Rnnk ^'/ t 
 
/ 
 
 THE 
 
 SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 
 THEIR DISCOVERERS, REAL AND 
 PRETENDED. 
 
 A REPORT, 
 
 BY 
 
 HON. JAMES H. BAKER, 
 
 Read before the Minnesota Historical Society, 
 February 8, 1887. 
 
 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS, 
 VOL. VI. part I. 
 
 SAINT PAUL, MINN. 
 
 :y & C 
 
 1887. 
 
 Brown, Treacy & Co., Printers, *•, ^. S.o*^ ~ 
 
 1 OOT •»««■*•* 
 
In Sxoh> 
 
 
THE 
 
 SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 THEIR DISCOVERERS, REAL AND PRETENDED. 
 
 A Report, by Hon. James H. Baker, read before the 
 Minnesota Historical Society, Feb. 8, 1887. 
 
 In pursuance of a resolution of the Minnesota Historical 
 Society, dated Dec. 13, 1886, your committee herewith 
 present a summary of their investigations and conclusions, 
 touching the validity of any and all claims to the discovery 
 of the head waters of the Mississippi river, together with a 
 determination of what waters constitute the true and ulti- 
 mate sources. 
 
 Your committee have faithfully and laboriously read all 
 letters, documents, journals and books, and consulted all 
 maps obtainable,* which shed any light upon the questions 
 
 * Books, Letters, and Documents Consulted : Letter of William Morrison 
 to Hon. Alex. Ramsey, Feb. 17, 185(), in Minnesota Historical Society's Collec- 
 tions, vol. 1, p 417. Schoolcraft's narratives of the expedition to the source of 
 the Mississippi, ISUO and 1882. Report of Jean N.. Nicollet, to accompany his 
 map of the hydro^raphical basin of the upper Mississippi river, 1845. Charles 
 Lanman's Canoe Voyage up the Mississippi. .Julius Chambers' letters in the New 
 York Herald, 1872. O. E. Garrison's report for the tenth census of the U. S. 
 Rev. J. A. Gilfillan's trip to Itasca, 1881. The United States Surveyor General's 
 map and field notes, 1x70. Letter from Ivisou, Blakeman, Taylor & Co. in 
 " Science," Dee. 24, 1886. Owen's " Sword and Pen," Phila., 18f-4. Capt. Glazier 
 and his lake, by Henry D. Harrower, of N. Y. Ninth annual report of the 
 Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1880. American Meteoro- 
 logical .Tournal, 1884. Report by Hopewell Clarke, C. E., of a survey of the 
 alHuents of Itasca, etc. 
 
 Maps Consulted: Map of Nicollet, attached to his report, 1845. Military 
 map of Nebraska and Dakota, by Gen. G. K. Warren, 1855. Official map of 
 Minnesota, 1858. Land office surveys of 1875. Map of Glazier's explora- 
 tions, etc. 
 
MINNKSOl'A HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 involved. A list of the several authorities constituted, is 
 herewith subjoined. 
 
 The definite determination of a great geographical and 
 historic fact, intimately interwoven with a pre-eminent 
 physical feature of our own State, is strictly within the 
 province and duty of this Society. The material facts and 
 findings in this investigation only, can be presented in this 
 paper, together with such references to the evidence on 
 which the conclusions are based, as may be deemed 
 material. 
 
 One Capt. Willard Glazier, recently assumes to have 
 made important discoveries at the head waters of the Missis- 
 sippi ; that he discovered a lake, new and unknown before 
 his brief visit to the Itascan region, in 1881 ; and that this 
 lake, called after him " Glazier Lake," is the true and ulti- 
 mate source of the great river. He thereafter proceeds to 
 exalt himself, and petition geographical societies and map- 
 makers, to honor him as the original discoverer of the true 
 sources of the Mississippi, and so displace Schoolcraft and 
 Nicollet from the high position and credit they had so long 
 held in the field of American science and geography. The 
 claim is a lofty and pretentious one, and should be examined 
 with scrupulous care. To snatch the hard-earned laurels 
 of Schoolcraft and Nicollet, upon whose work time has set 
 the seal of more than a half a century of uncontested title. 
 should not be sanctioned by the Minnesota Historical 
 Society, upon a field so distinctly its own, unless the new 
 claim rests upon testimony clear, conclusive and indisput- 
 able. This Society owes it to the honored dead, and to the 
 truth of geographical science in its own territory, to make 
 a candid, unbiased, and if possible, a conclusive exposition 
 of the whole matter. 
 
 The most distant sources of the Mississippi river have 
 their rise in an elevated table land in about N. latitude 47 ''. 
 longitude 95 '', an area abounding in marshes, creeks and 
 lakes. What one of these should be honored as the true 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 5 
 
 and principal source, and what explorer first discovered 
 and made known such primal waters, are the questions 
 involved. 
 
 Says the American Encyclopedia, (Edition 1855) — "We 
 follow Schoolcraft's map in giving the latitude and longitude 
 of " Le Bush Lake " * (Itasca) as the extreme source of the 
 Mississippi." The old geographers, map-makers and his- 
 torians have thus followed Schoolcraft for fifty years, in ac- 
 cepting the Itascan basin as the authentic source. The 
 great discovery of Schoolcraft, July 12, 1832, was confirrn- 
 ed by Jean N. Nicollet, a distinguished French scholar, 
 July, 1836. Nicollet, with more time and research, found 
 other inconsiderable affluents of Itasca, but holds that Itas- 
 ca was the " principal basin " of the head waters of the 
 Mississippi, and says with noble courtesy and loyalty to 
 historic truths : " The honor of having first explored the 
 sources of the Mississippi, and introduced a knowledge of 
 them into physical geography, belongs to Mr. Schoolcraft 
 and Lt. James Allen. I came only after these gentlemen ; 
 but I may be permitted to claim some merit for having 
 completed what was wanting for a full geographical 
 knowledge of those sources." This is the modest testi- 
 mony of a true and genuine scientist. Subsequently, at 
 least a dozen other cultivated, scholarly and professional 
 gentlemen, came after these savans, and at various periods, 
 visited these head waters, and by their concurrent testimony, 
 render certain the claims of these two eminent explorers to 
 the honor of original discovery. And after them all, comes 
 the government surveyors, (1875), and their work proves 
 the almost absolute accuracy of the noble and early labors 
 of Schoolcraft and Nicollet. 
 
 Thus stands the general geographic record, until Capt. 
 Glazier flings his glove into the arena in 1881, and chal- 
 lenges existing and accepted history. Glazier appears to 
 be a writer of war reminiscences, " in which he figures 
 
 * Lac la Biche. 
 
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 as the most conspicuous hero," and from what is known 
 of him by his writings " he has been fairly denominated 
 an " adventurer." * There is no evidence going to show 
 that he is possessed of any quahfications whatever, either 
 as a trained scholar or scientist, fitting him for the import- 
 ant labor he had assumed. For he had taken it upon 
 himself to review the work of men believed to be, in the 
 highest sense, competent and skilled for geographical ex- 
 ploration. They came modestly and conscientiously to 
 their work, and years of reflection and consideration elapsed 
 before either of them gave the results of their labors to the 
 world. They performed their work, too, before a white 
 man had yet settled in the territory of Minnesota, and when 
 danger and privations were the inevitable accompaniments 
 of such early undertakings. 
 
 But Glazier appears upon the scene with dramatic bom- 
 bast, and riding across the continent on horseback, in 1876, 
 and musing upon " the uncertainty that existed as to its 
 true source," resolves to settle the problem. At that very 
 moment when his steed was slaking its thirst in the 
 " Father of Waters," the government surveyors were plat- 
 ting the official maps, which were the last links wanting to 
 corroborate the validity of the work of Schoolcraft and 
 Nicollet. In May 1881, Glazier organizes a pleasure excur- 
 sion at St. Paul, and with his party starts on the cars 
 " for exploration in the wilds of Minnesota." He travels 
 155 miles by railroad to the city of Brainerd in one night, 
 and doubtless in a sleeping car. All this through a region 
 over which Nicollet had toiled weeks and months with all 
 the privations incident to an untrodden wilderness. Thence 
 he goes by a well established road to Leech Lake, and is 
 the identical old government wagon road over which all 
 the supplies were hauled for the North Pacific railroad. 
 From this road, another leaves it at Fish Hook Lake and 
 
 * See " Sword and Pen; " or, ventures and adventures of Willard Glazier, iic, 
 by John Algernon Owens," Phlla., 1881. 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 runs direct to the Southeast arm of Lake Itasca. From this 
 E. S. Teller cut a road through Town 143, R. 36 W. into 
 the S. E. corner of Section 26, and terminates just in sight 
 of Elk Lake. Over this road the U. S. Surveyor, Hall, 
 took his supplies with a team, in 1875, when he went to 
 survey those towns. 
 
 The whole journey is not rendered perplexing b)' a 
 single element of doubt. The pursuing of these routes 
 along established roads and portages, with our Indians 
 " as guides," if you please, and denominating it an " explora- 
 tion," is so ludicrous to one familiar with the situation, as 
 is the writer, that the whole thing is so supremely ridicu- 
 lous, that, were it not for the seriousness of the situation, 
 we would dismiss the matter as a joke, and Willard Glazier 
 as merry fellow on a jolly outing. 
 
 Arriving at the Itascan waters, he goes straight to 
 " Schoolcraft's Island " in the bosom of Lake Itasca, and 
 thence, without impediment or doubt, direct to a " new and 
 unknown lake," and at once discovers the original, genu- 
 ine, ultimate sources of the great river ! The directness 
 and celerity of that sort of discovery and exploration, was 
 never before recorded in serious history. He at once 
 begins his work of distorting geography and confusing 
 learned Societies. From "Schoolcraft's Island, Lake Itasca, 
 July 22d, 1 88 1 ," he heralded to " Geographical Societies" and 
 to the world, his pretensions and achievements. He subse- 
 quently published an elaborate map and sent it to the 
 President of the American Geographical Society, and pub- 
 lished a minute account of the " Recent Discovery of the 
 true source of the Mississippi River," illustrated with maps 
 and engravings, in the " American Meteorological Journal." 
 Also in a volume entitled the " Sword and Pen," there is 
 reproduced the story of his discovery. He also sent a 
 map, fortified with his own record of his alleged noble 
 deed, to the " Royal Geographical Society of England." He 
 has also industriously solicited the mention of his fame and 
 
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 his lake into geographical text books and atlases over the 
 country. He has left nothing undone to supplant School- 
 craft and demolish Nicollet. That such Societies should 
 have received, unquestioned, his brazen statements, and 
 been duped by him, is what renders the preparation of this 
 paper a necessity. 
 
 The " lake" which Glazier claims to have " discovered," 
 is a small meandered lake, which lies mainly in Sec. 22, 
 Township No. 143 North, Range 36, West of the 5th 
 Principal Meridian. The lake lies South of the South- 
 west arm of Lake Itasca, and is only 350 feet distant from 
 it. It contains about 250 acres and debouches into Itasca 
 through a sinuous stream, 11 84 feet long, in a tamarack 
 swamp. By his own description and map, this is " Glazier 
 Lake," so-called, and there is no mistaking its identity, for 
 there is no other. 
 
 Was Glazier the original discoverer of this lake ? No ; 
 no more than he was the discoverer of the sources of the 
 Nile, or the mouth of the Mississippi. And even were it 
 true that he did, its waters are not the ultimate sources of 
 the Mississippi. This identical lake is found upon every 
 map, from that of Nicollet, 1836 and '37, to that of the 
 Government surveys, 1875. 
 
 Now as to the testimony that he did not first discover it. 
 It is so conclusive as to be crushing : 
 
 I. In 1836-7, Nicollet deposited a map of the Itascan 
 region in the office of Engineers, U. S. A. By order of 
 the Senate, Feb. 16, 1841, this map and accompanying 
 report, was published in Executive Document, No. 237, 2d 
 Session, 26th Congress, in 1843, ^"^ ^ second edition pub- 
 lished and enlarged, and can be found in any of the public 
 libraries of the country. Nicollet simply sketches the lake 
 more as a bay or estuary of Itasca. In that day, by higher 
 water, which is shown by water-marks to have existed, the 
 lake was certainly identical with Itasca, for the distance is 
 now only insignificant. As illustrative of this point, the 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 Rev. J. R. Gilfillan, visiting them in 1881, the Indians 
 called this identical " Elk Lake, " Gahikgutnag" which he 
 says means, " water that juts off to one side, as a thumb 
 from a hand." This would indicate that at no remote 
 period they were one and the same lake, and that the 
 channel between them gradually filled, possibly by the aid 
 of beaver dams, and they became apparently separate 
 bodies of water, though only a " stone's throw apart " at 
 this time. The Indians from the earliest period, called the 
 whole Itasca lake system, Oniosh-kos, from the form of an 
 elk, and this protuberance was probably a part of the 
 animal configuration. At any rate, it is there on Nicollet's 
 official map, 1835, more nearly correct than it is on Glazier's 
 map of 1884. 
 
 2. In 1855, Henry R. Schoolcraft, yet alive, issued in 
 Philadelphia, (Lippincott, Grambo & Co.,) his " Summary 
 Narrative of an exploratory expedition to the sources of the 
 Mississippi." With this last edition of his works, Mr. School- 
 craft presents a revised map of all his discoveries, prepared 
 by Capt. Seth Eastman, U. S. A., and it stands prefacing 
 the title page, in which map this lake in controversy, is 
 distinctly defined, together with " Nicollet Creek," with its 
 three ponds, just precisely as described by Nicollet. So 
 that the French scientist's work received, before he died, the 
 high sanction and endorsement of Schoolcraft himself. 
 
 3. A "Military Map" of the Northwest was made in 
 1855-6, by the authority of John B. Floyd, then Secretary 
 of War, prepared by Lt. G. K. Warren, of the Typograph- 
 ical Engineers, one of the foremost geographers of his 
 time, from explorations made by him, under directions of 
 A. A. Humphrey, and the following, among other officers, 
 were consulted in its preparation and are so cited on its 
 margin: Capt. J. C. Fremont, Capt. John Pope, Gov. I. I. 
 Stevens and Lt. James Allen. The greatest care was taken 
 in its preparation. This map clearly and distinctly shows 
 the lake in controversy, located just where the government 
 surveys now place it. 
 
10 MINNESOTA HISTORIt'Al. COLLECflONS. 
 
 In 1872, Julius Chambers, of the New York Herald, 
 visited the Itascan region. He wrote a series of letters for 
 the Herald in June and July of that year, and in one dated 
 July 6th, he gives a full description of " Elk Lake," locating 
 it where it really belongs, and naming it " Dolly Varden," 
 alter his canoe. He describes it more accurately than does 
 Capt. Glazier. He pronounces it at that time as a distinct 
 lake from Itasca. This was seven years before Glazier was 
 there. He made and published a map, showing the lake as 
 represented in his letters, in the most distinct and positive 
 manner, which map is here before us. 
 
 But more material than all since the days of Nicollet, 
 was the actual survey and platting of these townships 
 embracing that entire region, including Itasca and all lakes 
 and streams connected therewith, by authority of the 
 government of the U. S., through the Surveyor General's 
 office of the State of Minnesota, six years before Capt. 
 Glazier's alleged discovery. The Surveyor General, J. H. 
 Baker, was fully informed of the facts touching the land 
 and water to be surveyed. The lumbermen of Minneapolis 
 had assured him that they had actually " counted the pine 
 trees " on this very lake. They told him of waters beyond 
 that (Nicollet creek), flowing into the S. W. arm of Itasca, 
 through which they could float their logs into this great 
 lake. The contract of surveying Township 143 North, 
 Range 36 West, where these waters are located, was let to 
 Capt. E. S. Hall of St. Cloud, and in Oct. 1875, Hall made 
 the survey. The map of the Township was duly made up 
 in the Surveyor General's Office from Capt. Hall's care- 
 fully written field notes, made upon the ground with proper 
 instruments, and attention was especially directed to the 
 lake in question. This Township map was certified to as 
 correct by J. H. Baker, Surveyor General, Feb. 3d, 1876, 
 and was by him transmitted to the General Land Office at 
 Washington, and was officially approved by the Commis- 
 sioner of the General Land Office and posted May 3d, 1876. 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 11 
 
 This map thenceforth became public property, accessible 
 to all persons, and the supreme authority to all geographers 
 and map-makers in the U. S. The lake in question was 
 meandered, its outlines marked and four large meander 
 posts set up, two on the East and two on the North, and 
 distinctly visible when Capt. Glazier was there, for they 
 were there and visible to travelers this present year. By 
 authority of instructions from the Government of the U. S., 
 Surveyor General Baker named the lake in question " Elk 
 Lake," because he had been directed to retain the name 
 given by the Indians to meander lakes, if any such 
 name was in use or known at the time of the survey. 
 Capt. Hall informed the Surveyor General that the Indian 
 name was Elk Lake. This corresponded with the traditional 
 name of the waters. It was therefore so marked on the 
 plat, and approved by the authorities at Washington. 
 What person had the right to change the name thus 
 authoritatively given ? This official survey and record, 
 that year, became a part of the great official map of the 
 United States, issued under the certificate of the Land 
 Commissioner at Washington, and the lake and name, 
 " Elk Lake," could have been found there by any person 
 upon the most casual examination. 
 
 Now all these maps which are here cited, are among the 
 papers of this Society, and with the exception of the 
 Chambers' map, are distinctly official maps, not issued by 
 private individuals, but by the authority of the State or 
 General Government. They are open and accessible to all 
 persons whomsoever. Was Capt. Glazier so excessively 
 stupid, as not to consult all such existing official authorities, 
 before starting on so important an undertaking? If so, 
 what value can attach to the work of a man neglecting to 
 properly equip himself for exploration? But it is in 
 positive evidence, that previous to his issuing any map 
 whatever, he was fully informed " that he was claiming 
 what did not belong to him," and the government maps 
 
12 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 were shown him with " Elk Lake " thereon.* But he 
 defiantly persisted in his assumption. 
 
 But there were still other sources of information, besides 
 these, ready at hand, to throw light upon the subject, if 
 they had been sought, or wanted. Charles Lanman alleges 
 he was there in 1846; the Rev. Mr. Ayer and his son, 
 Lyman Ayer, of Little Falls, Minnesota, was there in 1849; 
 Wm. Bangs, of White Earth, Minn., was there in 1865; 
 O. E. Garrison, for Census Bureau, [880; W. E. Neal, of 
 Minneapolis, was there both in 1880 and in 1881 ; the Rev. 
 J. A. Gilfillan, of White Earth, Minn., was there in May, 
 1 881. The facts pertaining to most of the foregoing visits, 
 could have been easily found in the Minnesota Historical 
 Society, a proper place for any man to go, who desired 
 intelligently to embark in such work. 
 
 More than this, in so important a State document as the 
 "Ninth Annual Report of the Geological and Natural His- 
 tory Survey of Minnesota," 1880, p. 321, C. M. Terry, in a 
 paper therein on the " Hydrology of Minnesota," describes 
 "Elk Lake" as a tributary of Itasca, and with judicious 
 and intelligent criticism adds : 
 
 " It is rather a refinement of exactness to call Elk Lake, as some 
 explorers have, the ultimate source of the Mississippi. Itasca Lake has 
 been in possession of the honor so long that its claim ought not to be 
 disputed, and certainly it is sufficiently minute, remote, and sylvan to 
 answer all the requirements of an ideal source." 
 
 This Mr. Terry, who was employed by State authority, 
 was a Congregational clergyman and had made natural 
 science a special study, and was a son-in-law and pupil of 
 Dr. Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst College, the eminent 
 geologist. No man in the Northwest was better equipped 
 for a close study, and intelligent understanding, of the 
 water systems of Minnesota, In that Report, issued by 
 
 ♦ G. Woolworth Colton, in American Canoeist, Nov. 1886: Mr. Colton made 
 Glazier's map according to his dictation and gives remarlcable testimony as to 
 the shamelessness of Glazier's iusistauce on perverting the facts. 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 18 
 
 the State, Mr. Glazier could have read the full account of 
 the lake he pretends to have discovered. 
 
 But this is not all, for the scientific world in Europe 
 were also familiar with the results of Nicollet's explorations, 
 and with the situation at Lake Itasca and vicinity. Dr. 
 Peterman's " Stieler's Hand iVtlas," published by Justus 
 Perthes, of the Gotha Institute of Geography, contains dis- 
 tinctly this very lake. So that even in European geog- 
 raphies, the redoubtable Glazier could have found the lake 
 he so brazenly claims. 
 
 Does not this record of facts show, that if Glazier had 
 been in any respect whatever a student and a scientist, 
 turn which ever way he might, he would have found the 
 " lake " which has whetted his appetite for glory, or had 
 he avoided the paths of the scholar and entered any " Real 
 Estate Office" in St. Paul or Minneapolis, he would have 
 found his lake distinctly marked and named " Elk Lake " 
 on " Warner & Foote's Map," which is in such common use 
 everywhere in the State. 
 
 In the face of these facts, the bold assumption of the 
 man Glazier, is without a parallel in the annals of geo- 
 graphical history. His conduct is a total disregard of all 
 the rules and dignities of a true scientist. Scientific knowl- 
 edge has scarcely before been made the prey of a charla- 
 tan. The measure of his astounding fraud, has not yet fully 
 penetrated the public mind. To begin his absurd under- 
 taking, he must thrust aside the work of the noble School- 
 craft ; the more careful and exhaustive explorations of the 
 great scientist, Nicollet ; to ignore the confirmatory e.xam- 
 ination of nearh' a dozen explorers and travelers through a 
 series of years ; and finalh' to set aside the work of the 
 government surveyors, with the official map staring him 
 full in the face ! Glazier's motto must be, " l'audact\ 
 toujours Vmidace!' 
 
 But in what manner did he conduct his alleged explora- 
 tion ? With what element of scientific equipment was he 
 
;14 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLBCTTIONS. 
 
 clothed ? Without maps and documents throwing such 
 light as may be upon the region to be explored ; without 
 any instruments whatever, * always so necessary for the 
 solution of a topographical problem, this geodetic cham- 
 pion advances to a review of the work of the great Nicol- 
 let! His own account is the authority for the facts of this 
 most extraordinary exploration and discovery. He sights 
 lake Itasca between three and four o'clock on July 2ist, 
 1 88 1, and passed directly to Schoolcraft's Island, where he 
 at once went into camp, and retiring early, he did not 
 begin the exhaustive work of exploration until 8 a. m., of 
 the 22d ; then putting his canoes into the water, and fol- 
 lowing the guidance of an Indian, he goes directly to the 
 waters to be discovered. He enters the lake, hoists a flag, 
 fires a volley, they make speeches, as he alleges, and 
 announces that he has completed the work begun by De 
 Soto in 1 541 ! They immediately left the lake, and paddled 
 back into Itasca, and at three o'clock in the afternoon of the 
 same day began the descent of the river. t Thus in seven 
 hours of the 22d of July, 1881, did Capt. Willard Glazier, 
 by his account, accomplish more in the discovery of the 
 sources of the Mississippi, than had been done from the 
 time of De Soto, three hundred and forty years, till that 
 memorable hour! Shades of Columbus, of Magellan, of 
 De Soto, of Henry Hudson, of Nicollet ! To what a 
 refinement of labor and economy of time, has Willard 
 Glazier reduced the work of notable geographical explora- 
 tions and discovery ! Think of the painstaking Nicollet, 
 devoting days to toilsome labor, and nights to astronomi- 
 cal observations! Think of the months of privation and 
 danger endured by Schoolcraft and Nicollet, in the inter- 
 ests of true science ; modest, loyal to their noble work, 
 blazing an unknown path to the fountains of the Mis- 
 
 * Those who accompanied him have so stated. 
 
 t SeeGhizier's paper in ".Vraerican Met. Journal," pages 202, 322, 824, 325, 
 327; "Sword and Pen," pages -477, 478. 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 15 
 
 sissippi, and waiting years of reflection and review, before 
 giving a report to the world ! But fifty years later comes 
 a stripling tourist, and in the midst of a civilized State, 
 with a million of people, enters a surveyed township, 
 blazed at every quarter section with the axe of the surveyor, 
 and in an exploit of seven hours duration, endeavors to 
 steal the well earned chaplets from bronzed brows of 
 Schoolcraft and Nicollet, and strives to set them upon the 
 head of a conscienceless " adventurer" instead ! 
 
 There were full twenty miles of shore to be examined 
 along the indentations and arms of Itasca, with its " Elk 
 Lake " annex ; there were at least fifteen miles of streams, 
 with their sinuosities to be explored. 
 
 This point is of special importance, as it is made inferen- 
 tially to appear in his writings, that he had explored some, 
 at least, of these affluents. But Willard Glazier, being present 
 in our Historical Society Rooms, Feb.7th, at four o'clock 
 in the afternoon, confessed to Gen. Baker, in the presence 
 of witnesses.* that he had not ascended any one of them, a 
 fact which was known to this committee by other testimony. 
 Glazier, thus by his own confession, contributed nothing 
 whatever to geographical knowledge. He addressed himself 
 to no work of a scientist. He did not find, or attempt to find 
 Nicollet's creek, which is the main tributary of Itasca ; he 
 did not even visit the chief tributary of Elk Lake itself. 
 His maps of the lake are in themselves misleading, as he 
 caused it to be made out of all proportion to its real area, 
 and extravagant in its comparative relation to Itasca. He 
 makes one map in 1884, and another, locating the lake four 
 miles further South, by his own scale of miles, in 1886. 
 The latter is to be considered a revision, and places the 
 lake where it does not belong. In neither map is it cor- 
 rect. His maps are therefore, in themselves, outrageously 
 erroneous, and cannot be trusted for truth and fidelity. 
 
 • Present, J. B. Cbaney and Geo. Hamilton. 
 
16 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLBCTION8. 
 
 Further than this, he distorts geography in the most 
 reckless manner in his letter to the " Royal Geographical 
 Society of England." In that communication, he locates 
 his lake " not less than an entire degree of latitude South 
 of Turtle Lake." This places it South of Crow Wing river 
 and five miles North of the town , of Wadena ! People of 
 Minnesota, how this man perverts the geography of your 
 State! It is here to be observed that in this extraordinary 
 letter to the Royal Society, the entire concluding paragraph 
 is stolen bodily from Schoolcraft (Ed. 1834, page, 59), 
 changing only the words of Schoolcraft " probably." into 
 " not less than, " thus adding blunder to theft. Pursue this 
 adventurer in any of his statements concerning this whole 
 thing, and how marvellous are his palpable errors. In one 
 place he fixes the level of the water of his lake 3 feet 
 above those of Itasca ; in another at 7 feet. The facts are, 
 from actual levels taken with instruments, the level of Elk 
 Lake above Itascan waters, is just 13 inches. 
 
 Again, Glazier claims that the water from a lakelet, he 
 calls lake " Alice," (really lake Whipple, as Mr. Gilfillan 
 has named it), empties into Elk Lake, when, as a topo- 
 grapically determined fact, they debouch into the West arm 
 of Itasca. Any searcher after geographical truth, in 
 following this rattle-brained adventurer, would be led into 
 hopeless mazes of error and confusion. 
 
 His work in distorting the geography of our State, is 
 simply incredible. He has issued and scattered broad- 
 cast a map, entitled : " A map illustrative of Capt. Willard 
 Glazier's voyage of exploration to the source of the Mis- 
 sissippi river." Coming into Minnesota, a strolling tour- 
 ist, he has, in this map, made a bold and outrageous 
 attempt to change the names of our lakes in an area of 
 country 320 square miles in extent, beginning just West of 
 Leech Lake, thence across to the Itasca basin, then follow- 
 ing the meanderings of the Mississippi river to Lake 
 Winnebegoshish. In this territory he displaced the ancient 
 
THK SOURCKS OP THE MISSISSIPPI. 17 
 
 Indian names, sacred to the people of Minnesota, and old in 
 nomenclature as Leech Lake, Turtle Lake, Winnebegoshish 
 or Cass Lake, coming down from immemorial times, and 
 in their place substituted the following, changing as here 
 noted : 
 
 Kabekona River to Kabekanka. 
 
 Kabekona Lake to Lake Garfield. 
 
 Neway Lake to Lake George. 
 
 Bowdich Lake to Lake Paine. 
 
 Assawe Lake to Lake Hattie. 
 
 Plantagenet Lake to Lake Hennepin. 
 
 La Place River to Lake De Soto. 
 He assumes to name a long chain of lakes and ponds 
 lying between Leech Lake and La Place river, after his 
 army associates ; those from La Place river to Itasca, he 
 devotes to his relatives. 
 
 Do the people of this State desire to have their ancient 
 and honored nomenclature overthrown by such authority, 
 and graft the Glazier family tree in lieu thereof? Does 
 this Historical Society wish to admit this quack explorer's 
 name on the map of this State, honored by such historic and 
 treasured names as Cass, Le Sueur, Morrison, Olmstead, 
 Sibley, McLeod, Kittson, Faribault, Ramsey, Rice, Marshall, 
 Aitkin, Steele, Becker, Freeborn, Stevens, and other house- 
 hold names, identified with early days and noble deeds ? 
 It is in evidence that his lake is named after himself by 
 collusion ; the lakelet in Sec. 27 after his daughter ; a lake 
 near La Place river, after his brother, George ; another 
 Hattie, after another of his family, and so on. This shows 
 that he is consumed by egregious vanity, and an inordi- 
 nate desire for notoriety. 
 
 As we pursue his devious record, step by step, we find 
 that not in one thing touching our geography, has he told 
 the truth. He has perverted the facts of our early history ; 
 told stories of imaginary adventures along our noble 
 streams ; deluged the country with false and erroneous 
 
18 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLEC?riONS. 
 
 maps of the Northern portion of our State, and sought to 
 rob us of ancient names. 
 
 Nicollet's work was done years before a white man had 
 permanently settled within the boundaries of our State. 
 Glazier's was a jovial picnic within the limits of civili- 
 zation. The settler had already taken up homesteads 
 within sight of Elk Lake, years before Glazier was there. 
 Your committee have before them an official letter from the 
 Register of the Land Office at Crookston, showing the 
 date of the first settlement, by homestead, to have been 
 Aug. 22d, 1878, by Austin Sigimore, on Sec. 22, three 
 years before the alleged advent of this tourist. 
 
 His record of this imaginary exploration abounds in 
 atrocious falsehoods. He dignified his geographic romance 
 with beautiful speeches by his Indian guide, Ge-no-wa-ge- 
 sic. Your committee are in receipt of a letter from the 
 Rev. J. A. Gilfillan, which explodes even this element of 
 wild romance into atoms. Read the following : 
 
 White Earth, Minn., Jaiiiiarv 7th, 1667. 
 
 Dk.\k Sir: — In accordance with your suggestion, I went a few days 
 ago and saw Clie-no-wa-ge-sic, with whom I have long been well 
 acquainted. I took with me Glazier's book " Sword and Pen," and read 
 him from it his speech as reported on page 453, beginning " My Brother, 
 etc.," and asked him how it was about that.? He said he never made the 
 speech reported, " Never made any speech at all at Leech JLake, nothing 
 ■whatever.''' I then read him, on page 474, about his stepping to the 
 front, assuming an oratorical attitude etc., and his speech following, 
 beginning " My brother, I have come with you through many lakes and 
 rivers to the head of the Father of Waters," and asked him how about that.' 
 He said he never stood up and extended his arms; never said that no 
 white man had yet seen the source of the great river, or that that Lake 
 was it. The only thing there was to that, was that they, when the 
 canoes arrived there, told Glazier that that was where he had planted 
 corn, and that he had hunted all round those shores for many years. As 
 to that speech on page 474, he only told him the above about planting 
 corn and hunting; never told him that he had now got to the true head, 
 for he (Che-no-wa-ge-sic), well knew that Lake Breck, the Elk Lake of 
 the maps, was not the true head, but only the "place where the waters 
 were gathered ; " that he knew that the true head was a little stream a mile 
 or two to the West, running into the West arm of Lake Itasca, putting 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 19 
 
 his finger on the map and running it along the stream up to the little 
 lake, Lake Whipple, at N. W. corner of Section 34, according to the 
 Government Survey. " That Glazier never asked him to take him to 
 the true head, and he well knew that he did not take him there. That 
 Glazier only asked him if he could take him to that lake which the 
 Indians call Pokegama, and that he replied that he could; but that he 
 knew that that was not the true source; it was only a place where the 
 waters were gathered." 
 
 The above I have copied from my minutes of the interview with 
 Che-no-wa-ge-sic, made immediately after. He is evidently an honest 
 fellow and tells a true story. He did not know why I asked him; I did 
 not let him know whether I was in Glazier's interest or otherwise, and 
 he has heard nothing, I believe, of there being any dispute about the 
 matter, and had no interest but to tell the truth. 
 
 To the people of Minnesota who know Mr. Gilfillan, 
 this will be conclusive. Glazier's other statements have been 
 repudiated by Channing Paine, the only white person, 
 except his brother George, who accompanied him, and 
 now his noble Indian, his former Che-no-wa-ge-sic, he too 
 has abandoned this falsifier of history, and left him alone 
 in his fabric of lies. 
 
 If it be urged by his friends, that, notwithstanding all 
 that has been said, he was yet, as he claims, the first to 
 demonstrate that there were other waters beyond Itasca, 
 and that he showed those waters to be the lake indicated, 
 there are plenty of answers to that. Chambers had so 
 averred, in 1872, and called the lake "Dolly Varden " ; 
 A. H. Siegfried, in Lippincott's Magazine, Aug. 1880, who 
 developed that whole theory of sources ; and that Glazier 
 knew of it, is shown by his plagiarizing boldly, as usual, 
 from the magazine articles in question. 
 
 If he still pushes the claim beyond, into his " Lake 
 Alice," by debouching its waters into Elk Lake, as he has 
 done, and there rests his claim, still the government surveys 
 and careful subsequent scientific research, show that that 
 lakelet empties, far away, into Itasca itself There is no 
 longer a place, nor an evasion, where he can hide from the 
 disgrace of his false and fraudulent pretensions. 
 
 But the flagrant fraud, boldly attempted to be put upon 
 
20 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLEXTTIONS. 
 
 the world by this pretended discovery, is only one of 
 Capt. Glazier's sins against the literary and scientific world. 
 There is another, equally glaring, ignoble and contempti- 
 ble in a scientist, which is kin to his rape of the lake. It 
 serves further to illustrate the character of the man : 
 
 In 1884, Capt. Glazier contributed to the "American 
 Meteorological Journal," what purports to be an elaborate 
 account of his " Recent Discovery of the True Sources of 
 the Mississippi." In that account, he commits the boldest 
 and most flagrant literary piracy to be found in the 
 curiosities of all literature. Challenging and denying 
 Schoolcraft's title to the discovery of the sources of the great 
 river, he yet evidently had in his possession a copy of 
 Schoolcraft's " Narrative of an Expedition to Lake Itasca 
 in 1832," the same as published by Harper & Brothers, 1834, 
 and if Glazier did not believe in the genuineness of 
 Schoolcraft's discovery, it is patent that he had implicit 
 faith in the fidelity of the careful Schoolcraft's descriptions 
 of the Indians and of the localities. His plagiarisms are 
 so bold, that Glazier has never presumed to deny the 
 charge. "Stolen from Schoolcraft" should stand at the 
 head of every printed column. These extraordinary 
 coincidences of whole pages of identical language, were 
 brought to light by the laborious researches of Henry D. 
 narrower, an accomplished scholar and geographer, and 
 published by Ivison, Blakeman. Taylor & Co., of New 
 York, 1886, Mr. Harrower has so completely pilloried the 
 unfortunate Glazier, that he must be solid brass if he can 
 again lift his head among literary people. It must destroy 
 confidence in all his literary performances. We have care- 
 fully gone over Mr. Harrower's exhibits of parallel columns, 
 comparing both with their originals, and are dazed at 
 Glazier's audacity. The lapse of fifty years since School- 
 craft wrote, had no effect upon Glazier's judgment in 
 appropriating the work of the former. The material 
 incidents of time, place and customs, as changed during 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 21 
 
 the time among the Pillager band of Indians, are out- 
 rageously defied by Glazier. He sticks to Schoolcraft in 
 spite of the results of a half century of schools, farming, 
 and the civilizing effects of the government's care of these 
 Indians. Their present condition is well known to these 
 citizens of Minnesota, and Glazier's stolen account of them 
 fifty years ago, as applicable to-day, is stupid beyond belief 
 Schoolcraft's fine description of a noted chief of 1832, is 
 taken bodily by this literary thief, and applied to White 
 Cloud in 1 88 1. All this is like putting the girl of to-day 
 in the clothes of her great-grandmother, and declaring it 
 is the fashion of the hour. 
 
 Even in his purported trip of discovery, he follows, with 
 unreserved confidence, Schoolcraft's description of port- 
 ages, trails, marshes, swamps, elevations, waters, &c. 
 Identical also, is his copy of the meteorology, zoology 
 and botany of the country. The track and the foot-prints 
 of Schoolcraft are never missed by a hair's-breadth, by 
 this faithful plagiarist of the great scientist. Schoolcraft's 
 fidelity to nature was never so complimented. If Glazier 
 was there at all, he saw only with Schoolcraft's eyes. 
 The same Indians, the same customs, same dances, same 
 sacrifices, same houses, same meals, same salt-cellar, same 
 grass, same pond-lillies, same rushes, same canoes, same 
 flocks of pigeons, same ripe strawberries, — everything alike ! 
 Indeed, it was not necessary for Glazier to have visited 
 Lake Itasca, if he ever did, for he could have copied the 
 noble pages of Schoolcraft as well in his study, without 
 the inconvenience of mosquitoes, or the expense of his 
 journey. 
 
 To crown his bold plagiarisms with the mede of per- 
 fection. Glazier gives a table in "Am. Met. Journal," 1884, 
 p. 328, " Meteorological Observations at the Head Waters 
 of the Mississippi." It is true we have the evidence that 
 he had no instruments with him, and took no observations 
 whatever. But it is only a step from plagiarism, to lying. 
 
22 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 In another volume of Schoolcraft, " Narrative of an Expe- 
 dition to the Sources of the Mississippi in 1820," published 
 in Albany, N. Y., 1821, are two meteorological tables, 
 taken at Big Sandy Lake, pages 268 and 314. Glazier 
 reproduces these identical tables as his own, as if taken 
 " at the head waters of the Mississippi." 
 
 We have the two tables before us, (Mr. Harrower's keen 
 work,) and every date, and every barometrical observation, 
 every hour of the notations, the character of each day and 
 the direction of the wind, the very thunder, the rain-fall, 
 all are identically the same, for every figure has been com- 
 pared. They tally to a dot. But, just sixty-one years 
 before, Aug. 2d, 1820, Schoolcraft broke his instrument 
 and his observations ceased, at two p. m. of that day. 
 Loyal and faithful ever, to the great man whose work he so 
 religiously copied. Glazier ceases his barometrical record 
 at just two p. M., Aug, 2d, 1881 ! ! 
 
 Did Glazier think he was plundering neglected and for- 
 gotten books? No American scholar will forget School- 
 craft, no more than he will neglect Audubon, or bury 
 Agassiz, and more and more as the Indian perishes, will 
 Schoolcraft be recognized as authority and a classic. 
 Glazier does not seek to conceal, or veil his thefts. A 
 thief will seek to disguise his stolen horse by cutting off 
 his tail, or clipping his hair ; but Glazier struts in all his 
 borrowed plumage, oblivious to every chance of discovery 
 and dead to every sense of shame. Though his rank 
 plagiarisms have long been made public, he neither modifies 
 his story nor abates his pretensions. It seems useless 
 further to unmask and displume so stolid a man. But 
 what the public are entitled to, is the truth of history and 
 an honest geography. 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 23 
 
 A Critical Review. 
 
 A critical review of the whole situation was made by 
 Hopewell Clarke, a citizen of Minnesota, well known for his 
 eminent fitness, experience and capacity for the work, who 
 was engaged by Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., book 
 publishers of the City of New York, to visit the sources of 
 the Mississippi river for an accurate topographical survey 
 of that region, with a purpose to carefully review the work 
 of former explorers, and to determine any matters yet 
 doubtful. Mr. Clark, after a full study of the case, with 
 competent assistants, properly equipped with maps and 
 instruments, did the work thoroughly in 1886. The results 
 of his patient and exhaustive labors, which are before us, 
 confirm the accuracy of the government surveys. It cer- 
 tifies to the general correctness of Nicollet's report and 
 maps. Unlike Glazier's, this expedition explored every 
 bay and indentation of the Itascan waters, and followed 
 every affluent to its ultimate source. They trod in the 
 honored footsteps of the indefatigable Nicollet. Every 
 level was taken with instruments, and every distance 
 measured with a chain. They confirm a visit of Nicollet 
 to Elk Lake, by his minute notations of its feeders, which 
 could only be observed by actual exploration. They fix the 
 location of Elk Lake precisely where the government sur- 
 veyors located it ; and they demonstrate that Glazier both 
 distorted its size, and placed it too far from the Itascan 
 waters. He concurs fully with Nicollet, and other reliable 
 explorers, that the longest, and by far the most important 
 of the affluents of the Itascan basin, is the river, a creek 
 which debouches into the Southwest arm of the lake, being 
 sixteen feet wide, two and one half deep at its mouth, and 
 the one most elevated in source being ninety-two feet 
 above Itasca, while Elk Lake is but thirteen inches higher. 
 This expedition confirms the statement by water-marks 
 found, that Itasca waters were once higher, and Elk Lake 
 once lower, than they now are, and that the latter, as here- 
 
24 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 tofore stated, was doubtless but an estuary of Itasca at the 
 time of Schoolcraft's and Nicollet's explorations. He 
 fully confirms the general idea of Nicollet that " Lake 
 Itasca is the first important reservoir and basin of all the 
 springs that feed the head waters of the Mississippi river." 
 
 They find the posts and blazings of the government 
 surveyors still visible. Men of our own State, worthy 
 to be trusted, they did their work without prejudice or 
 bias, intent only on finding out the truth as to the primal 
 waters of our great river. They confirm the fidelity of 
 Schoolcraft and Nicollet to every essential fact, and renew, 
 to those daring explorers, the honors they so nobly won. 
 
 But why pursue this investigation further? Let this 
 perverter of history and distorter of geography be dis- 
 missed as a charlatan adventurer, with the contempt he 
 so richly merits. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 After a most diligent and laborious examination of all 
 the records, maps and documents bearing upon the case, 
 which are now so complete and exhaustive as to be no 
 longer liable to any material change, your committee, beg 
 leave respectfully to submit the results of their findings : 
 
 I. That Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, accompanied by Lt. 
 James Allen, in a scientific expedition made by him, July 
 1832, to the head waters of the Mississippi river, did 
 discover, locate, delineate and map the general basin, 
 which is the first great gathering place and reservoir of the 
 head waters of that continental stream, and was b\- him 
 named Lake Itasca, from the Latin words Veritas caput, 
 the true head. Tliat he announced the discovery in a 
 narrative written in a modest, honorable and distinct man- 
 ner. That his companion, Lt. Allen, the topographer of 
 the party, drew a map, which map was deposited, and is 
 now, in the General Land Ofiice of the U. S., in the City 
 of Washington, which map exhibits the substantial outlines 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 25 
 
 of Lake Itasca and its general surroundings. That School- 
 craft's right to the original honor of this discovery can- 
 not be rightfully questioned or challenged. 
 
 2. That Jean N. Nicollet, a distinguished French scholar 
 and explorer, did, in August 1836, visit and minutely ex- 
 plore the same region in and about the Itascan basin. That 
 his work exhibits all the care of a trained scientist, and 
 that his map, deposited in the office of Engineers, U. S. A. 
 1836-7, is so complete in detail, that all subsequent 
 examinations and surveys have been but certificators of 
 its general accuracy. That his report is clear, compre- 
 hensive and scientific. 
 
 That Nicollet did discover and explore to its sources, a 
 creek, or river, whose primal springs are now found by 
 government surveys, to be in Sec. 34, Town 143 N., R. 36 
 W., 5th Principal Meridian, and 92 feet above the level of 
 Lake Itasca; which creek, or river, has its rise at the foot 
 hills of the Hauteur des Terres, which curve, like a crescent, 
 around its sources, and this is the longest, as it is by far the 
 largest, tributary of the Itasca basin. To use Nicollet's 
 own language : " In obedience to the geographical rule, 
 that the sources of a river are those that are most distant 
 from its mouth, this creek is truly the infant Mississippi ; 
 all others below, its feeders and tributaries." Then he 
 modestly and courteously adds : 
 
 " The honor of having first explored the sources of the 
 Mississippi, and introduced a knowledge of them into 
 physical geography, belongs to Mr. Schoolcraft and Lieu- 
 tenant Allen. I come only after these gentlemen; but I 
 may be permitted to claim some merit for having com- 
 pleted what was wanting for a full geographical account 
 of these sources. Moreover, I am, I believe, the first 
 traveler, who has carried with him astronomical instru- 
 ments, and put them to profitable account along the whole 
 course of the Mississippi, from its mouth to its sources." 
 
 This is the essence of the whole story. To these two 
 
26 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 eminent scholars and scientists belong all the glory of 
 the discovery of the primal sources of the Mississippi 
 river. 
 
 Your committee recommend that this chief tributary 
 of Itasca, should be named " Nicollet River " in honor of 
 its great discoverer, and that the lakelet in Section 27, be 
 named Alpha, as significant of the absolute ultimate 
 source. 
 
 Recommended, that the name " Glazier Lake " be 
 expunged from the lake in Sec. 22, of the same Town and 
 Range, and that the name " Elk Lake " be continued as 
 rightfully and appropriately named by the authority of the 
 Government of the United States. 
 
 That we earnestly and respectfully recommend all 
 geographers, map-makers and historians, to follow the con- 
 clusions herein reached, as final to a matter of geography 
 within our own State. 
 
 That we respectfully recommend that the present Legis- 
 lature, by joint resolution, or otherwise, as to them may 
 seem best, take such action as will fix and maintain the 
 nomenclature of the waters as herein indicated. 
 
 At the conclusion of the reading of Gen. Baker's Report, 
 Ex-Gov. Alex. Ramsey moved that the report be adopted, 
 and published by the Society, which motion prevailed. 
 
 The following Resolutions were then read, and unani- 
 mously adopted : 
 
 Whereas, The members of this Society have listened to the reading 
 of the report prepared by Gen. James Heaton Baker on the claims made 
 by Capt. Willard Glazier, to the credit of having in 1881 "discovered 
 the source of the Mississippi river," to-wit: A lake adjoining Lake 
 Itasca, designated on the United States surveys as Elk Lake; therefore 
 be it 
 
 Resolved, That we hereby express as the deliberate judgment of 
 this Society that the assertions and assumptions of said Glazier, in the 
 matter named, are baseless and false — that he is in no sense whatever a 
 "discoverer" or " explorer," the lake which he is now endeavoring to 
 have called by his name having been originally visited and mapped by 
 Schoolcraft in 1833 ; again carefully explored and scientifically examined 
 
THE SOURCES OP THE MISSISSIPPI. 27 
 
 and described in official reports and maps by that accurate and conscien- 
 tious scientist, Jean Nicholas Nicollet in 1836, and was in 1875 fully 
 surveyed and mapped by the United Slates surveyors, and soon after 
 claims and pre-emptions were filed on lands adjoining said lake. 
 
 Resolved, That we assert our unqualified belief, based on the thorough 
 and careful investigations of Nicollet, O. E. Garrison and others, and 
 again, more recently, of those made bv Hopewell Clarke, that the lake 
 which Capt. Glazier asserts is " the true source of the Mississippi river," 
 is not such m reality, but that the real source of the river is Lake Itasca 
 and its tributaries, arising in sections 27 and 28 of the township in 
 which it is located. 
 
 Resolved, That we feel amazed at the presumption and assurance 
 displayed by Capt. Glazier; first, in hastily making such an audacious 
 claim, based, at best upon an uncertain and doubtful foundation ; and 
 again, in arrogantly heralding himself to the world as a discoverer, 
 without first submitting his claims to some tribunal competent to pro- 
 nounce on their merits and having his alleged discovery examined. 
 And further, in deceiving geographical and scientific societies by send- 
 ing them an account of his pretended discoveries, and causing to be 
 published books and magazine articles in which he is praised and puffed 
 in unmeasured terms and held up to the admiration of the country as 
 one who had achieved some praiseworthy feat; also, in publishing maps 
 in which the lake in question is represented as four times its real size 
 and placed in a wrong position ; and lastly, in persuading, by persistent 
 solicitations, map and school book publishers to place his name to " Elk 
 Lake" and declare it "the source of the Mississippi river." 
 
 Resolved, That the wholesale and unblushing plagiarisms by Capt. 
 Glazier from the descriptions of Itasca in the writings of Schoolcraft, 
 Siegfried and others, and of the meteorological tables in the former, 
 tend to throw discredit on all his assertions and to render him unworthy 
 of the respect and confidence which would be due to him, were he really 
 the discoverer which he claims to be. 
 
 Resolved, That we respectfully ask the legislature to pass, without 
 delay, the bill recently introduced into the house by Mr. Donnelly, to 
 fix irrevocably on the map of the State the names of the lakes and 
 streams composing the Itasca sources of the Mississippi river, so that its 
 earliest explorers be not robbed of their just laurels, and to remove 
 temptations to adventurers in future to gain notoriety by attaching their 
 names to said lakes. 
 
 Resolved, That we call upon the various geographical, historical and 
 other learned societies throughout the world to join with us in repudi- 
 ating Glazier's claims, and ask them, in the spirit of truth and right, 
 that if they have in their possession, maps with the lake in question so 
 named, they erase Glazier's name from them and substitute therefor 
 that of "Elk Lake" 
 
28 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 
 
 Resolved, That our thanks are due, and are hereby tendered, to Gen. 
 James H. Baker, for his able and exhaustive report; and also to H. D. 
 Harrower, Esq., of New York, the Rev. J. A. Gilfillan of White Earth, 
 Minn., and to Messrs. Alfred J. Hill, Hopewell Clarke and J. B. Chaney 
 of St. Paul, for valuable aid rendered in the investigation of maps and 
 documents relating to the question. 
 
 Lb N '10 
 
THE 
 
 SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 THEIR DISCOVERERS, REAL AND 
 PRETENDED. 
 
 A REPORT, 
 
 HON. JAMES H. BAKER, 
 
 Read before the Minnesota Historical Societv, 
 February 8, 1887. 
 
 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTION, 
 VOL. Vr. PART I. 
 
 SAINT PAUL, MINN. 
 
 Brown, Treacv & Co., Printeks, 
 
 1 887. 
 
/ Al/