"I simply claim to have established the fact that there is a beautiful lake above and beyond Itasca—wider and deeper than that lake—with woodland shores—with three constantly flowing streams for its feeders—and in every way worthy of the position it occupies as the primal reservoir or true source of the Father of Waters.
"Willard Glazier.
Syracuse, New York, December, 1886."
A letter from Pearce Giles, of Camden, New Jersey, who was identified with the Glazier expedition from its inception to its close:
"To the Editor—Boston Herald:
"In 1832 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft led an expedition through the wilds of Northern Minnesota and discovered what he believed to be the source of the Mississippi. Being at a loss for an appropriate name to bestow upon the lake which constituted this supposed source, so the story goes, he asked a companion what were the Latin words signifying 'true head,' and received in reply 'veritas caput.' This was rather a ponderous name to give a comparatively small body of water, even though the Father of Waters here took his first start in the world. The explorer, therefore, conceived the idea of uniting the last two syllables of the first word with the first syllable of the second, thus, by a novel mode of orthography, forming a name which might easily pass for one of Indian origin—Itasca. A person versed in orthographical science would probably perceive at once that the name did not belong to the same family of harsh Indian appellations which have affixed themselves permanently to many towns and rivers in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but was more allied to the softer language of southern Indian nations. But it has now been discovered that Lake Itasca is not veritas caput; and Lake Glazier, discovered in July, 1881, by Captain Willard Glazier, must be regarded by all future generations as the true head of the Mississippi.
"The Mississippi, on its first stages, flows in a northerly direction, the whole system of small lakes which contribute to it being surrounded on the north and west by an amphitheatre of hills. Lake Glazier lies above and beyond Lake Itasca, and its waters have an elevation of probably seven feet above that lake, being connected therewith by a small, swift stream. Lake Itasca is composed of three arms, extending in the form of a trefoil, having a length of five miles and an average width of about one mile. The upper, or southern end of its middle arm apparently terminates in a swamp, which might easily have deceived any one not familiar with the country. But Chenowagesic, Captain Glazier's Indian guide, who had for years used the region of these lakes for his hunting-ground, readily made his way through the reeds and rushes at the mouth of the connecting stream. Lake Glazier at its outlet presents another barricade of reeds, through which the party made their way in their canoes.
"Lake Glazier is about two miles in length by a mile and a half in breadth. Its shores, instead of being low and marshy, as are those of many of the neighboring lakes, present finely wooded slopes and surround the lake in what would have been the shape of a perfect oval, had not a bold, rocky promontory indented its southern end, and given to it the outline of a heart. On the point of this promontory is a spring from which flows ice-cold water. The waters of the lake are exceedingly clear and pure, proceeding from springs, some of them in the bottom of the lake itself, and the others at a greater or less distance from its shores.
"Lake Glazier has three small feeders, one of them named Eagle Creek, entering it near its outlet, and taking its rise a mile or so farther south, in a small pond or lakelet, upon which Captain Glazier bestowed the name of 'Alice,' after his daughter. Eagle Creek runs nearly parallel with the western shore of the lake, a little distance from it. Two streams, two or three miles in length, flow northward into Lake Glazier at its southern extremity on either side of the indenting promontory. Excelsior Creek, so named because it represents the very highest water of the Mississippi, is the longer of these. Deer Creek, to the eastward, and rising a little nearer the lake, has been so named for the reason that numbers of deer were seen in its vicinity.