University of Illinois Extension

Jolliet and Marquette

In May 1673, Marquette, Jolliet and five other men set out in two canoes from the St. Ignace Mission on Northern Lake Michigan. They paddled south on Lake Michigan into the Fox River and up through what is now Wisconsin. They traveled over land from the Fox to the Wisconsin River. At the mouth of the Wisconsin River, they saw the Mississippi River.

Click here to see their route.