99 |
Previous | 25 of 84 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
Subset |
Loading content ...
WISCONSIN'S LOST MISSIONARY:
THE MYSTERY OF FATHER RENE MENARD
By A.A.A. SCHMIRLER
A historian's unusual quest for clues to
solve a three-hundred-year-old mystery of
French Wisconsin.
ALMOST everyone I met on the streams and lakes of upper Wisconsin asked, "How's fishing?" Not one of them—particu¬ larly the game wardens— believed me when I replied that I was not fishing at all. My answer must have seemed odd to those enjoy¬ ing various conventional recreations in the northlands of the state. But mine was the deeper enjoyment of searching for clues to the solution of a historical mystery.
Three hundred years ago, or about a hun¬ dred years before the French and Indian War, a priest, the first missionary, entered what is now Wisconsin, seeking to reach a band of half-starved Huron Indians in need of his ministrations at the headwaters of the Black River in the Taylor County of today. From this journey Father Rene Menard, S.J., never returned: somewhere en route, becoming lost near a rapids during a portage, he wandered into the wilderness and perished. Readers versed in the history of the French effort that was carried out on the North American continent by way of the great St. Lawrence River will know that this particular Jesuit missionary has been described by his con¬
temporaries as one anticipating his final journey in a manner worthy of an apostle. They will also know that to seek to find Father Menard's remains or to identify the precise spot where he died is beyond hope.
However, in preparation for Father Menard's tercentennial year of 1961, I did entertain some hope of locating, if not the place of his death, at least the site of the exact rapids at which he was lost to the sight of civilized man—a controverted point among historians. After studying the documents re¬ lating to Father Menard's disappearance in the late summer of 1661, after weighing all the documented details in the light of nineteenth-century descriptions of travel by birchbark canoe, and after referring to Geo¬ logical Survey maps as well, it seemed reason¬ able to think that information from these various sources could better be integrated by visiting in situ each of the places described.
Prosecuting this purpose, I took a 14-foot semi-kayak fiberglass boat down the length of the Wisconsin River, from its source in Lac Vieux Desert to a point below Wausau, Wisconsin, where the Rib River enters the larger stream. I also traveled the entire length of the Rib River. I spent better than a day on Copper Creek, which is also a tributary of the Wisconsin, as well as three days on the two tributaries of the Chippewa River which are involved in this project, and a day on the Houghton Ship Canal, the famous old Portage Route across the Keweenaw Peninsula in upper Michigan. In addition I visited numerous other points by automobile.
It is my conviction, following this explora¬ tion by boat during the low water season of the summer of 1959, that I have retraced
99
Object Description
| Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 45, number 2, winter, 1961-1962 |
| Article Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 45, number 2, winter, 1961-1962 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | State Historical Society of Wisconsin |
| Series | Wisconsin Magazine of History ; v. 45, no. 2 |
| Format-Digital | xml |
| Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| Rights | © Copyright 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
| Publication Date-Electronic | 2007 |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol45no020000 |
| Description | This issue includes articles on the Horatio Alger stories, the growth of Fond du Lac, and missionary Rene Menard. |
| Volume | 045 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Year | 1961-1962 |
Description
| Title | 99 |
| Page Number | 99 |
| Article Title | Wisconsin's lost missionary: the mystery of Father Rene Menard |
| Author | Schmirler, Albert A. A., 1914-1982 |
| Page type | Article home |
| Format-Digital | jpeg |
| Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| Rights | © Copyright 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
| Publication Date-Electronic | 2007 |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol45no020025 |
| Description | Wisconsin’s Lost Missionary: the Mystery of Father René Ménard: The author describes his library research and personal travels as he attempted to determine the exact location where the first French missionary to Wisconsin, Fr. René Ménard (1605-1661), died in 1661. He first gives an overview of the life of Fr. Ménard and then challenges prior claims about the exact point of “Ménard’s Rapids.” Rejecting the conclusions of Henry Colin Campbell (1862-?) and Louise Phelps Kellogg (1862-1942), he argues that “Ménard’s Falls” were a rapids just below the Dells on the Rib River, near Goodrich, in Taylor County. (16 pages) |
| Volume | 045 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Year | 1961-1962 |
| State/Province | Wisconsin; |
| County | Lincoln County; Taylor County; |
| Decade | 1660-1669; |
| Personal Name | Ménard, René, 1605-1661; |
| Subject | Missionaries; Native Americans; Canoes & canoeing; Huron Indians; Wisconsin River, Wis.; Spirit River, Wis.; Yellow River, Tayor County-Chippewa County, Wis.; Jump River, Wis.; Big Rib River, Wis. |
| Full Text | WISCONSIN'S LOST MISSIONARY: THE MYSTERY OF FATHER RENE MENARD By A.A.A. SCHMIRLER A historian's unusual quest for clues to solve a three-hundred-year-old mystery of French Wisconsin. ALMOST everyone I met on the streams and lakes of upper Wisconsin asked, "How's fishing?" Not one of them—particu¬ larly the game wardens— believed me when I replied that I was not fishing at all. My answer must have seemed odd to those enjoy¬ ing various conventional recreations in the northlands of the state. But mine was the deeper enjoyment of searching for clues to the solution of a historical mystery. Three hundred years ago, or about a hun¬ dred years before the French and Indian War, a priest, the first missionary, entered what is now Wisconsin, seeking to reach a band of half-starved Huron Indians in need of his ministrations at the headwaters of the Black River in the Taylor County of today. From this journey Father Rene Menard, S.J., never returned: somewhere en route, becoming lost near a rapids during a portage, he wandered into the wilderness and perished. Readers versed in the history of the French effort that was carried out on the North American continent by way of the great St. Lawrence River will know that this particular Jesuit missionary has been described by his con¬ temporaries as one anticipating his final journey in a manner worthy of an apostle. They will also know that to seek to find Father Menard's remains or to identify the precise spot where he died is beyond hope. However, in preparation for Father Menard's tercentennial year of 1961, I did entertain some hope of locating, if not the place of his death, at least the site of the exact rapids at which he was lost to the sight of civilized man—a controverted point among historians. After studying the documents re¬ lating to Father Menard's disappearance in the late summer of 1661, after weighing all the documented details in the light of nineteenth-century descriptions of travel by birchbark canoe, and after referring to Geo¬ logical Survey maps as well, it seemed reason¬ able to think that information from these various sources could better be integrated by visiting in situ each of the places described. Prosecuting this purpose, I took a 14-foot semi-kayak fiberglass boat down the length of the Wisconsin River, from its source in Lac Vieux Desert to a point below Wausau, Wisconsin, where the Rib River enters the larger stream. I also traveled the entire length of the Rib River. I spent better than a day on Copper Creek, which is also a tributary of the Wisconsin, as well as three days on the two tributaries of the Chippewa River which are involved in this project, and a day on the Houghton Ship Canal, the famous old Portage Route across the Keweenaw Peninsula in upper Michigan. In addition I visited numerous other points by automobile. It is my conviction, following this explora¬ tion by boat during the low water season of the summer of 1959, that I have retraced 99 |