🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Father Marquette National Memorial

(Explore the history and landscape of the United States with us as we approach the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and American Independence. Get out your homeschool atlas and almanac and follow along!)

Michigan is our homeschool state-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today with your students learning about one of Michagan’s most important historic places: the Father Marquette National Memorial, which commemorates French missionary and explorer Father Jacques Marquette, who mapped the upper Mississippi valley in the 1600s.

“The 1600s and 1700s were an age of discovery in North America. While American Indian tribes had a great knowledge of the land, for representatives of the European colonizing nations it was a new frontier.”

France was one of the earliest European nations to explore what is today Canada and the northern United States, establishing its colony of New France. Father Jacques Marquette was among the leading French explorers in the New World. On behalf of France, Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored and mapped the Mississippi Valley, documenting its rivers and peoples. Today, visitors to Father Marquette National Memorial in St. Ignace, Michigan can learn about the life of this remarkable priest and traveler.

Born in France in 1637, Jacques Marquette became a missionary in the 1650s. In 1666, he was sent to Quebec, one of the major settlements in New France. At its height, New France covered a vast area ranging roughly from Newfoundland and the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Between his arrival in Quebec and 1669, Father Marquette traveled throughout New France, mostly in what is today the northern United States and southern Canada, spending time with various Indian tribes learning tribal languages. When he died, he spoke six tribal languages. From Quebec he went briefly to assist as a missionary in Sault Ste. Marie.

Marquette soon left Sault Ste. Marie to found his own mission. In 1671, Marquette established a community ministering to French fur traders and native populations around eastern Lake Michigan. Originally located on Mackinac Island, Michigan, the mission relocated to St. Ignace, Michigan. Marquette did not remain long in St. Ignace as larger forces of empire intersected with his life. Though Marquette may have come to North America to preach and convert, he was very much part of a different kind of conquest.

As a colonizing power, France had an interest in exploring the central regions of the present-day United States. Less than a year after arriving in St. Ignace, Father Marquette joined an expedition to map and document this unknown region. Louis Jolliet, a native of New France, led the expedition. In 1672, Jolliet and Marquette, chaplain on the trip, traveled from Michigan to Louisiana and then back up north, exploring the area that is near the City of Chicago today. The group traveled south on the Mississippi River, turning around where the Arkansas River joins the Mississippi. Though the Jolliet-Marquette expedition could have continued even further south, the expedition halted here to avoid another colonizing power — the Spanish. Much as the French were beginning to explore and spread in the north, so were the Spanish in the south. To avoid a confrontation, the Jolliet-Marquette group returned north via the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and Lake Michigan. (nps.gov)

You can find a wealth of additional information about the Memorial’s history, landscape, location(s), and visitor facilities on the webpage for Father Marquette National Memorial from the National Park Service, and also on the Memorial’s page on Wikipedia.

Explore America’s National Parks, National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, and more via Wikipedia and via the U.S. National Park Service’s website today.

What historical American treasures have you and your students explored in your homeschool this Orion Term? 🇺🇸

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring important natural and historical sites in the United States. Print your own copy of our River Houses American Heritage Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌎

❡ We set to-day a votive stone: If you want a wonderful long-term history and geography project for your homeschool, explore the Historical Marker Database online (hmdb.org) and make a plan to find all the markers that are listed in your local area. Add any new ones you know of that are missing, and add new photos or descriptions for the ones already included. Your students will gain a better appreciation for your local community and will learn a wealth of new information about history and geography. 🏛

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you'll find a special "Print" button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don't want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses atlas and almanac for more information about any of our homeschool states-of-the-week. The almanac has detailed profiles of all the U.S. states and territories, and the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found. 📚

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡