The story of the Great Lakes

"The story of the Great Lakes" by Edward Channing and Marion Florence Lansing is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It charts the discovery, exploration, contest for control, and modern development of the Great Lakes region, from Indigenous homelands and French missions to forts, canals, cities, shipping, and industry. The opening of this work sets its scope and method in a preface, then moves from a vivid contrast between La Salle’s era and modern Chicago to a clear overview of the lakes’ geography, canals, and economic power. It recounts Champlain’s 1615 journey to the Huron country, the first mass among the Hurons, and a failed assault on an Iroquois fort that left him wintering with his hosts. It then follows the Jesuit missions led by Brébeuf and Jogues: grueling Ottawa–Nipissing routes, mission life and teaching, rising superstition and persecution, brief western forays to Sault Ste. Marie, and the Iroquois onslaught that destroyed Huron towns and scattered the mission. A ceremonial interlude at Sault Ste. Marie in 1671 shows France claiming the interior for Louis XIV. The narrative shifts to La Salle: building the Griffon above Niagara despite Seneca resistance, Hennepin’s description of the falls, the ship’s passage through Erie, Detroit, and Huron to Michilimackinac and Green Bay, the Griffon’s disappearance, and La Salle’s storm-battered canoe voyage down Lake Michigan to the Illinois country. It next relates Governor La Barre’s feeble 1684 campaign and his humiliating council with the Onondaga orator “Big Mouth,” who asserts Iroquois independence. Finally, it turns to occupation, introducing Cadillac’s 1701 founding of Detroit at the strategic strait that commands the upper-lakes trade. (This is an automatically generated summary.)