[II-45] Present name of the largest stream in the northern portion of Crow Wing Co., falling in from the N. in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 25, T. 136, R. 27, 5th M., at a sharp bend the Mississippi here makes. Pine r. has been so called by pretty nearly all writers since Pike's time; but Beltrami has it Singuoako or Pines r. It is connected directly, or indirectly, with an immense number of small lakes, not all of which have ever been counted, and still fewer named. Two of the largest are called Whitefish and Pelican. This whole system of waters lies to the N. and W. of the Mississippi, S. of Leech lake, and on Pike's left as he ascends. It offered a means of communication with Leech lake much more direct than the course of the Mississippi itself; this was taken by Pike on his return journey, and the river is consequently to be particularly noted in that connection: see under dates of [Feb. 19th-24th], beyond.
[II-46] Curly Head does not appear in Pike's tabular exhibit of Chippewa chiefs, and we are left without his native name, or any fair identification; but Hon. W. W. Warren supplies the requisite data, Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 1885, p. 47, p. 348 seq., p. 366; see also ibid. p. 469 seq. and p. 495. The name of the old civil and military chief Babesigaundibay is inseparably linked with the history of his tribe. He belonged to the Businause family, or Crane totem, and ruled for many years over the Chippewas of the Mississippi r., in the vicinity of Gayashk or Gull l., eventually becoming the third man in importance in the councils of his nation, sharing honors with Broken Tooth of Sandy l. and Flat Mouth of Leech l. His people increased in numbers, held the Crow Wing region against all enemies, and in 1852 numbered about 600. Curly Head was respected and beloved; "he was a father to his people; they looked on him as children do to a parent; and his lightest wish was immediately performed. His lodge was ever full of meat, to which the hungry and destitute were ever welcome. The traders vied with one another who should treat him best, and the presents which he received at their hands he always distributed to his people without reserve." This estimable man died on his way back from the grand conference held at Prairie du Chien by Governors William Clark and Lewis Cass, Aug. 19th, 1825. His signature to this treaty, as printed in one of the copies before me, is "Babaseekeendase, Curling Hair." I elsewhere find Babikesundeba. Curly Head died childless; on his death-bed he called two of his pipe-bearers and formally constituted them his successors. These were brothers; one was Songukumigor, Strong Ground, and the other Pugonakeshig, or Hole in the Day I. The latter exerted great influence for about a quarter of a century, killed 36 people, and was killed by being bounced out of a cart while drunk, near Platte r., Benton Co., Minn., early in 1847.
[II-47] No mileage from Dec. 31st, 1805, to Jan. 3d, 1806: so we must check Pike by other data. From Pine r. to town of Aitkin, Aitkin Co., is 32½ m. by river; this is very tortuous; air-line distance between these points, 16¼ m., or just one-half of the river-miles. At 12 of these direct miles' distance above Pine r. and 4¼ below Aitkin is our most important datum-point, viz., mouth of Lower Red Cedar r. This is the discharge of Lower Red Cedar l., a comparatively large body of water 6 m. to the right (nearly S. from the mouth of L. R. C. r.). On the shore of L. R. C. l., half a mile E. S. E. of the place where the river issues from it, was the post of the N. W. Co., whence the party that met Pike on the 2d came to see what was up, and to which Pike repairs as Mr. Grant's guest on the 3d. While it is true that these facts do not fix the three camps with all desirable precision, they enable us to carry Pike on by "rule of thumb" in an intelligible manner. I propose, therefore, to set him one-third of the way from Pine r. to Lower Red Cedar r. on the 31st of Dec.—say opp. Rabbit l.; two-thirds of this way on the 1st of Jan.—some point between Dean cr. and Hay cr., both of which fall in on the left (probably a mile above Dean cr.—see [Feb. 24th], beyond); at mouth of Lower Red Cedar r., Jan. 2d; at Aitkin Jan. 3d—to reach which Little Willow r., flowing S. from Waukenabo and Esquagamau lakes, is passed. These stages cannot in any event be far out of the way; and to so make them brings up all the points worth noting between Pine r. and Aitkin in orderly sequence. The principal ones are the lake and the town. The lake has been well known since the days of the old French régime; its relations with Mille Lacs are intimate, and it was thus of consequence in connection with old canoe-routes; it was for many years also the situation of important trading-posts. It was le Bas Lac aux Cèdres Rouges of the French, Lower Red Cedar l., in distinction from another one of similar name, now Cass l. The distinction is to be sedulously borne in mind, especially as Pike most often ignores it formally, and repeatedly speaks of "Red Cedar" or "Cedar" l. indifferently, meaning the present one when he is hereabouts, and meaning Cass l. when he is thereabouts; the name is also now commonly clipped down to Cedar l. and Cedar r. or cr., meaning this one, in modern geographies and guide-books. Lower Red Cedar l. is large, with perhaps 50 m. of shore-line altogether; it bears from Aitkin in the direction of Brainerd; some of its relations are with smaller bodies of water known as Crystal l., Mud l., Spirit l., Hanging Kettle l., Pine l., Farm Island l., and Sesabagomag l. Cedar Lake station is about 5 m. W. of Aitkin, N. P. R. R. Aitkin is per schedule by rail 27 m. from Brainerd, 87 m. from Duluth; population 1,000; for persons named Aitkin (not Aiken or Aitken), see [that word] in the Index. The present town is on the right hand going up, left or S. side of the Mississippi, at the mouth of Mud or Muddy r. (Ripple cr.), a considerable stream, connected with a system of small lakes. It falls into the Mississippi in Sect. 1, T. 47, R. 27, 4th M.; and in this same section is the mouth of a stream which Owen called Sesabagomag r., but which I find given as Missagony r. on late maps. Nicollet charted it, with no name. Below the mouth of Lower Red Cedar r. Pike goes from Crow Wing into Aitkin Co. He had passed the county line Jan. 3d.
[II-48] "Point" as a measure of distance is not a well-known term, and I am not sure of what it means. There is some internal evidence in Pike that one of his "points" was from ⅛ to ¼ to ½ m., according to the nature of the ground and the degree of "that tired feeling" which is liable to overcome the most pushing wayfarer. I imagine "point" to correspond to the pause or pose of the voyageurs. In their language a piece was a package of any goods, made up to weigh from 50 to 100 lbs., supposed to weigh about 90 on an average, for convenience of transportation over portages. Such a pack would be slung on the shoulders by the fillet or forehead strap; and the voyageur would start off at a dog-trot and drop it when he got tired. This stop or rest was the pose; the Chip. name was opuggiddiwanan, lit. the place of putting down the pack. Pike had to the last degree the first qualification of a traveler—"go"; people who lack plenty of that should stay at home. That he was a prudent or judicious traveler can hardly be said; he must have been a terrible fellow to push, merciless on his men, and especially on himself. He took all the chances per aspera, when some of the roughest things might have been smoothed or avoided had his foresight been as good as his hindsight. He blew up things with gunpowder once, and it is a wonder he was not blown up on the 4th, instead of being only burnt out. He missed very few of the accidents that the spirits of fire, air, earth, and water could conspire to throw in his way; and his faithless sergeant made away with all the spirits he had in the keg at Swan r. However, he got through all right, and got his men all through too—sic iter ad astra.
[II-49] The direct distance from Aitkin to the site of the N. W. Co. house, at least 1 m. S. of the outlet of Sandy l., is about 24 m.; the river is also pretty direct as a whole, between these two places; but it is extremely tortuous in its many minor bends of a mile or two apiece, so that the distance the sledges traveled on the ice may have been twice as far as that by the way Pike and Bradley forged ahead. These two reached Mr. Grant's house on the night of the 8th; the men with the sledges, not till evening of the 13th. The two sets of camps might be arbitrarily set along this lap, by ignoring such wild figures as "27 miles" for the 5th, and assuming other data. But this would probably not help us to a better understanding of this section of the route than the following notes: 1. Less than a mile above the mouth of Mud r. (Aitkin) a stream falls in on the right; this is Missagony r., marked Sesabagomag r. on Owen's map. 2. Rice r. (Manomin r. of Nicollet's map) falls in on the right, 4½ m. in an air-line above the mouth of Mud r., in Sect. 4, T. 47, R. 26, 4th M. 3. Willow r. falls in on the left, 6 m. in an air-line above the mouth of Rice r., in Sect. 2, T. 48, R. 26, 4th M. This is to be particularly noted in connection with Pike's journey, as he proceeds approximately by way of this river from Sandy l. to Grand Rapids in the vicinity of Pokegama falls. It is the largest tributary of the Mississippi on that side between Pine r. and the Leech Lake branch of the Mississippi. Pike charts it by the name of Pike r.—not his own name, as Beltrami implies, II. p. 446, but that of the pike, a fish, translating F. Rivière du Brochet; it is also Pike r. of Long's map; it was called Alder r. by Cass and Meaogeo r. by Beltrami; but it is now always known as Willow r. Its system of lakes is also in close relation with those E. and S. E. of Leech l., and the river was thus one of the recognized routes between this lake and the Mississippi. Its mouth is about one-third of the direct distance between Aitkin and Sandy lake. 4. There are some rapids above Willow r., two of them called Moose and Sandy Lake rapids; the latter are only about 2½ m. direct W. from the lake, but fully 6 m. by the bends of the river; the town of Portage is near them. Pike and Bradley left the river at some point below these rapids, to make straight for the lake. 5. Sandy l., Lac au Sable or de Sable of the French, is close to the river, on the right hand going up, and discharges into the Mississippi by a short crooked stream called Sandy Lake r., 2 m. or less in length. Its greatest diameter in any direction is probably under 5 m., but the figure is so irregular, with such extensive projections into the main body of waters, that the actual shore-line is more than 30 m. It receives the discharges of a number of smaller lakes in the vicinity, among them one called Aitkin by Nicollet. Its principal feeders are two in number. One of these comes in at the southernmost end of the lake, and takes the name of Sandy, Sandy Lake, or Rice Lake r. The N. P. R. R. crosses this stream near McGregor, which is 12 m. by the wagon-road southward from the discharge of the lake. This river has a main branch from Manomin or Rice l.; and either this branch or the whole river is the Menomeny-sibi or Wild Oats r. of Beltrami. The other main affluent of Sandy l. comes in from the E., at a point on the E. shore in the N. E. ¼ of Sect. 9, T. 49, R. 23, 4th M., and is generally known as Prairie r. Nicollet called it Little Prairie r.; Long, Savanna r. Its main branch from the N. E. is now known as Savanna r.; Nicollet called this West Savannah r. to distinguish it from that branch of the St. Louis r. which he designated East Savannah r., and accentuate the relations of the two. For it must be known that these rivers of the Mississippian basin connect so closely with certain branches of the St. Louis, in the Lake Superior basin, that they were formerly of the utmost importance as waterways between the two great systems, and as such were greatly used by the early voyageurs. The N. W. Co. house where Pike was entertained stood on the W. shore of Sandy l., next to the Mississippi. Pike marks the site on his map, and gives it as 1¼ m. S. of the discharge of the lake into the short thoroughfare by which this reaches the Mississippi. There are existing remains of old settlements in various positions further south. A trail from the Indian village struck the Mississippi r. in the S. E. ¼ of Sect. 4, T. 49, R. 24. When David Thompson was here in 1798, he made the fort to be lat. 46° 46´ 39´´ N., long. 93° 20´ W. It was a point of commercial and even political importance long before Pike's day—it was such at the pivotal date, 1763, in the history of French-English occupancy of the Upper Mississippi. At the discharge of the lake into the Mississippi on the N. side, in the center of Sect. 25, T. 50, R. 24, is a small sharp point; this was the site of a post of the Amer. Fur Co. of which Schoolcraft speaks in 1832; Palmburg was and Libby is there now. It would be a pity if the government dam now constructing on the outlet should convert this beautiful sheet of water into such a dismal cesspool as Lake Winnibigoshish has become since that was dammed; but lumberjacks prevail in northern Minnesota by a large majority, and logging-booms have nothing in common with scenic effects.
[II-50] In the summer of 1802, the Morrison party, consisting of William Morrison, the brothers Michael and Antoine Cheniers, John McBean, one Bouvin, and one Grignon, came into the country in the service of the X. Y. Co. (Richardson & Co.), in opposition to the N. W. Co. The genuine Morrison letter elsewhere cited, in connection with the discovery of the Mississippian source, says: "I found ... Sayers at Leech Lake, Cotton at Fond du Lac, and Bousquai at Sandy Lake." The latter is no doubt Pike's "Charles Brusky." The name stands Bousky in Pike's text of 1807, p. 34. The Rev. Mr. Neill, Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 1885, p. 451, speaks of the visit of David Thompson, May 6th, 1798, to Sandy Lake, adding, "where the post was in charge of Mr. Bruské" ([Bruske] in the index).
[II-51] See [note49], p. 137, for Willow r. Pike calls it "Leech Lake river" in this place, not because that was then or ever has been its name, but because it was on the route he was going to take from Sandy l. to Leech l. He flatters our intelligence further by giving us a perfectly blind snow-shoe trail, for the most part 'cross lots, without a single compass-point, with wild mileage or none, and not even a geographical hint, from the 20th to the 26th. He takes it for granted that we know all about the swamps of N. Minnesota in midwinter. Luckily, we are not without the means of bringing him to book. He continues on the Willow River route toward Leech l. with his whole party till the morning of the 26th, when he leaves the party to follow up that route, and goes himself with Boley and the Indian to Mr. Grant's house "on the Mississippi." The Mississippi is a pretty long river, but it happens that we can discover where Mr. Grant's was in 1805: see Pike's map, place marked "N. W. Co.", on the right bank (W. side) of the river, a little below the place marked "Ripple." This was directly opposite the present town of Grand Rapids, Itasca Co., 3 m. below Pokegama Falls. The air-line distance from the outlet of Sandy l. to Grand Rapids is supposed to be 32⅕ m.; by the way Pike went perhaps 40-45 m. The course is about N. N. W. This cuts off a considerable segment from the winding course of the Mississippi, which makes a large elbow eastward. Pike subtends this bend; having crossed the Mississippi near Sandy l., and thus continued across what he calls the "portage" to Willow r., he goes up this, not far from parallel with the Mississippi, till Willow r. bears more to the left; when he leaves it to continue his course to Mr. Grant's house, having the Mississippi on his right, but at several (say 5 to 10) miles' distance, representing the amount of cut-off he makes. On the 26th, with Boley and an Indian, he forges ahead of his party, who do not get up to Grant's house till the evening of the 28th, though he is there on the night of the 26th with the Indian, and Boley comes up on the morning of the 27th. That section of the Mississippi which Pike thus avoids may be passed over briefly, as it offers little of interest. There are some rapids above Sandy l. Three of these are duly charted by Nicollet, being his lower, middle, and upper "Small" rapids, respectively now known as Ox-portage, Crooked, and Pine rapids. The first of these are in Sect. 2, T. 50, R. 24, 4th M.: the others in the next township above, of the same range. By far the most important tributary of the Mississippi in this portion of its course is Swan r., which falls in from the E. in Sect. 9, T. 52, R. 24, 4th M., 1¼ m. (direct) south of the boundary line between Aitkin and Itasca cos., which here runs on the line between T. 52 and T. 53. The Duluth and Winnipeg R. R. from Duluth meanders the St. Louis r. as far as Floodwood, continues N. W. to Wawana, along some tributaries of Floodwood r., to the divide between Laurentian and Mississippian waters in the vicinity of Swan r. The latter is marked "Wild Swan R." on the U. S. Engineers' chart—which is well enough, as all the swans in that country are wild, though this name apparently arose from misunderstanding the legend "W. Swan R." on Nicollet's map. This stands for West—not Wild—Swan r., and Nicollet meant by it to contrast this stream with that tributary of the St. Louis which he called East Swan r. At a distance of 6½ air-line miles, but fully 14 m. by the meanders of the Mississippi, above the mouth of Swan r., a small stream comes in from the W., nearly if not exactly on the common corner of Sects. 21, 22, 27 and 28 of T. 53, R. 24, 4th M. This is Split Hand r.—the Cut Hand cr. of Nicollet and of Owen, draining from a lake of the same incisive name, from Willibob l., and some others, all of which lie southeastward of the large Lake Pokegama. This is the stream called by Beltrami Singonki-sibi or Marten r. Above Split Hand r. are several streams on either hand. The one which I take to be Nicollet's Blueberry cr. falls in from the E. in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 21, T. 54, R. 24, 4th M., ¾ of a mile due S. of a considerable hill in the next section above, and 3 m. due E. of Hale l.—that little lake which is at the tip of the longest eastward finger of Lake Pokegama. Ascending the Mississippi still, we next come to Trout r. or cr., from the E., whose mouth falls in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 5 of the township just said. This has held its present name since the days of Schoolcraft and Allen, though Beltrami called it Namago-sibi. Here we are already approaching Grand Rapids, where we shall find Pike: for the many important features of that vicinity see [next note].
[II-52] I do not know that the exact site of Grant's N. W. Co. House has been recovered of late years; but there is no question of its location nearly or directly opposite the town of Grand Rapids, somewhere in the S. ½ of Sect. 21, T. 55, R. 25, 4th M. It doubtless stood on the first rising ground from the river—most probably, as I think, on the knoll that overlooks that curious expansion of the Mississippi into a pair of ponds or one small lake of hour-glass shape, across the constricted part of which the river flows. Grand Rapids is the seat of Itasca Co., and has become quite a town of late years, at least in comparison with any others for many miles thereabouts. It stands across the mouth of a small creek, whose name, if it have one, I could not learn, even when I was on the spot. It discharges from several small lakes. The rapids from which the town takes its name are not particularly "grand." Pike calls them a "ripple." "Kakabikons (or simply Kabikons) rapids, as I have laid them down on the map, have a fall of 9 feet in a distance of 80 yards," Nicollet, Rep. 1843, p. 63. The volatile Beltrami calls them "Sassicy-Woenne, or Thundering Rapids," II. p. 455. The Engineer chart marks the rapids 1247 below and 1252 above—a difference of only 5 feet. At the direct distance of 2½ m. below (E. S. E. of) the town is a village called La Prairie, of no consequence in itself, but occupying a notable place. This is the mouth of a comparatively large river, charted by Pike as "Meadow R. navigable for Bark Canoes 100 M." Long also maps it as Meadow r.; by Beltrami it is called Mushkotensoi-sibi or Prairie r., and this last is its present designation (duplicating the name of one of the tributaries of Sandy l.: see [note49], p. 138). It is the translation of the Indian word which Nicollet in this connection renders Mashkudens, and which occurs in many forms, as Mascouten, Muscatine, etc. About 2 m. S. W. of Grand Rapids is Horseshoe l., one of the many small bodies of water which hover like satellites about Lake Pokegama: see [next note]. The D. and W. R. R. keeps on the N. side of the Mississippi, from La Prairie through Grand Rapids to Cohasset and Deer River, its present terminus.
[II-53] Jan. 29th and 30th are not entered in the diary, and there is intrinsic evidence of confusion in Pike's notes. Observe the statement made under "Feb. 1st" that Pike reached Leech l. at 2.30 p. m., crossed it to the house and arrived there about 3 p. m.—12 m. in about half an hour, an obvious impossibility. Observe also that Boley was his only soldier according to Jan. 26th and 27th; but that Miller was the man with him on the 28th and later days. What became of Boley and where did Miller come from? We have not a word about the main party; in fact we are never told by what route they reached Leech l.—simply that they got there five days after Pike, at 4 p. m., Feb. 6th: see that date. Fortunately the early text of 1807, pp. 37-40, clears the whole matter up, as follows: "After the whole party had arrived at this lodge [Grant's house, evening of Jan. 28th], Mr. Pike determined to proceed on to the head of the river [Leech l.], accompanied by one of his young men, named Miller. He left the camp on the morning of the 29th, when it was snowing very fast," etc., reached Pokegama falls at 1 p. m.; soon after found three deserted Chippewa lodges, and "a fine parcel of split wood"; cut down three balsam-firs to make a shelter, and camped. Jan. 30th, passed through the "dismal cypress swamp," found Mr. Grant's cut-off and reached the inhospitable Chippewas, who were living at or near White Oak pt. (All this is given on the 28th in the above text; this is where the break was made, though there is no break in the week-days, for the entry "Tuesday, Jan. 28th," covers that day, Wednesday 29th, and Thursday 30th, as shown by what I have bracketed in the text.) Jan. 31st, Pike and Miller continued on from White Oak pt. and went past the mouth of the Leech Lake fork to some point on that fork, described above as "one mile below [i. e. beyond] the traverse of the meadow," in the 1807 text as "a mile above the meadow"; camped there. Feb. 1st, reached Leech l. "a little after midday," p. 39 of the 1807 text, agreeing with 2.30 p. m. of above text well enough; across the lake it was "12 miles" to the establishment of the North West Company, at which they arrived about ten o'clock in the evening. "The gates were locked," etc., p. 40.
[II-54] Pike has now (Jan. 29th and 30th) gone up the Mississippi from Grand Rapids to White Oak pt.—not following the river exactly, but taking the cut-off Mr. Grant marked for him. The air-line distance is about 13 m. Supposing him to have taken something like the usual trail, he went as follows: At 3 m. direct above Grand Rapids, 4 m. by the river, he passed Pokegama falls at 1 p. m., Jan. 29th. This is a place where the Mississippi drops about 15 feet over a granular quartz ridge: Pike maps it "Falls of Pakagama 20 Ft. Portage 200 yards." It is naturally one of the best known points on the river in this vicinity. It is visible in part from the car window as you go by on the railroad, but the dam which has been built just above is a more conspicuous object from that point of view. Nicollet calls the cataract Kabikons or Little falls, and more fully Kakabikons or Little-severed Rock falls. At 3¼ m. by the river, above these falls, is the discharge of Lake Pokegama itself. This is by far the largest body of water in the vicinity, having an extreme length of 13 m.; but its form is so irregular, something like a hand with spread-out fingers, that its actual shore-line is very much greater; and a number of smaller sheets of water are dotted about it on all sides. Two of the largest of these are Sisibakwet and Rice lakes. Nicollet renders Pakegomag, "a name applied by the Chippeways to all sheets of water in the vicinity of a river," Rep. 1843, p. 63. Schoolcraft says Peckagama, Allen Pecagama, Owen Pokegoma; Packegamau, and I suppose a dozen more forms of the word, are found; Beltrami has Pakegamanaguen or Hook l.; the form I use seems to be most frequent now. The accent is on the antepenult—Pokeg´-ama. A mile or so below the mouth of this lake Bass brook falls in from the north, discharging from Bass and other lakes; the town of Cohasset is at its mouth. The trail now crosses, or lately did cross, the Mississippi from S. E. to N. W. in this vicinity. It continues westward, past two overflows of the river known as Backwater and Cut-off lakes, respectively, on one side and the other of the Mississippi, continues to a small lake which I suppose to be one of those so said by Pike above, and then strikes for the larger lake he speaks of. This traverse leaves the Mississippi several miles to the left as you go west; for the river makes an extensive sharp bend S., and there receives Vermilion r. (Wanomon r. on Nicollet's map) from the S., at the bight of this bend. Exactly 2¼ m. below the mouth of Vermilion r. is the discharge of Lake Kabukasagetewa (as the name is rendered on the Warner and Foote map). The "large lake" of the above text is evidently that known to the voyageurs as Lac aux Chênes, whence our Oak l., also White Oak l.; from the head of which to Pointe aux Chênes, now Oak pt. or White Oak pt. (Red-oak Point, Nic., p. 63), is exactly 2½ m. This is clearly the place where the good Samaritan Chippewa and his amiable family resided, close by the mouth of Deer r., which Pike charts by this name, and which is still so called. This falls in from the N. through another White Oak l., also called Deer, also Stephen's. Notice that this last (Deer r.) is the stream Beltrami erroneously calls Onomonikana-sibi or Vermilion r., as he fetches it in on the N., both in text and on his map.