June 27, 1679: Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut lands at Onigamiinsing

On this day in 1679, Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut landed at Onigamiinsing or Little Portage, where today the Duluth Ship Canal cuts through Minnesota Point. He had left Quebec on September 1 with seven of his countrymen and three native guides on a historic quest to bring peace to the warring native peoples living on the shores of Lake Superior (or Lac Tracy to the French) and find passage to the Vermilion Sea, a “great lake whose water is unfit to drink,” which du Lhut assumed was the Pacific Ocean. The trip also violated a 1676 decree by the governor of New France prohibiting inland travel and trade. After landing at the Head of the Lakes, du Lhut and his company followed the St. Louis River upstream to Fond du Lac before headed west to Minnesota’s Lake Mille Lacs and explored along the Mississippi River. Along the way they “saved” Father Louis Hennepin from “hostile” Ojibwe (Hennepin himself was enjoying his stay with the Ojibwe and did not consider himself in need of saving). He returned to Fond du Lac for a meeting of Ojibwe, Dakota, Cree, and Assiniboin peoples on September 15, 1679 and arranged for peace among the tribes that lasted until 1736. Read more about du Lhut here.

Clarence Rosenkranz’s depiction of Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut landing at Onigamiinsing (“Little Portage”) on Minnesota Point in 1679, which originally hung on the Greysolon Tea Rooms of Duluth’s Glass Block Store. (Image: Duluth Public Library)