Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 207, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1915 — MADE FIRST MISSOURI TRAIL [ARTICLE]

MADE FIRST MISSOURI TRAIL

Canadian Adventurer Is Accorded Honor of Journey-That Required Some Heroism. The first journey by land to explore the interior of Missouri, of which there is much record, was undertaken by a Canadian named DuTisne in 1718. The Indians prevented him from ascending the Missouri river, so he crossed overland from Kaskaskia to the Osage river. No doubt he followed an old Indian path. They traversed the ridges between streams as much as possible. He crossed the Meramec and Gasconade and numerous other streams fifty or more miles south of the Missouri. He visited with the Osage Indians some time, exploring up and down their stream. In September, 1719, he says m his journal, he reached the “Padoucah tribe.” Evidently then, he visited Kansas. DuTisne describes a very fair country which he reached after passing through a rugged one. Very probably he was somewhere in the valley of the Walnut river in Kansas He might have been near the site of Kansas City, as he speaks of Osage villages only 350 yards from the Mis sour! river.