Home > Jacques Marquette

Father Marquette was a Jesuit missionary born in Laon, France, who joined the Society of Jesus at age seventeen. After working and teaching in France for several years, he was dispatched to Quebec in 1666 to missionize to the Native Americans, where he showed great proficiency in the local languages, especially Huron.

In 1668Events January The Triple Alliance of 1668 is formed. February 13 Lisbon Peace Treaty between Afonso VI of Portugal and Carlos II of Spain, by mediation of Charles II of England where it is recognized the legitimity of the portuguese monarch. Portugal yie Father Marquette was redeployed by his superiors to missions farther up the St. Lawrence River in the western Great LakesThe Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States- Canadian border. They are the largest group of fresh water lakes in the world, and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system is the largest fresh-water system in the world. They are s. He worked at Sault Ste. MarieSault Ste. Marie means the Rapids of St. Mary in French. There are several places that share this name, all centered around the rapids in the river that drains Lake Superior. Marys River describes the site and the lock system. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is and at the Mission of the Holy Spirit in La Pointe, on Lake SuperiorLake Superior is the largest of North America's Great Lakes. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area with Lake Baikal in Siberia having more volume. The Caspian Sea is larger, but contains salt water. Lake Superior has a surface are, near the present-day town of Ashland, WisconsinAshland is a city in the U. state of Wisconsin, located mostly in Ashland County, but extending into Bayfield County as well. The city is port on Lake Superior. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 8,620. On November 11, 2003, the cit. Here, he came into contact with members of the IllinoisYou may be looking for Chief Illiniwek, a mascot of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Illiniwek (also known as the Illini Illinois Illinois Confederacy etc) were a group of several Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River va tribes, who told him of the existence of the Mississippi River and invited him to come teach further south. Due to wars between the Hurons at La Pointe and the neighboring Dakota people, however, Father Marquette had to relocate to the Mackinac Straits, where he informed his superiors about the rumored river, and requested permission to explore it.

Leave was granted, and in 1673 Marquette was joined by Louis Joliet, a French Canadian explorer. They departed from Mackinac on May 17, with two canoes and five other Frenchmen. They followed Lake Michigan to the Bay of Green Bay and up the Fox River. From here, they portaged to the Wisconsin River, which they were told led to the river they sought. On June 17 they entered the Mississippi near Prairie du Chien, becoming the first Europeans to enter the river.

A statue of Fr. Marquette at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. The Joliet-Marquette expedition travelled to within 700 km of the Gulf of Mexico, but turned back at the mouth of the Arkansas River. By this point they had encountered a number of natives carrying European trinkets, and they feared any encounter with explorers or colonists from Spain. They followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which they learned from local natives was a shorter route back to the Great Lakes. They returned to Lake Michigan at the point of modern-day Chicago, Illinois. Marquette stopped at the mission of St. Francis Xavier in Green Bay in September, while Joliet returned to Quebec to relate the good news of their discoveries.

Marquette returned to the Illinois River in 1674 to found a mission among the Illinois people on the shore of Lake Michigan. Created on December 4, 1674, the mission would later grow into the modern-day city of Chicago. A bout of dysentery picked up during the Mississippi expedition, however, had sapped his health. On the return trip to Mackinack he died near the modern town of Ludington, Michigan.

Father Marquette is memorialized in several towns and rivers that bear his name (such as Marquette, Michigan), as well as the Father Marquette National Memorial near St. Ignace, Michigan. He is also the namesake of Marquette University in Milwaukee.