sometimes locally ) is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, leading to its moniker of "Copper Country." As o ...

. A contingent including Cass, Schoolcraft, and Doty made a side trip {{convert, 30, mi, km up the Ontonagon River to see the huge mass of copper known as the copper rock. At the western end of Lake Superior the expedition proceeded up the Saint Louis River to the

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British co ...

's post at Fond du Lac. Six miles further up the river Cass split his party. Schoolcraft, Doty, and 14 others struck out across country for the American Fur Company's post at Sandy Lake near the Mississippi River, while Cass and the rest of the party continued up the Saint Louis River heading for the same destination. The overland party lost the trail and struggled through swamps and knee-deep mud, yet arrived at Sandy Lake two days ahead of Cass's group. Cass and the scientific staff ascended the Mississippi in search of its source. They went as far as the

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

that now bears Cass's name and then returned to the post at Sandy Lake.

Return to Detroit

Taking 16 Ojibwa with them, the expedition descended the Mississippi, pausing to hunt buffalo along the banks. Near the Falls of Saint Anthony they encountered an encampment of the Fifth Infantry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel

Henry Leavenworth Henry Leavenworth (December 10, 1783 – July 21, 1834) was an American soldier active in the War of 1812 and early military expeditions against the Plains Indians. He established Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and named after him is the city of L ...

. Here the resident Indian agent, Major Lawrence Taliaferro called together the local

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

for a ceremony of peace with the Ojibwa accompanying the Cass expedition. The expedition continued down the Mississippi stopping at Sioux villages to smoke the pipe of peace. On August 5 the party reached Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, the westernmost post in Michigan Territory. Schoolcraft made a brief side trip to the lead mines near

Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...

, after which the entire expedition ascended the

Wisconsin River The Wisconsin River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At approximately 430 miles (692 km) long, it is the state's longest river. The river's name, first recorded in 1673 by Jacques Marquette as "Meskousi ...

to the Fox-Wisconsin portage and descended the Fox River to Green Bay, where they were greeted by a salute from the guns of Fort Howard. At Green Bay Cass dismissed the soldiers and shipped the natural history specimens collected by the scientists to Detroit. He led most of the remaining men down the western shore of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

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. Dr. Wolcott and a few companions remained at the Indian agency at Chicago. Governor Cass returned to Detroit on horseback via the Indian trail, while Schoolcraft and Captain Douglass traveled up the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Michilimackinac where they joined Doty and a couple other members of the expedition who had traveled there directly from Green Bay. This group retraced the expedition's route down Lake Huron to Detroit, arriving there on September 24, 1820, 124 days after their departure.

Results

The Lewis Cass expedition, which cost $6,300, resulted in a series of anonymous articles in the Detroit ''Gazette'' in the winter of 1820-21, a 419-page book by Henry Schoolcraft, and at least 15 scientific papers. Schoolcraft's book, ''Narrative Journal of Travels...from Detroit...to the Sources of the Mississippi River'', sold 1,200 copies within a few months of its publication in 1821.

Members

From Detroit to the Mississippi

Return to Detroit

Results

References

Further reading