Lake Huron

But then it wasn't until like, I guess my undergraduate degree, which was done at the University of Windsor, where I started to learn a lot more about freshwater environments and freshwater species and how they're kind of really undervalued and underfunded.

And I really got an appreciation for the Great Lakes in general, Windsors, right along the Detroit River and kind of nested in between Lake Erie and Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair.

so um yeah i was able to like go camping go fishing and all these really close beautiful lakes and really kind of jump started my career into freshwater fish and aquatic ecology so

nice and did you work on any other species like other than just fresh water or was it mostly just fresh water beginning to end I

The MAA maze continued working after the loss of the Equinox, only to sink years later in Lake Superior, while carrying a heavy cargo of coal.

The Havana, the schooner whose crew happened to notice burr on the floating pilot house, would also eventually be lost, sinking in Lake Huron while carrying iron ore.

One by one, the ships connected to that September night eventually joined the long list of Great Lakes wrecks.

Yet the equinox remains different, because her precise resting place has never been conclusively documented.

The two rivers are essentially different in their approaches and in type.

the mouth of the st lawrence opens directly towards europe and of all american rivers lies nearest to the seafaring peoples of europe since it flows chiefly in a rocky bed its course changes little its waters are clear and they become icy cold as they approach the sea and mingle with the tide which flows into the great gulf of st lawrence from the arctic regions the mississippi on the other hand is a turbid warm stream flowing through soft lands its shifting channel is divided at its mouth by deltas created from the vast quantity of soil which the river carries in its current on the low-lying forest-clad northern shore of the gulf of mexico it was not easy to find the mouth of the mississippi by approaching it from the sea the voyage there from france was long and difficult and moreover spain claimed the lands bordering on the gulf of mexico and declared herself ready to drive out all intruders nature it is clear dictated that if france was to build up her power in the interior of the new world it was the valley of the st lawrence which she should first occupy time has shown the riches of the lands drained by the st lawrence on no other river system in the world is there now such a multitude of great cities the modern traveler who advances by this route to the sources of the river beyond the great lakes surveys wonders ever more impressive before his view appear in succession quebec montreal toronto buffalo cleveland detroit chicago duluth and many other cities and towns with millions in population and an aggregate of well so vast as to stagger the imagination step by step had the french advanced from quebec to the interior champlain was on lake huron in sixteen fifteen and there the jesuits soon had a flourishing mission to the huron indians they had only to follow the shore of lake huron to come to the st mary's river bearing towards the sea the chilly waters of lake superior on this river a much frequented fishing-ground of the natives they founded the mission of sainte marie du farther to the south on the narrow opening connecting lake huron and lake michigan grew up the post known as michilimackinac it was then inevitable that explorers and missionaries should press on into both lake superior and lake michigan by the time that frontenac came first to canada in sixteen seventy two the french had a post called saint-esprit on the south shore of lake superior near its western end and they had also passed westward from lake michigan and found a post on both the illinois and the wisconsin rivers which flow into the mississippi france had placed on record her claim to the whole of the great west on a june morning in sixteen seventy one there had been a striking scene at st marie du sceau the french had summoned a great throng of indians to the spot there with impressive ceremony st an officer from canada has set up a cedar post on which was a plate engraved with the royal arms and proclaimed louis the fourteenth lord of all the indian tribes and of all the lands rivers and lakes discovered and to be discovered in the region stretching from the atlantic to that other mysterious sea beyond the spreading lands of the west henceforth at their peril would the natives disobey the french king or other states encroach upon these his lands a jesuit priest followed saint lucien with a description to the savages of their new lord the king of france he was master of all the other rulers of the world at his word the earth trembled he could set earth and sea on fire by the blades of his cannon the priest knew the temper of his savage audience and told of the king's warriors covered with the blood of his enemies of the rivers of blood which flowed from their wounds of the king's countless prisoners of his riches and his power so great that all the world obeyed him the savages gave delighted shouts at the strange ceremony but of its real meaning they knew nothing what they understood was that the french seemed to be good friends who brought them muskets hatchets cloth and especially the love but destructive fire-water which the savage palate ever craved the mystery of the great lakes once solved there still remained that of the western sea the st lawrence flowed eastward another river must therefore be found flowing westward the french were eager listeners when the savages talked of a mighty river in the west flowing to the sea they meant as we now suppose the mississippi there are vague stories of frenchmen on the mississippi at an earlier date but however this may be it is certain that in the summer of sixteen seventy three louis jo the son of a wagon-maker of quebec and jacques marquette a jesuit priest reached and descended the great river from the mouth of the wisconsin to a point far past the mouth of the ohio france thus planted herself on the mississippi though there her occupation was less complete and thorough than it was on the st lawrence distance was an obstacle it was a far cry from quebec by land and from france the voyage by sea through the gulf of mexico was hardly less difficult the explorer la salle tried both routes in sixteen eighty one to sixteen eighty two he set out from montreal reached the mississippi overland and descended to its mouth two years later he sailed from france with four ships bound for the mouth of the river there to establish a colony but before achieving his aim he was murdered in a treacherous attack led by his own countrymen it was pierre le moyne sieur de beauville who first made good france's claim to the mississippi he reached the river by sea in sixteen ninety nine and descended to a point some eighty miles beyond the present city of new orleans farther east on biloxi bay he built fort moirepas and planted his first colony spain disliked this intrusion but spain soon to be herself ruled as france then was by a bourbon king did not prove irreconcilable and slowly france built up a colony in the south it was in seventeen eighteen that iberville's brother jean baptiste le moyne sieur de bienville founded new orleans destined to become in time one of the great cities of north america its beginnings were not propitious the historian charlotte vois describes it as being in seventeen twenty one a low-lying malarious place infested by snakes and alligators and consisting of a hundred wretched hovels in spite of this dreary outlook it was still true that france planted at the mouth of the mississippi controlled the greatest waterway in the world soon she had scattered settlements stretching northward to the ohio and the missouri the one river reaching eastward almost to the waters of the st lawrence system the other flowing out of the western plains from its source in the rocky mountains the old mystery however remained for the mississippi float into the gulf of mexico into atlantic waters already well known the route to the western sea was still to be found it was easy enough for france to record a sweeping claim to the west but to make good this claim she needed a chain of posts which should also be forts linking the mississippi with the st lawrence and strong enough to impress the indians whose country she had invaded at first she had reached the interior by way of the ottawa river and lake huron and in that northern country her position was secure enough through her posts on the upper lakes the route farther south by lake ontario and lake erie was more difficult the iroquois menaced niagara and long refused to let france have a footing there to protect her pathway to lake erie and the ohio valley it was not until seventeen twenty a period comparatively late that the french managed to have a fort at the mouth of the niagara on the detroit river the next strategic point on the way westward they were established earlier just after frontenac died in sixteen ninety eight la mothe cadillac urged that there should be built on this river a fort and town which might be made the center of all the trading interests west of lake erie and the folly he urged of going still farther afield among the indians and teaching them the french language and french modes of thought leave the indians to live their own type of life to hunt and to fish they need european trade and they have valuable furs to exchange encourage them to come to the french at detroit and see that they go nowhere else by not allowing any other post in the western country cadillac was himself a keen if secret participant in the profits of the fur trade and hoped to be placed in command at detroit and there to become independent of control from quebec detroit was founded in seventeen o one and though for a long time it did not thrive the fact that on the site has grown up one of the great industrial cities of modern times shows that cadillac had read aright the meaning of the geography of north america when france was secure at niagara and at detroit two problems still remained unsolved one was that of occupying the valley of the ohio the waters of which flow westward almost from the south shore of lake erie until they empty into the vaster flood of the mississippi here there was a lion in the path for the english claimed this region as naturally the hinterland of the colonies of virginia and pennsylvania what happened on the ohio we shall see in a later chapter the other great problem to be followed here was to explore the regions which lay beyond the mississippi these spread into a remote unknown unexplored by the white man and might ultimately lead to the western sea we might have supposed that france's farther adventure into the west would have been from the mississippi up its great tributary the missouri which flows eastward from the eternal snows of the rocky mountains always however the uncertain temper of the many indian tribes in this region made the advance difficult the tribes inhabiting the west bank of the mississippi were especially restless and savage the sioux in particular made life perilous for the french at their posts near the mouth of the missouri it thus happened that the white men first reached the remoter west by way of regions farther north it became easy enough to coast along the north and the south shore of lake superior easy enough to find rivers which fed the great system of the st lawrence or of the mississippi these however would not solve the mystery a river flowing westward was still to be sought thus both in pursuit of the fur trade and in quest of the western sea the french advanced westward from lake superior where now stands the city of fort william there flows into lake superior the little stream called still by its indian name of kaministiquia there the french had long maintained a trading-post from which they made adventurous journeys northward and westward The rugged region still farther north had already been explored, at least in outline.

There lay the great inland sea known as Hudson Bay.

French and English had long disputed for its mastery.

I would say, like, you have to get the sunset.

That's one of the most special things about Lake Huron.

Um, going out for a drive in the country is really nice.

It's, like, some of my happiest times are just [laughs] going for a drive down a little gravel road.

If you could-

Hmm

... have a weekend somewhere, do you prefer downtown, uh, like downtown city or, um, you know, a small town kind of like your Lake Huron upbringing?

Oh, man.

All right, let's talk about the incident.

Captain Smith was greeted with a foggy morning on July 11th, 1915 on Lake Huron.

The Choctaw was near Presque Isle, Michigan, upbound with a load of coal.

She departed Cleveland and was headed towards Marquette.

That's what these would be used for, but I'm pretty confident that that's the direction these are going.

The drones all at the factory talking to each other about what assignment they got.

I'm going to be looking for shipwrecks in Lake Huron.

I'm going somewhere called Mykolaiv.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. the conquest of new france chapter i the conflict opens frontenac and phips many centuries of european history had been marked by war almost ceaseless between france and england when these two states first confronted each other in america the conflict for the new world was but the continuation of an age-long antagonism in the old intensified now by the savagery of the wilderness and by new dreams of empire there was another potent cause of strife which had not existed in the earlier days when during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the antagonists had fought through the interminable hundred years war they had been of the same religious faith since then however england had become protestant while france had remained catholic when the rivals first met on the shores of the new world colonial america was still very young it was in sixteen o seven that the english occupied virginia at the same time the french were securing a foothold in acadia now nova scotia six years had barely passed when the english captain argall sailed to the north from virginia and destroyed the rising french settlements sixteen years after this another english force attacked and captured quebec presently these conquests were restored france remained in possession of the st lawrence and in virtual possession of acadia the english colonies holding a great stretch of the atlantic seaboard increased in number and power new france also grew stronger the steady hostility of the rivals never wavered there was indeed little open warfare as long as the two crowns remained at peace from sixteen sixty to sixteen eighty eight the stuart rulers of england remained subservient to their cousin the bourbon king of france and at one with him in religious faith but after the fall of the stuarts france bitterly denounced the new king william of orange as both a heretic and a usurper and attacked the english in america with a savage fury unknown in europe from sixteen ninety to seventeen sixty the combatants fought with little more than pauses for renewed preparation and the conflict ended only when france yielded to england the mastery of her empire in america it is the story of this struggle covering a period of seventy years which is told in the following pages the career of louis de beaude comte de frontignac who was governor of canada from sixteen seventy two to sixteen eighty two and again from sixteen eighty nine to his death in sixteen ninety eight reveals both the merits and the defects of the colonizing genius of france frontignac was a man of noble birth whose life had been spent in court and camp the story of his family so far as it is known is a story of attendance upon the royal house of france his father and uncles had been playmates of the young dauphin afterwards louis the thirteenth the thoughts familiar to frontenac in his youth remained with him through life and when he went to rule at quebec the very spirit that dominated the court at versailles crossed the sea with him a man is known by the things he loves the things which frontenac most highly cherished were marks of royal favor the ceremony due to his own rank the right to command he was an egoist supremely interested in himself he was poor but at his country seat in france near blois he kept open house in the style of a great noble always he bore himself as one to whom much was due his guests were expected to admire his indifferent horses as the finest to be seen his gardens as the most beautiful his clothes as of the most effective cut and finish the plate on his table as of the best workmanship and the food as having superior flavor he scolded his equals as if they were naughty children yet there was genius in this showy court figure in sixteen sixty nine when the venetian republic had asked france to lend her an efficient soldier to lead against the rampant turk the great marshal turenne had chosen frontenac for the task creed which frontenac was to rescue the turk indeed had taken but it is said at the fearful cost of a hundred and eighty thousand men three years later frontenac had been sent to canada to war with the savage iroquois and to hold in check the aggressive designs of the english he had been recalled in sixteen eighty two after ten years of service chiefly on account of his arbitrary temper he had quarrelled with the bishop he had bullied the intendant until at one time that harried official had barricaded his house and armed his servants he had told the jesuit missionaries that they thought more of selling beaver skins than of saving souls he had insulted those about him sulked threatened foamed at the mouth in rage revealed a childish vanity in regard to his dignity and a hunger insatiable for marks of honour from the king more grateful he once said than anything else to a heart shaped to the right pattern france however now required at quebec a man who could do the needed man's tasks the real worth of frontenac had been tested and so in sixteen eighty nine when england had driven from her shores her catholic king and when france's colony across the sea seemed to be in grave danger from the iroquois allies of the english frontenac was sent again to quebec to subdue these savages and if he could to destroy in america the power of the age-long enemy of his country.

purged high above the st lawrence on a noble site where now is a public terrace and a great hotel stood the chateau st louis the scene of frontenac's rule as head of the colony no other spot in the world commanded such a highway linking the inland waters with the sea the french had always an eye for points of strategic value and in holding quebec they hoped to possess the pivot on which the destinies of north america should turn for a long time it seemed indeed as if this glowing vision might become a reality the imperial ideas which were working at quebec were based upon the substantial realities of trade the instinct for business was hardly less strong in these keen adventurers than the instinct for empire in promise of trade the interior of north america was rich land to-day its vast agriculture and its wealth in minerals have brought rewards beyond the dreams of two hundred years ago the wealth however sought by the leaders of that time came from furs in those wastes of river lake and forest were the richest preserves in the world for fur-bearing animals this vast wilderness was not an unoccupied land in those wild regions dwelt many savage tribes some of the natives were by no means without political capacity on the contrary they were long clever enough to pit english against french to their own advantage as the real sovereigns in north america one of them whose fluent oratory had won for him the name of big mouth told the governor of canada in sixteen eighty eight that his people held their lands from the great spirit that they yielded no lordship to either the english or the french that they well understood the weakness of the french and were quite able to destroy them but that they wished to be friends with both french and english who brought to them the advantages of trade in sagacity of counsel and dignity of carriage some of these indians so bore themselves that to trained observers they seemed not unequal to the diplomats of europe they were however weak before the superior knowledge of the white men in all their long centuries in america they had learned nothing of the use of iron their sharpest tool had been made of chipped obsidian or of hammered copper their most potent weapons have been the stone hatchet or axe and the bow and arrow it thus happened that when steel and gunpowder reached america the natives soon came to despise their primitive implements more and more they craved the supplies from europe which multiplied in a hundred ways their strength in the conflict with nature and with man to the indian tribes trade with the french or english soon became a vital necessity from the far northwest for a thousand miles to the bleak shores of hudson bay from the banks of the mississippi to the banks of the st lawrence and the hudson they came each year on laborious journeys paddling their canoes and carrying them over portages to barter furs for the things which they must have and which the white man alone could supply the iroquois the ablest and most resolute of the native tribes held the lands bordering on lake ontario which commanded the approaches from both the hudson and the st lawrence by the great lakes to the spacious regions of the west the five tribes known as the iroquois had shown marked political talent by forming themselves into a confederacy from the time of champlain the founder of quebec there had been trouble between the french and the iroquois in spite of this bad beginning the french had later done their best to make friends with the powerful confederacy they had sent to them devoted missionaries many of whom met the martyr's reward of torture and massacre but the opposing influence of the english with whom the iroquois chiefly traded proved too strong with the iroquois hostile it was too dangerous for the french to travel inland by way of lake ontario they had it is true a shorter and indeed a better route farther north by way of the ottawa river and lake nipissing to lake huron in time however the iroquois made even this route unsafe their power was far-reaching and their ambition limitless they aimed to be masters of north america like all virile but backward peoples they believed themselves superior to every other race their orators declared that the fate of the world was to turn on their policy on frontenac's return to canada he had a stormy inheritance in confronting the iroquois they had real grievances against france denonville frontenac's predecessor had met their treachery by treachery of his own louis the fourteenth had found that these lusty savages made excellent galley slaves and had ordered denonville to secure a supply in canada in consequence the frenchmen seized even friendly iroquois and sent them overseas to france the savages in retaliation exacted a fearful vengeance in the butchery of french colonists the bloodiest story in the annals of canada is the massacre at lachine a village a few miles above montreal on the night of august fourth sixteen eighty nine fourteen hundred iroquois burst in on the village and a wild orgy of massacre followed all canada was in a panic some weeks later frontenac arrived at quebec and took command

to the old

soldier now in his seventieth year his hard task was not uncongenial he had fought the savage iroquois before and the no less savage turk he belonged to that school of military action which knows no scruple in its methods and he was prepared to make war with all the frightfulness practised by the savages themselves his resolute blustering demeanor was well fitted to impress the red men of the forest for an imperious eye will sometimes cow an indian as well as a lion and frontenac's mien was imperious in his life in court and camp he had learned how to command the english in new york had professed to be brothers to the iroquois and had called them by that name this title of equality however frontenac would not yield kings speak of my people frontenac spoke to the indians not as his brothers but as his children and as children of the great king whom he served he was their father their protector the disposer and controller of mighty reserves of power who loved and cared for those putting their trust in him he could unbend to play with their children and give presents to their squaws at times he seemed patient gentle and forgiving at times too he swaggered and boasted in terms which the event did not always justify la poterie a cultivated frenchman in canada during frontenac's regime describes an amazing scene at montreal which seems to show that whether frontenac recognized the title or not he had qualities which made him the real brother of the savages in sixteen ninety huron and other indian allies of the french had come from the far interior to trade and also to consider the eternal question of checking the iroquois at the council which began with grave decorum a huron orator begged the french to make no terms with the iroquois frontenac answered in the high tone which he could so well assume he would fight them until they should humbly crave peace he would make with them no treaty except in concert with his indian allies whom he would never fail in fatherly care to impress the council by the reality of his oneness with the indians frontenac now seized a tomahawk and brandished it in the air shouting at the same time the indian war song the whole assembly french and indians joined in a wild orgy of war passion and the old man of seventy fresh from the court of louis the fourteenth led in the war dance yelled with the indians their savage war whoops danced round the circle of the council and showed himself in spirit a brother of the wildest of them this was good diplomacy the savages swore to make war to the end under his lead many a frontier outraged many a village attacked in the dead of night and burned amidst bloody massacre of its few toil-worn settlers was to be the result of that strange mingling of europe with wild america frontenac's task was to make war on the english and their iroquois allies he had before him the king's instructions as to the means for effecting this the king aimed at nothing less than the conquest of the english colonies in america in sixteen sixty four the english by a sudden blow in time of peace had captured new netherland the dutch colony on the hudson which then became new york now a quarter of a century later france thought to strike a similar blow against the english and louis the fourteenth was resolved that the conquest should be thorough-going the dutch power had fallen before a meagre naval force the english now would have to face one much more formidable two french ships were to cross the sea and to lie in wait near new york meanwhile from canada sixteen hundred armed men a thousand of them french regular troops were to advance by land into the heart of the colony seize albany and all the boats there available and descend by the hudson to new york the warships hovering off the coast would then enter new york harbor at the same time that the land forces made their attack the village for it was hardly more than this contained as the french believed only some two hundred houses and four hundred fighting men and it was thought that a month would suffice to complete this whole work of conquest once victors the french were to show no pity all private property but that of catholics was to be confiscated catholics whether english or dutch were to be left undisturbed if not too numerous and if they would take the oath of allegiance to louis the fourteenth and show some promise of keeping it rich protestants were to be held for ransom all the other inhabitants except those whom the french might find useful for their own purposes were to be driven out of the colony homeless wanderers to be scattered far so that they could not combine to recover what they had lost with new york taken new england would be so weakened that in time it too would fall such was the plan of conquest which came from the brilliant chambers at versailles

One other route rivaled the St. Lawrence in promise, and that was the Mississippi.

The two rivers are essentially different in their approaches and in type.

the mouth of the st lawrence opens directly towards europe and of all american rivers lies nearest to the seafaring peoples of europe since it flows chiefly in a rocky bed its course changes little its waters are clear and they become icy cold as they approach the sea and mingle with the tide which flows into the great gulf of st lawrence from the arctic regions the mississippi on the other hand is a turbid warm stream flowing through soft lands its shifting channel is divided at its mouth by deltas created from the vast quantity of soil which the river carries in its current on the low-lying forest-clad northern shore of the gulf of mexico it was not easy to find the mouth of the mississippi by approaching it from the sea the voyage there from france was long and difficult and moreover spain claimed the lands bordering on the gulf of mexico and declared herself ready to drive out all intruders nature it is clear dictated that if france was to build up her power in the interior of the new world it was the valley of the st lawrence which she should first occupy time has shown the riches of the lands drained by the st lawrence on no other river system in the world is there now such a multitude of great cities the modern traveler who advances by this route to the sources of the river beyond the great lakes surveys wonders ever more impressive before his view appear in succession quebec montreal toronto buffalo cleveland detroit chicago duluth and many other cities and towns with millions in population and an aggregate of well so vast as to stagger the imagination step by step had the french advanced from quebec to the interior champlain was on lake huron in sixteen fifteen and there the jesuits soon had a flourishing mission to the huron indians they had only to follow the shore of lake huron to come to the st mary's river bearing towards the sea the chilly waters of lake superior on this river a much frequented fishing-ground of the natives they founded the mission of sainte marie du farther to the south on the narrow opening connecting lake huron and lake michigan grew up the post known as michilimackinac it was then inevitable that explorers and missionaries should press on into both lake superior and lake michigan by the time that frontenac came first to canada in sixteen seventy two the french had a post called saint esprit on the south shore of lake superior near its western end and they had also passed westward from lake michigan and found a post on both the illinois and the wisconsin rivers which flow into the mississippi france had placed on record her claim to the whole of the great west on a june morning in sixteen seventy one there had been a striking scene at st marie du sceau the french had summoned a great throng of indians to the spot there with impressive ceremony st an officer from canada had set up a cedar post on which was a plate engraved with the royal arms and proclaimed louis the fourteenth lord of all the indian tribes and of all the lands rivers and lakes discovered and to be discovered in the region stretching from the atlantic to that other mysterious sea beyond the spreading lands of the west henceforth at their peril would the natives disobey the french king or other states encroach upon these his lands a jesuit priest followed saint lucien with a description to the savages of their new lord the king of france he was master of all the other rulers of the world at his word the earth trembled he could set earth and sea on fire by the blades of his cannon the priest knew the temper of his savage audience and told of the king's warriors covered with the blood of his enemies of the rivers of blood which flowed from their wounds of the king's countless prisoners of his riches and his power so great that all the world obeyed him the savages gave delighted shouts at the strange ceremony but of its real meaning they knew nothing what they understood was that the french seemed to be good friends who brought them muskets hatchets cloth and especially the love but destructive fire-water which the savage palate ever craved the mystery of the great lakes once solved there still remained that of the western sea the st lawrence flowed eastward another river must therefore be found flowing westward the french were eager listeners when the savages talked of a mighty river in the west flowing to the sea they meant as we now suppose the mississippi there are vague stories of frenchmen on the mississippi at an earlier date but however this may be it is certain that in the summer of sixteen seventy three louis jo the son of a wagon-maker of quebec and jacques marquette a jesuit priest reached and descended the great river from the mouth of the wisconsin to a point far past the mouth of the ohio france thus planted herself on the mississippi though there her occupation was less complete and thorough than it was on the st lawrence distance was an obstacle it was a far cry from quebec by land and from france the voyage by sea through the gulf of mexico was hardly less difficult The explorer LaSalle tried both routes in 1681 to 1682.

He set out from Montreal, reached the Mississippi overland, and descended to his mouth.

Uh, and really the vision for the marsh was born out of necessity.

So, uh, the draining of land that once comprised the former Lake Smith to the south of us around the Grand Bend-Port Franks area, uh, in 1955 left a significant gap in the wetland habitat available for migrating waterfowl along Lake Huron.

So to address this, uh, the Ministry of Natural Resources acquired the land, uh, that would become Hullett Marsh, while Ducks Unlimited Canada spearheaded the construction of, of the infrastructure within.

Following the major construction of dikes, water control structures, channels, spillways, other major infrastructure, thousands of acres of shallow water pools and marshland were created, uh, providing a perfect staging area for migrating waterfowl.