Lake Itasca

No educated man who has not experienced the desolation of having been shut up among savages and rough unlettered voyageurs for a long time can appreciate the pleasure of meeting a cultured and refined gentleman so unexpectedly as Mr. Boutwell encountered Nicolet, and especially when he was able to render him valuable aid.

From Leech Lake, Nicolet went to Lake Itasca with guides and packers.

He pitched his tent on Schoolcraft Island in the lake, where he occupied himself for some time in making astronomical observations.

He continued his explorations beyond those of Schoolcraft and Lieutenant Allen, and followed up the rivulets that entered the lake, thoroughly exploring its basin or watershed.

State Parks Itasca State Park In a previous part of the work, under the head of lumber, I have referred to the fact that a great national park and forest reserve is in contemplation by the United States at the headwaters of the Mississippi, and made reference to the state park already established at that point.

I will now relate what has been done by the state in this regard.

In 1875 an official survey of the land in and about Lake Itasca was made by the Surveyor General of the United States for Minnesota, which brought these lands under the operation of the United States laws, and part of them were entered.

A portion of them went to the National Pacific Railroad Company under its land grant.

I actually, yeah, there's a talk I give now about thinking like a watershed, which is, yeah, informed by this question.

So most people who know the Mississippi River will tell you it starts at Lake Itasca in Minnesota.

So it's... actually 600 or so river miles above St. Paul and Minneapolis.

So there's a lot of river up there, a tiny, a beautiful little

lake in the middle of nowhere.

When it comes to a river like the Mississippi, I mean, I think what is so striking, I've always lived on the Mississippi in the South, where it pulls together lots of different waters, the Ohio, the Missouri, and makes this giant world-shaping river.

And so from my point of view, that river up at Lake Itasca is really different.

And there's an argument to be made that the Missouri River is as... is the real river, right? It's a much longer river than the Mississippi coming down from Minneapolis to where Lake Itasca to where they meet in St.

Yeah, Chris, I appreciate you reaching out, organizing this and looking forward to finishing our chat.

It was so great getting to sit down and chat with Ilya in this first session covering his Mississippi speed record attempt from his beginning days of paddling to running the Grand Canyon solo and tackling the Mississippi headwaters.

My biggest takeaway from this episode was hearing about the mental approach to his journey as he strategically employed a joyous state of being uncomfortable while loving working through misery to accomplish something great.

Thanks again, Ilya, for coming on the show.

Well, I like to do it, you know, a- as the chef prepares it.

Um, the Douglas, is it the Douglas Lodge in Lake Itasca State Park has a really rus-

Oh

... has a really rustic dining room, a nice fireplace.

Yeah.

Uh, you can, I can't, I don't think you can beat it.

Young people, Lake Itasca is in northern Minnesota.

It's where the Mississippi River begins.

No educated man who has not experienced the desolation of having been shut up among savages and rough unlettered voyageurs for a long time can appreciate the pleasure of meeting a cultured and refined gentleman so unexpectedly as Mr. Boutwell encountered Nicolet, and especially when he was able to render him valuable aid.

From Leech Lake Nicolet went to Lake Itasca with guides and packers.

He pitched his tent on Schoolcraft Island in the lake, where he occupied himself for some time in making astronomical observations.

He continued his explorations beyond those of Schoolcraft and Lieutenant Allen, and followed up the rivulets that entered the lake, thoroughly exploring its basin or watershed.

In a previous part of the work, under the head of Lumber, I have referred to the fact that a great national park and forest reserve is in contemplation by the United States at the headwaters of the Mississippi and made reference to the state park already established at that point.

I will now relate what has been done by the state in this regard.

In 1875, an official survey of the land in and about Lake Itasca was made by the Surveyor General of the United States for Minnesota.

which brought these lands under the operation of the United States laws and part of them were entered.

So he did have his phone, which he was using for navigation because it was, I, I suspect, based on researching the story, one of the newer phones that actually uses satellite signals when you're in the middle of nowhere.

And in fact, last week, when I was in the, uh, Lake Itasca region of Minnesota hiking with Nancy, it, we were able to use our iPhones and actually guide ourselves on these pretty remote trails exactly where we wanted to be because the satellite, we had a clear view of the sky.

Wow.

And we were able to get from point A to point B with absolutely no cell signal at all.

So what goes into planning a trip like this?

I'll say as far as the logistics and running the everyday operations out there on the river, that wasn't something that I was really prepared for till we arrived at Lake Itasca.

When McDale first announced he had planned to go solo down the river and have some support and eventually changed his mind and I jumped on board and it was initially just he and I. and then Dan, we picked up Dan and then the film crews.

And it kind of this, it kind of grew where when we got to Itasca, uh, instead of just being me and Dale going for a paddle down the river, now we needed to have a lot more organization.

Yeah, fairly officially, the river is divided into three distinct sections.

The headwaters, the upper river, and the lower river, or the upper Mississippi and the lower Mississippi.

The headwaters is defined as from Lake Itasca to Minneapolis, roughly.

That's at Minneapolis is where your locks and dams start.

Has anybody in recent history done that that you're aware of?

Well, I think more canoeists do it, and they actually can go all the way up to the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca, which is like north of Brainerd and, you know, up way further north in Minnesota.

Yeah.

and we actually went up there before we started in his boat we went up there and visited lake itasca saw where you could walk basically walk across the mississippi it's only three or four foot wide and maybe three foot deep um walk across it get our visit that we visited the brainerd area which is considered what they consider the upper mississippi just to look at how big it was and stuff but between itasca and minneapolis there's actually 12 dams that you can't go through there's no lock and it's illegal to jump them.

Poche would want to, but I wouldn't let him.

So we decided to officially start it, you know, as far as you could navigate a motorboat up to Mississippi, which is just north of Minneapolis.

But she didn't realize the worst of it was probably being with Keith Poche.

But, you know, we got through it.

Explain to me what that is.

So it is from Lake Itasca down to the Gulf of Mexico.

About 20 to 30 people attempt it annually.

It was far less a couple of years ago, but that's what we're working with now, which is great.