Go to Timpieces homeGo to MHS home
Log on/off TimePieces
Add item to my History Space
Open my History Space
   TIMELINE > MISSISSIPPI SOURCE
Search for an event
TimePieces project information

1832
Mississippi Source

Ozawindib ("Yellow Head") and other Ojibwe guide Henry Rowe Schoolcraft as he maps the source of the Mississippi River. He calls the lake where the great river begins "Itasca."

Why Itasca?
Schoolcraft combines parts of two latin words, "verITAS" (truth) and "CAput" (head), for the true source of the river.

Ozawindib notes that the Ojibwe name for the lake was "Omushkos," meaning "elk."

Photograph of Lake Itasca.
 Minnesota map highlighting Clearwater County.
Beginning of want more section. related links start below
Adventure Online
  		• Read more about Itasca on this page from Minnesota Place Names.

    Investigate Further
  		• Page through William Watts Folwell's A History of Minnesota (4 Volumes). (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1956)
  		• Read Rhoda R. Gilman's The Story of Minnesota's Past.
  		• Read Schoolcraft's Expedition to Lake Itasca: the Discovery of the Source of the Mississippi edited by Philip P. Mason.
  		• Read Timothy Severin's, Explorers of the Mississippi
  		• Read Steve Hall's, Itasca, Source of America's Greatest River
  		• Use the Visual Resource Database to search and view some of the Society's 250,000 images.
  		• Search PALS, the MHS online card catalog, to find books, archives, manuscripts, maps, and some of the Society's vast object collections.

    1891

    State Park Established

    1830s

    Upper Mississippi Maps

    1823

    Steamboat to Fort Snelling

    12,500 Years Ago

    Glacial Lakes

       TIMELINE > MISSISSIPPI SOURCE
     
     
    Minnesota Historical Society· 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906·651-259-3000 Copyright© 2009. Send questions/comments about this web site to the Webmaster. View our Privacy Policy.