Gene, they went up the Red River (which flows North, so south) to where the headwaters of the Red get very close to the headwaters of the Mississippi. And then down the Mississippi to the Gulf.

I’ve done what you figured….downstream to Lake Winnipeg, then the Winnipeg River to LOTW. Then a myriad of lakes and rivers to Lake Superior. But the other way…..we started at Thunder Bay. That trip is known as The Grand Portage. When you start at Lake Superior the trip really begins with a 9 mile portage to get across the Continental Divide. There are another 32 portages before you get to Lake Winnipeg. Almost 1 1/2 per day.

The West was discovered for Europeans and eastern North Americans by the French and Scottish fur traders who took that route. Lewis and Clark not only depended on Sacagawea, they depended on French Canadian and Scottish Canadian fur traders who had traveled those waters for 100 years before Lewis and Clark showed up. I was specifically retracing the routes taken by La Verendrye around 1640…..the first Europeans to cross the Great Plains and see the Rockies.

Last edited by canvasback; 08/23/21 06:55 AM.

The world cries out for such: he is needed & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia