Editing Ohio River (section)

===={{anchor|Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, 1729}}Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry (1729)====
{{Further|Land surveying in Kentucky}}
In 1729, [[Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry (1682-1756)|Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry]], a French architect and surveyor whose survey was the first [[Cartography|mapping]] of the Ohio River,<ref name=jillson>{{cite web |last=Jillson |first=Willard Rouse |title=Big Bone Lick: An Outline of Its History, Geology and Paleontology |date=1936 |page=3 |publisher=Standard Printing Company |url=http://bigbonelickkentucky.blogspot.com/2015/01/captain-charles-lemoyne-de-longueil-and.html |access-date=May 7, 2023 |archive-date=July 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721082537/http://bigbonelickkentucky.blogspot.com/2015/01/captain-charles-lemoyne-de-longueil-and.html |url-status=live}}</ref> led an expedition of French troops from Fort Niagara down the [[Allegheny River|Allegheny]] and Ohio Rivers as far as the mouth of the [[Great Miami River]] near Big Bone Lick and possibly the Falls of the Ohio (present-day [[Louisville]]).<ref name=Hanna2/><ref>{{cite web |last=Bogan |first=Dallas |title=Story of the Longhunters in the Beginning |website=History of Campbell County, Tennessee |url=http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/hist-bogan/Longhunters-beginning.html |access-date=October 27, 2015 |archive-date=November 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125060031/http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/hist-bogan/Longhunters-beginning.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Henderson |first=Archibald |chapter=The Long Hunters in the Twilight Zone |title=The Conquest of the Old Southwest: The Romantic Story of the Early Pioneers |chapter-url={{google books|hUcWAAAAYAAJ|plainurl=yes|page=116}} |date=1920 |location=New York |publisher=The Century Co |page=116}}</ref> Chaussegros de Lery mapped the Great Lakes in 1725, and engineered the Niagara fortifications in 1726.<ref name=osmon>{{cite book |last=Osmon |first=Rick |title=The Graves of the Golden Bear: Ancient Fortresses and Monuments of the Ohio |publisher=Grave Distraction |location=Nashville, Tennessee |date=2011 |url={{google books|E8t8AwAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes|page=31}} |page=31 |isbn=978-0-9829-1286-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Rickerson |editor-first=Don |title=The Expedition of Baron de Longueuil |url={{google books|jSUCAQAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes|page=7}} |page=7 |date=2013 |orig-year=1939 |edition=digital |publisher=Pennsylvania Historical Society, Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration}}</ref>

{{blockquote|I am indebted for the topographical details of the course of this River to M. de Lery, Engineer, who surveyed it with the compass at the time that he descended it with a detachment of French troops in 1729.|[[Jacques-Nicolas Bellin]]{{sfn|Hanna|1911|page=126}} }}

A map of the Ohio River valley, drawn by Bellin from observations by de Lery, is in [[Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix]]'s ''History of New France''.<ref name=bellin>{{cite book |title=Remarques sur le Carte de l'Amerique Septentrionale |trans-title=Notes on the Map of North America |language=fr |first=Jacques Nicolas |last=Bellin |pages=120–121 |publisher=Didot |location=Paris, France |url={{google books|gtSsoRHgj3sC|plainurl=yes|page=120}} |date=1755}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rothert |first=Otto Arthur |title=The Outlaws of Cave-in-Rock: Historical Accounts of the Famous Highwaymen |url={{google books|qbe8qRR4OoEC|plainurl=yes|page=18}} |page=18 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |date=1996 |isbn=978-0-8093-2034-9}}</ref> The 1744 Bellin map, "Map of Louisiana" ({{langx|fr|Carte de La Louisiane}}), has an inscription at a point south of the Ohio River and north of the Falls: "Place where one found the ivory of Elephant in 1729" ({{langx|fr|endroit ou on à trouvé des os d'Elephant en 1729}}).<ref>{{cite web |title=A Note on a Mistaken Date for the Discovery of Big Bone Lick |website=Big Bone History |last=Duvall |first=James |url=http://www.oocities.org/bigbonehistory/1729-note.html |access-date=October 27, 2015 |archive-date=January 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117054947/http://www.oocities.org/bigbonehistory/1729-note.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite map |title=Carte de la Louisiane cours du Mississipi (sic) et pais voisins |trans-title=Map of Louisiana through the Mississippi and Neighboring Country |language=fr |publisher=Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3700.ct000661/ |date=1744 |location=Paris, France |access-date=May 7, 2023 |archive-date=May 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230507224739/https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3700.ct000661/ |url-status=live }}</ref> De Lery's men found teeth weighing {{convert|10|lb|kg|spell=in}} with a diameter of {{convert|5|to|7|in|mm|spell=in}}, tusks {{convert|11|ft|m}} long and {{convert|6–7|in|mm}} in diameter, and thigh bones {{convert|5|ft|m}} long.<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Malley |first=Mimi |chapter=Discovery of a Mastodon Graveyard |title=It Happened in Kentucky: Remarkable Events that Shaped History |date=2011 |orig-year=2006 |edition=2nd |publisher=Morris Book Publishing |chapter-url={{google books|VQfvTMObViIC|plainurl=yes|page=2}} |page=2 |isbn=978-0-7627-6105-0}}</ref> The bones were collected and shipped to Paris, where they were identified as [[mastodon]] remains; they are on display at the [[National Museum of Natural History, France|French National Natural History Museum]].<ref name=jillson/><ref name=osmon/>