Chronology

1654-60
Radisson and Groseilliers, French traders, make two journeys into the "upper country," possibly Minnesota, and demonstrate possibilities of a remunerative fur trade.

1665
Father Claude Allouez establishes a Jesuit mission at La Pointe, near Ashland, Wisconsin, and finds hostile Sioux at the mouth of the St. Louis River at the head of Lake Superior.

1670-71
Jesuit cartographers map Lac Tracy or Superieur (Lake Superior), with a river, presumably the St. Louis, at the western end.

1679
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Luth (DuLhut) plants the banner of France in the vicinity of Duluth, and "in the principal village of the Sioux tribe, known as the Issati" near Mille Lacs.

1680
Father Louis Hennepin, Recollet missionary, and his companions, Accault and Auguelle, are sent by La Salle to explore the upper Mississippi which they reach after a journey down the Illinois.
The three are captured by the Sioux and taken to the Indian village at Mille Lacs. Hennepin and Auguelle on their descent of the Mississippi discover and name the Falls of St. Anthony.

1689
May 8, at Fort St. Antoine, near the foot of Lake Pepin, Nicholas Perrot, who reached the upper Mississippi several years before, lays formal claim to all the upper river for France.

1695
Pierre Charles le Sueur builds a fort on Isle Pele (Prairie Island) above Red Wing.

1700
Le Sueur establishes Fort L'Huillier on the Blue Earth River near Mankato.

1727
Sieur de la Perriere and Jesuits establish Fort Beauharnois at Frontenac on Lake Pepin and open first mission in Minnesota.

1731
Sieur de la Verendrye, his sons, and his nephew, La Jemeraye, begin exploring waterways on northern border and extend operations far northwest into Canada. One of the many forts erected along this route is St. Charles, on the Lake of the Woods, within the present area of Minnesota.

1756
Joseph Marin and his son abandon the Frontenac post, last French fort on the upper Mississippi.

1763
France cedes to Great Britain the Minnesota country east of the Mississippi, the area west of the river having been secretly relinquished to Spain the previous year. British traders take over the fur traffic.

1766-67
Jonathan Carver, New Englander, exploring under British auspices, spends the winter on the upper Mississippi, ascends the Minnesota River, and visits the Sioux at a cave in the St. Paul river bluffs

1783
Land east of the Mississippi is ceded to the United States by Great. Britain.

1784
The Northwest Company secures control of the Minnesota fur trade.

1789
Wabasha mobilizes a thousand Sioux warriors to help the British quell the Revolution.

1796
Laws of the Ordinance of 1787 are extended over the Northwest Territory, including the northeastern third of Minnesota, east of the Mississippi River.

1800
Spanish possessions west of the Mississippi are retroceded to France.

1803
The Louisiana Purchase gives the United States a vast region west of the Mississlppi, including western Minnesota.

1805
Lt Zebulon M. Pike visits upper Mississippi, secures from Sioux the land cessions at the mouths of the Minnesota and St. Croix Rivers for United States military posts.

1806
The Rev. Samuel Peters alleges, in a petition to Congress, that he has purchased from Carver's American heirs their right to the grant made in 1767.

1812
British military occupancy is reestablished on upper Mississippi.
Indians of Minnesota region join the British in the war.
Lord Selkirk establishes a colony of Irish and Scotch at the present site of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the lower Red River Valley.

1815
The last British garrison on upper Mississippi evacuates Prairie du Chien.

1816
Control of the fur trade south of the international boundary passes from the Northwest Company to John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company.

1819
United States troops establish a cantonment, forerunner of Fort St. Anthony, on the south