Editing Louis Jolliet

{{Short description|Explorer of North America (1645–1700)}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Louis Jolliet
| image         = Louis Jolliet.JPG
| image_size    = 200
| caption       = [[Alfred Laliberté]]'s Louis Jolliet sculpture in front of [[Parliament Building (Quebec)]]
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1645|9|21}}
| death_date    = {{death year and age|1700|1645}}
| birth_place   = near [[Quebec City|Quebec]], [[New France]]
| death_place   = en route from Quebec to [[Anticosti Island]]
| allegiance    = New France (Canada)
| branch        = 
| serviceyears  = 
| rank          = 
| commands      = 
| awards        = Jolliet was granted land south of Quebec in return for his favours
| relations     = Jean Jolliet: Father
| laterwork     = Canadian explorer
| signature     = Louis Jolliet Signature.svg
| signature_size = 123
}}

'''Louis Jolliet''' ({{IPA|fr|lwi ʒɔljɛ}}; September 21, 1645{{spaced ndash}}after May 1700) was a [[French-Canadian]] explorer known for his discoveries in North America.<ref name="Larkin2003">{{cite book|author=Tanya Larkin|title=Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet: Explorers of the Mississippi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y33sv1PPg1QC&pg=PA6|access-date=28 June 2013|year=2003|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3625-0|page=6}}</ref> In 1673, Jolliet and [[Jacques Marquette]], a [[Jesuit]] [[Catholic priest]] and [[missionary]], were the first non-Natives to explore and map the Upper [[Mississippi River]].

==Early life==
Jolliet was born in 1645 in [[Beaupré, Quebec|Beaupré]], a [[New France|French]] settlement near [[Quebec City]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Jolliet|title = Louis Jolliet &#124; French-Canadian explorer| date=18 March 2024 }}</ref> to Jean Jolliet and Marie D'Abancourt. When he was six years old, his father died; his mother married a successful merchant, Geoffroy Guillot dit Lavalle, until he died in 1665. Shortly after the passing of his mother's second husband, she was married to Martin Prevost until she died in 1678.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vachon|first=André|date=2003|title="JOLLIET, LOUIS," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jolliet_louis_1E.html|access-date=November 19, 2020|website=Dictionary of Canadian Biography}}</ref> Jolliet's stepfather owned land on the [[Ile d'Orleans]], an island in the [[Saint Lawrence River]] in Quebec that was home to [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]]. Jolliet spent much time on Ile d'Orleans, so he likely began speaking [[Indigenous languages of the Americas]] at a young age. Besides [[French language|French]], he also learned English and Spanish. During his childhood, Quebec was the center of the French [[fur trade]]. The Natives were part of daily life in Quebec, and Jolliet grew up knowing much about them. Jolliet entered a Jesuit school in Quebec as a child and focused on philosophical and religious studies, aiming for the priesthood. He also studied music, becoming a skilled [[harpsichord]]ist and church organist. He received [[Holy Orders]] in 1662 but abandoned his plans to become a priest, leaving the seminary in 1667 to pursue fur trading instead.<ref>Wilson, James Grant & Fiske, John (Eds.). ''Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography''. New York: D. Appleton and Company (1887), Vol. III, p. 461.</ref>

==Exploration of the Upper Mississippi==
[[File:Marquette and jolliet map 1681.jpg|thumb|Ca. 1681 map of Marquette and Jolliet's 1673 expedition.]]

While [[Hernando de Soto]] was the first European to make official note of the Mississippi River by discovering its southern entrance in 1541, Jolliet and Marquette were the first to locate its upper reaches, and travel most of its length, about 130 years later. De Soto had named the river Rio del Espiritu Santo, but tribes along its length called it variations of "Mississippi", meaning "Great River" in the [[Algonquian languages]].

On May 17, 1673, Jolliet and Marquette departed from [[St. Ignace, Michigan]], with two canoes and five other [[voyageurs]] of French-Indian ancestry. The group sailed to [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]]. They then paddled upstream (southward) on the [[Fox River (Green Bay tributary)|Fox River]] to the site now known as [[Portage, Wisconsin]]. There, they [[portage]]d a distance of slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak forest to the [[Wisconsin River]]. Europeans eventually built a trading post at that shortest convenient portage between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. On June 17, the canoeists ventured onto the Mississippi River near present-day [[Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin]].

The Jolliet-Marquette expedition paddled along the west bank of the Mississippi until mid-July. When they passed the mouth of the [[Arkansas River]], they became satisfied that they had established that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. By this point, they had encountered natives carrying European goods and worried about a possible hostile encounter with explorers or colonists from Spain.<ref>[[Bruce Catton|Catton, Bruce]] (1984). ''Michigan: A History'', p. 14. W. W. Norton & Company. {{ISBN|0393301753}}.</ref><ref>[https://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/the-explorers/louis-jolliet-1673-1694/ Louis Jolliet 1673–1694, Virtual Museum of New France, Canadian Museum of History]</ref> The voyageurs then followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the [[Illinois River]], which friendly natives told them was a shorter route back to the Great Lakes. Following the Illinois river upstream, they then turned up its tributary the [[Des Plaines River]] near modern-day [[Joliet, Illinois]]. They then continued up the Des Plaines River and portaged their canoes and gear at the [[Chicago Portage]]. They then followed the [[Chicago River]] downstream until they reached Lake Michigan near the location of modern-day [[Chicago]]. Father Marquette stayed at the mission of St. Francis Xavier at the southern end of Green Bay, which they reached in August. Jolliet returned to Quebec to relate the news of their discoveries. On his way through the [[Lachine Rapids]], Jolliet's canoe overturned and his records were lost. His brief narrative, written from memory, is in essential agreement with Marquette's, the chief account of the journey.<ref>"[https://archive.org/details/newcolumbiaencyc00harr/page/1428/mode/2up?q=Anticosti&view=theate Jolliet or Joliet, Louis]" in ''The New Columbia Encyclopedia''. Columbia University, 1975.</ref>

==Later years==
Jolliet married Claire-Françoise Byssot de la Valtrie. Like Jolliet, she was Canadian born, a daughter of Francois Byssot de la Riviere and his wife Marie Couillard. Claire Francoise was also a sister of Louise Byssot de la Valtrie, wife of Seraphin de Margane, Seigneur de la Valtrie. In 1680, Jolliet was granted the [[Anticosti Island|Island of Antwhere]] by [[Louis XIV]] as a reward, where he created a fort and maintained soldiers. In 1693, he was appointed "Royal Hydrographer", and on April 30, 1697, he was granted a [[Seigneurial system of New France|seigneury]] southwest of [[Quebec City]] which he named Jolliest.

In 1694, he sailed from the Gulf of St. Lawrence north along the coast of [[Labrador]] as far north as [[Zoar, Newfoundland and Labrador|Zoar]], a voyage of five and a half months. He recorded details of the country, navigation, the [[Inuit]] and their customs. His journal ("Journal de Louis Jolliet allant à la decouverte de Labrador, 1694,") is the earliest known detailed survey of the Labrador coast from the [[Strait of Belle Isle]] to Zoar.

In May 1700, Louis Jolliet left for [[Anticosti Island]] in the [[Gulf of St. Lawrence]].  He then disappears from the historical record.  There is no listing of his death or burial place, and the sole record of his fate is the notation that a mass for his soul was said in Quebec on September 15, 1700.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Slater
  | first = Renée
  | contribution = Marquette, Jacques (1637–1675), and Louis Jolliette (1645–1700)
  | editor-last = Speake
  | editor-first = Jennifer
  | editor-link = Jennifer Speake
  | title = Literature of Travel and Exploration: an Encyclopedia
  | year = 2003
 | volume = 2
  | page = 771
  | publisher = Taylor & Francis
  | isbn = 978-1-57958-424-5
  | publication-date = 2003
  | contribution-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=a2esfSswEc8C&pg=PA771
}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Marquette-jolliet-chicago-bridge.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque commemorating Jolliet in Chicago.]]
[[File:Louis Jolliet monument Quebec City.jpg|thumb|right|Monument commemorating Jolliet in Quebec City.]]
Jolliet's main legacy is most tangible in the [[Midwestern United States]] and Quebec, mostly through geographical names, including the cities of [[Joliet, Illinois]]; [[Joliet, Montana]]; and [[Joliette]], [[Quebec]] (founded by one of Jolliet's descendants, [[Barthélemy Joliette]]).

The several variations in the spelling of the name "Jolliet" reflect spelling that occurred at times when illiteracy or poor literacy was common and spelling was unstandardized.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=11850&keyword=jolliet |title=Joliet, Louis |access-date=2008-05-13 |archive-date=2008-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080824125629/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view |url-status=dead }}</ref> Jolliet's descendants live throughout eastern Canada and the United States. 

The Jolliet Squadron of cadets at the [[Royal Military College Saint-Jean]] in the [[Province of Quebec]] was named in Jolliet's  honor.  A street and subway station in Montreal, Quebec are named after him.  The Louis Jolliet [[rose]], developed by [[Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada]], was named in his honor.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100615235217/http://canadianrosesociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80&Itemid=55 Louis Jolliet rose]</ref>  [[Joliet Junior College]] in Joliet, Illinois, is named after the explorer, as are numerous [[High school (North America)|high school]]s in North America.  The [[Louis Joliet Mall]] in Joliet, Illinois, is named for the explorer.  A cruise ship sailing out of Quebec City is also named in his honour.

Jolliet appears with Jacques Marquette on a 1968 United States postage stamp honoring their exploratory voyage.

==See also==
{{Portal|France|North America|History}}
*[[French colonization of the Americas]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{Catholic|wstitle=Louis Joliet}}

==Further reading==
* Delanglez, Jean. ''[https://archive.org/details/lifevoyagesoflou00dela/page/n5/mode/2up Life and Voyages of Louis Jolliet (1645–1700)]''. Chicago: Loyola University, 1948.
* [[Virginia Eifert|Eifert, Virginia S.]] ''[https://archive.org/details/louisjolietexplo0000eife Louis Jolliet, Explorer of Rivers]''. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1961.
* Scanlon, Marion S. ''[https://archive.org/details/trailsoffrenchex0000scan/page/n7/mode/2up?q=Joliet Trails of the French Explorers]''. San Antonio: The Naylor Company, 1956.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Louis Jolliet}}
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08496a.htm Jolliet 1645–1700]
*[http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=360 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']

{{Explorers of New France}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jolliet, Louis}}
[[Category:1645 births]]
[[Category:1700 deaths]]
[[Category:Date of death unknown]]
[[Category:17th-century French explorers]]
[[Category:Canadian explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Canada]]
[[Category:French explorers of North America]]
[[Category:Explorers of the United States]]
[[Category:People of Louisiana (New France)]]
[[Category:People from pre-statehood Illinois]]
[[Category:People from pre-statehood Michigan]]
[[Category:People from pre-statehood Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Canadian people of French descent]]
[[Category:Jacques Marquette]]
[[Category:Taché family]]