Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/175

CHAPTER X S early as 1690 it was known that lead ore existed in the upper Mississippi Valley. Nicholas Perrot was one of the early explorers of that region where he for several years carried on a profitable trade with the Indians in furs and skins of elk, deer and buffalo.

On the 8th of April, 1689, he took formal possession of the upper Mississippi Valley for the kingdom of France. His trading post was on the banks of the river and he built a fort for protection against hostile Indians, which he named “St. Nicholas.” The exact location of this post and fort is not known. In 1690 a Miami chief with whom he was trading gave Perrot a specimen of lead ore taken from a creek that flows into the Mississippi which was undoubtedly “Catfish,” the stream that empties into the river near the site of the original Dubuque mines. Perrot visited the place where the ore was found at that early day.

In 1700 the French explorer, Le Sueur, ascended the Mississippi River in search of valuable minerals. He explored as far north as the St. Peter River. In 1752 we find the lead region of the upper Mississippi located on a map published by Phillip Bouche. The mines are mentioned in an article by M. Guetard in a volume of the French Academy of Rheims in 1752. No effort seems to have been made to work or develop the mines in all of these years that lead ore was known to exist in that region.

The first white man who settled within the limits of the State of Iowa was Julien Dubuque. He was a French Canadian, born in the province of Quebec, January 10,