About this record
Father Marquette and the explorer Louis Joliet crossed Wisconsin in the summer of 1673 and followed the Mississippi hundreds of miles south to Arkansas -- far enough to confirm that it drained into the Gulf of Mexico. This is Marquette's journal of that expedition, which lay unread in a Jesuit archive in Montreal for nearly 200 years. His journal provides many details about Wisconsin's natural features and Indian inhabitants, including a lengthy dialogue with a Menominee leader, the first detailed description of the calumet, and the first use of the word "Wisconsin" which he transcribes as "Mescousing." The Wisconsin portion of the trip is on pages 230-237.Citation
Marquette, Jacques. "The Mississippi Voyage of Jolliet and Marquette" in Kellogg, Louise P. (editor). Early Narratives of the Northwest, 1634-1699. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917);