history

Episode 4: La Salle and the Voyageurs

June 27, 2019 56:03

The name La Salle is ubiquitous throughout the United States, with streets, parks, towns, universities, parishes, schools and even counties named for this French explorer. In this episode, “La Salle and the Voyageurs”, we examine the influence of La Salle, as well as interview Reid Lewis, the founder of a 1976-77 reenactment of La Salle’s second expedition journeying from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico.  Rich Gross, a member of the crew tells us what it was like to canoe for 3,300 miles as an 18 year-old student, and we talk with Lorraine Boissoneault, the author of “The Last Voyageurs” about La Salle and this re-enactment of his voyage.

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle is a larger then life figure, and so one cannot devote just one episode to him; this is the first of a two-part podcast on this giant of French and American history, who along with Jacque Marquette and Louis Jolliet, is in the Pantheon of French explorers who opened up the frontier of North America and traveled extensively on in the Great Lakes region

  • Interviewing Rich Gross displaying a hatchet that he made and was used on the La Salle II Expedition.
  • Lorraine’s book about the La Salle II Expedition
  • Reid Lewis at the Elgin Public Museum of Natural History & Anthropology in Elgin, Illinois
  • Lorraine Boissoneault

Links to Research and History Documents

Episode 3: Urbs in Horto?

May 30, 2019 57:58

Released Friday, May 31, 2019 – What’s in a name? “Urbs in Horto” or as translated from Latin “City in the Garden” is the motto on the seal of the City of Chicago, which nicely ties together the third interview with historian and retired attorney John Swenson. Swenson presents the final and most amazing piece of early Chicago history revealing the details of this ancient place called Chicagoua and the platform mound two-leagues from the Chicagoua Portage, the area’s earliest known civic and cultural center some 40 miles from today’s downtown Chicago!

We visit the mound, twice, and interview Adler Planetarium Astronomer Mark Hammergren regarding the astronomical significance of the mound, and learn some fascinating insights into Chicago’s ancient culture and peoples. This brand-new history and discovery grew out of Swenson’s passion for horticulture, history, and etymology. His initial dig into Chicago’s origin story and the wild allium the city was named for has grown into an entirely new landscape for Chicago history, the City in the Garden and hence the name of our third Episode: “Urbs in Horto?”

PREVIEW OF EPISODE 3: Urbs in Horto?

  • Historian John Swenson
  • Mound at Spirit Trail Park
  • Astronomer Mark Hammergren
  • Ramps at the Daley Center farmers market in Downtown Chicago

Episode 2: The Place Called Chicagoua

February 20, 2019 1:08:14

Listening to the first episode you learned the ground-breaking, new story of Chicago’s discovery and who truly was the first European to pass through Chicago.  In this second part of our interview with historian John Swenson, he says, “if you know where the portage is, then Marquette tells you where he was,” and that is place the Indians called “Chicagoua.”  And this place Chicagoua has nothing to do with the city of today.  Adding the account of Henri Joutel (La Salle’s chronicler) he confirms where this place is.

The Windy City Historian’s interview with retired attorney and historian John Swenson will make Chicago history. 

 

  • The Father Marquette Map 1673

Links to Research and History Documents

In the second Episode – The Place Called Chicagoua we continue our interview with retired lawyer and historian John Swenson about the place the Indians called Chicagoua. Below are links to historic items we discussed and some additional relevant research for those interested in a deeper dive into the history.

Episode 1: Who Was First?

February 4, 2019 1:01:41

Released Friday, March 29, 2019 – On the 344 Anniversary of Father Marquette getting flooded out of his winter camp in 1675, at the place the Indians called Chicaogua.

In real estate it’s all about “Location, Location, Location.”  So what happens if our Chicago isn’t really in Chicago?  Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored a land that Native Americans called “Chicagoua” in 1673 and left clues to where this place can be found.  It took historian John Swenson over three decades to unravel the mystery of the location of Chicago, and the evidence he found – remarkably – calls into question the story told by most 19th century historians.

This first episode chronicles a brand new history for Chicago as co-hosts Chris Lynch and Patrick McBriarty talk with John Swenson sharing a new spin on the European discovery of the Windy City.  You will hear his story of digging into original French manuscripts, early maps, and travel accounts to determine Marquette and Jolliet were not the first western Europeans to the Chicago area.   It is the first of a new and fascinating origin story of this place we call Chicago, in two parts.

John Swenson
at various interviews

“Cheagoumema” or “False-Chicago”

Map of the Northern Portage Route © Windy City Historians
Map of Northern Portage Route ©Windy City Historians

The map to the left illustrates the Northern Chicago Portage Route from Lake Michigan to the Chicago River to Mud Lake and portage to the easterly bend in the Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers. This is “Cheagoumema.”

“Makarigemou” or Crooked River and the “River Chekago”

Map of the Southern Portage Route © Windy City Historians
Map of the Southern Portage Route ©Windy City Historians

The map at right illustrates the Southern Chicago Portage Route from Lake Michigan to the Calumet and Little Calumet Rivers to Butterfield Creek and portage to Hickory Creek to the Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers. This is what early French explorers referred to as the Chicago River.

Links to Research & History Documents

In this first Episode – Who Was First?  John Swenson makes reference to a variety of historic documents and sources and we offer links below in the order in which they are mentioned. Please note in 17th Century French the “t” is pronounced as with “Jolliet” and “Nicolet,” while French pronunciations today the “t” is not usually enunciated.