Histories: Trempealeau Co. Historical Accounts:
"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":
Chapter 6:
Le Sueur
-As transcribed from pages 55 - 56
One
of the witnesses to this document was Pierre Charles le Sueur, an
explorer and trader, whose work added to the knowledge given to the
world by Perrot. In 1695 Le Sueur built a fort on Pelee Island (a short
distance above Red Wing), which was maintained about four years, during
his own absence in France. He later returned and conducted an
expedition in search of copper in the Blue Earth country, Minnesota. In
ascending the Mississippi from its mouth, he found that the remains of
Fort St. Antoine, on Lake Pepin, and his own island fort above Red
Wing, were plainly to be seen.15 He
passed Trempealeau Mountain on his upward journey between September 10
and September 14, 1700. The Red (Black) River, the River Paquitanettes
(possibly the Buffalo), the River Bon Secours (Chippewa) and Lake Bon
Secours (Pepin) are mentioned in the account of the voyage, as are the
prairies extending back from the bluffs.16 In Trempealeau County one of the party killed a deer.
More than one-fourth of the eighteenth century passed away before
another attempt was made to build a post on the upper Mississippi. The
Fox Indian wars had made the Fox-Wisconsin waterway untenable, and any
approach to the Sioux had to take the difficult route from the end of
Lake Superior through the tangled marshes and ponds at the head of the
Mississippi.
In 1727, however, the French government determined to establish a post
among the Sioux. In September of the same year the new fort was erected
near what is now Frontenac, on the Minnesota side of Lake Pepin, and
dedicated amid imposing ceremonies as Fort Beauharnois. The failure of
the expedition against the Foxes the following year made this post
untenable, however, and it was hastily abandoned by the alarmed
garrison.17
In writing from Fort Beauharnois, May 29, 1727, Father Michel Guignas
describes the bluffs, islands and scenery in this vicinity, but makes
no particular mention of Trempealeau Mountain.18
Resources
for the above information:
15 - Pierre Margry, Decouvertes et Etablissements des Francois dans L'Amerique (Paris, 1882), V, 413.
16 - Penicault in his Journal of Le Sueur's
Expedition as reported in: Neill, Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota,
41. Also: Thwaites, ed., French Regime in Wisconsin, Part 1, Wis. Hist.
Colls., XVII, 183. See Ibid., 177, note, concerning Le Sueur's Journal,
La Harpe's and Penicault's versions, and Shea's and Thwaites'
translations.
17 - Thwaites, ed., French Regime in Wisconsin, Part 2, Id., XVII, 10-15, 22-28, 56-59, 77-80.
18 - Letter from Father Michel Guignas from the
Brevort Manuscripts, printed in Shea's Early French Voyages, and
reprinted in Neill's Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, 52; also in
Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 22-28.
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