Carver first to record travels

Jonathan Carver wrote of travel in the Northwest Territory. His reports were accepted by Europeans seeking news of the New World. This is a page from an account published in a 1796 edition of his book "Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America."

     In London in 1778, Jonathan Carver published a book entitles "Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America" which recounts an expedition through Wisconsin in 1766-67, including a trip up the Chippewa River.
     The book was translated into several languages and read throughout Europe. For many Europeans it served as the basis of knowledge of the area - in geography, inhabitants, flora and fauna.
     The book consists of two parts; the first describes the actual trip and the second, largely plagiarized from French journals and histories of earlier explorers, gives details of Indian life and customs and describes briefly some of the animal and plant life.

Really third in command

     Carver gives the impression he was a gentleman of leisure and the trip was of his own instigation. In reality, he was third in command and had been hired by Maj. Robert Rogers, commander of Fort Michilimackinac, as a cartographer for the trip.
     Rogers had submitted a proposal to the King of England for an expedition to explore a possible Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean via the "Ouragon River".
     Rogers appointed Capt. James Tute, a former member of his famed Rogers' Rangers who fought in the French and Indian War, to be leader of the expedition and second in command was James Stanley Goddard, a well known fur trader in the Great Lakes area.
     Carver had been a soldier during the war but had fallen on hard times, and readily accepted Rogers' offer of a salary of eight shillings per day to be a mapmaker on such a trip.

Traveled to Prairie du Chien

     In September, 1766, Carver left Ft. Michilimackinac and traveled by canoe around Lake Michigan, down the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers to Prairie du Chien. He wintered along the Mississippi River and traveled as far north as St. Anthony Falls.
     May 6, 1767, he met Tute and Goddard and was informed of the journey's full purpose. The expedition hired two Frenchmen as interpreters, several Chippewa Indians to serve as workers and a Chippewa chief to be a guide. They planned to ravel up the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers and eventually to Grand Portage to receive supplies from Rogers for the rest of the trip.
     The area around St. Anthony Falls was claimed by the Sioux tribe which was unfriendly to the Chippewas. The guide persuaded the party to go up the Chippewa River instead, as they did not have sufficient gifts to placate the Sioux.
     In Carver's original journal, in which he entered notes daily, thee is a replica of a pictograph which was fastened to a tree to indicate a group of travelers had come in peace. It is said to show a tall Sioux Indian offering a peace belt to the Chippewa, portrayed as a deer.
     In the background are six tents representing the six nights they had camped since leaving Prairie du Chien, and on the river are two canoes of white men and Indians with a British flag in the bow of each canoe.

Describes life along river

     The journal describes the journey up the Chippewa River to Chippewa Falls. The Falls presented an obstacle to river travel and on his map, Carver notes, "Traders seldom go further up than here." He describes the meadows and herds of buffalo and elk that grazed along the river between Durand and Chippewa Falls.
     To the east of Chippewa Falls, he describes the effect of a "hurricane" as he states, "-in a depth farther than my eye could reach, I observed that every tree, many of which were more than six feet in circumference, was lying on the ground torn up by the roots."
     At Lac Courte Oreilles, the party was well received and escorted to the Namekagon River which they followed to the St. Croix River, then crossed the portage (at Solon Springs) to the Brule River.
     In his journal, Carver calls this river the Goddard River, "after a gentleman that desired to accompany me," - in reality his immediate superior on the trip.

No supplies forthcoming

     The expedition arrived at Grand Portage July 19, 1767, and waited unsuccessfully for three weeks for supplies from Maj. Rogers. When word arrived that no provisions would be forthcoming, they decided to return to Fort Michilimackinac.
     Rogers urged them to continue on, but they were short of food and had no opportunity to obtain gifts for bartering with Indians.
     Meanwhile, Rogers was embroiled in a controversy at the fort, eventually imprisoned, tried and acquitted.
     Carver spent the winter at Fort Michilimackinac where he composed his journal. In June, 1768, he traveled to Boston where he tried unsuccessfully to publish his book.
     The following February he left for London.
     In 1770, he petitioned the crown for renumeration for his services on the expedition and submitted his journal, his original commission from Rogers and a schedule of expenses.
     The first edition of his Travels was published in 1778 and he revised it shortly before his death n 1780. Despite its success, he died in poverty and was buried in potters' field.

Surrounded by controversy

     Much controversy surrounds the life of Carver. There is no record of his birth and no agreement on his age at death, some stating he was 48, others that he was 56 or 70.
     There is a record of marriage in 1746 and of births of his seven children between 1747 and 1762.
     Carver never divorced his first wife, but married again in London.
     Some claim he was highly educated, others that he was not the true author of "Travels," but only the source.
     It is known that he wintered along the Mississippi River and lived among the Indians there. Yet in the second part of his book, he erroneously attributes customs and language of one tribe to all tribes, even though they differed greatly.

Relied on works of others

     .It is generally accepted that he relied heavily on works of others, as there are exerpts taken almost verbatim from earlier publications.
     In 1773, Carver unsuccessfully petitioned the Crown to send him as Indian Affairs Agent to America, stating he had promised the Sioux chief he would return. This petition is on file in the British Museum.
     After Carver's death, a third edition of his account was published with a biographical sketch by a Dr. John G. Lettson, who had known Carver only a short time and much of his version is incorrect.
     Despite many errors in his book and reliance on works of others, Jonathan Carver deserves a debt of gratitude from Wisconsinites; for it was his "Travels" that brought this area and its inhabitants of the knowledge of Europeans.

-- Joan Angel

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.