Lewis Cass Expedition - Return To Detroit

Return To Detroit

Taking 16 Ojibway with them, the expedition descended the Mississippi, pausing to hunt buffalo along the banks. Near the Falls of Saint Anthony they encountered an encampment of the Fifth Infantry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth. Here the resident Indian agent, Major Lawrence Taliaferro called together the local Sioux for a ceremony of peace with the Ojibway accompanying the Cass expedition. The expedition continued down the Mississippi stopping at Sioux villages to smoke the pipe of peace. On August 5 the party reached Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, the westernmost post in Michigan Territory. Schoolcraft made a brief side trip to the lead mines near Dubuque, after which the entire expedition ascended the Wisconsin River to the Fox-Wisconsin partage and descended the Fox River to Green Bay, where they were greeted by a salute from the guns of Fort Howard. At Green Bay Cass dismissed the soldiers and shipped the natural history specimens collected by the scientists to Detroit. He led most of the remaining men down the western shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago. Dr. Wolcott and a few companions remained at the Indian agency at Chicago. Governor Cass returned to Detroit on horseback via the Indian trail, while Schoolcraft and Captain Douglass traveled up the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Michilimackinac where they joined Doty and a couple other members of the expedition who had traveled there directly from Green Bay. This group retraced the expedition's route down Lake Huron to Detroit, arriving there on September 24, 1820, 124 days after their departure.