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 CHAPTER IV

HE portage paths from the Great Lakes, or streams entering them, to the tributaries of the Mississippi River were of great importance during the era when that river was the goal of explorers, conquerors and pioneers. So numerous were they, it is only possible to describe the most important briefly in this catalogue. The greater are worthy, each, of an exhaustive monograph, and even those of least prominence were of importance far beyond our ability to understand in these days. Of them all only three routes have received the attention they deserve; these are the Lake Erie–Lake Chautauqua portage, the Wabash route, and the St. Joseph–Kankakee portage. Several other important portages present as interesting fields of study, if not more so, as these, and local historians living near these paths will do well to