Michigan: cartographic perspectives on the "Great Lakes State"

Michigan Historical Review, Spring, 2005 by Gerald A. Danzer

Throughout the seventeenth century, as Jansson's maps kept appearing with a tentative great-lakes orientation, French exploration of the American interior advanced at a steady pace. In 1650, a map of North America by Nicolas Sanson became one of the first printed maps to show all five Great Lakes. His depiction of the Great Lakes illustrated Sanson's optimism about transcontinental travel, as the lakes were unbounded in their western reaches, hinting at a water route across North America. (17) His 1656 map of Canada or New France reinforced this hope. On this map Lake Superior opened wide, reaching toward the northwestern coastline of the continent. (18)

The expanding French interest in Canada went hand in hand with the emergence of French map publishing, which soon challenged Dutch leadership in cartographic endeavors. Sanson's portrayal of the Great Lakes certainly benefited from the reports that explorers, especially the Jesuits, sent back to Europe. In the 1660s at least ten different cartographers placed Sanson's view of the North American interior on their published maps. Nicolas Visscher's map of America, which may have been produced as early as 1658, suggested that one open-ended lake dominated the interior and named it "Lac contenant." (19)

The exploits of Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette added another dimension to North American geography. In 1673 they left the Great Lakes basin to find the Great River of the American interior that the Native Americans had described to them. Although both Joliet and Marquette made maps of their adventure, it was not until La Salle followed their route while pursuing his dream of empire that a major concern emerged--how to relate the Great Lakes to the Mississippi valley--that affected published maps of the North American interior. It is upon this issue that the foundation for understanding Michigan maps must be laid.

Father Louis Hennepin's "Map of New France and Louisiana" appeared in Paris in 1683 along with an account of his adventures as part of the La Salle expedition of 1679. When La Salle was forced to temporarily stop his penetration of the American wilderness in the Illinois country and return to Canada for additional support, he sent Hennepin and a few companions to continue the expedition down the Illinois River. He asked them to turn upstream on the Mississippi River to explore its upper reaches. In the process, Hennepin's group was captured by hostile Indians and perhaps taken to the shores of Lake Superior. After some additional travel, they were freed and retraced their steps back to the Mississippi River. Then they used the Wisconsin River-Green Bay route to return to Canada and eventually to Paris.

Hennepin published the tale of his adventure in 1684. Accompanied by a map dated 1683, it became a best seller. Unfortunately, Hennepin's book often borrowed from the work of others, and its success led him to tell the story a second time in 1697. On this occasion Hennepin made so many gross exaggerations that scholars have questioned the veracity of everything he reported. (20) Nevertheless, his map is very important as the first published attempt to relate the Great Lakes to the Great River. Its title, Carte de la Nouvelle France et de la Louisiane, balanced coverage of Louisiana with New France, signaling a new perspective. Hennepin's 1683 map featured the five Great Lakes in recognizable form but with Lake Erie reaching south all the way to Tennessee. The Great River played a prominent role in his portrayal of the area, starting in a different watershed west of Lake Superior and sending a great stream due south as far as the Illinois country. After that, in the 1683 version, the map is blank. However, Hennepin did point out many places where the two midcontinent drainage systems almost touched each other, suggesting ease of communication, if not across the continent, at least between the Gulfs of St. Lawrence and Mexico. Each drainage basin would soon support a major French colony. New France, in the Great Lakes basin, was already well mapped. Louisiana, the second domain, now became the land of cartographic opportunity.