I am very pleased to share the following email and story from Mel Aanerud. It is such a well written and entertaining glimpse of history behind the headlines. I’m going to read it with my kids before our annual trip to Fort Snelling….
Who was the first white in what we now Call Minnesota? It was probably some French fur trader who happened here across Lake Superior. But Father Louis Hennepin gets most of the credit, but I would like you to consider Michael Accault, who has a very different slant on that first white exploration into Minnesota in 1680.
From the perspective of Michael Accault….. by Mel Aanerud
Good day, Good day.
I have just left a meeting with the commander…you know him Rene Cavalier De LaSalle, the great explorer.
He has just gotten this book from France and he read parts of it to me.
I will take it home and have my wife read the whole thing to me.
It entitled “A new discovery of a vast county in America between New France and new Mexico” and was written by the priest Father Louis Hennepin.
In it he says that he found the source of the Mississippi River and traveled it from its beginnings to New Lisbon and New Orleans, that he named everything in-between in the name of the King of France and that he converted all the Indians he met in his many travels to Christianity.
La Salle said that he exaggerated a bit…I said he is a ball faced liar. (more…)
Minnesota Sesquicentennial 