Lewis Cass expedition
The Lewis Cass expedition of 1820 was a survey of the western part of Michigan Territory led by Lewis Cass, governor of the territory. On January 14, 1820, United States Secretary of War John C. Calhoun authorized Cass to lead a party of scientists, soldiers, Canadian voyageurs, and Native Americans into the wilderness of western Michigan Territory. The purpose of the expedition was to:
The expedition consisted of 42 men as follows:
The expedition departed Detroit in four large canoes on May 24, 1820. It took three days to reach Fort Gratiot, located near the entrance to Lake Huron. The commander of the fort, Major Cummings, exchanged five of his sixty soldiers for two from the expedition who had become ill. On June 6 the expedition reached Michilimackinac where they awaited the arrival of additional supplies. On June 13 the party departed Michilimackinac bound for Sault Ste. Marie escorted by a twelve-oared barge carrying a military detachment intended to overawe the Native Americans.
At Sault Ste. Marie, Cass called a council of the Ojibwa to obtain their permission to establish an Indian agency. The Ojibwa, many of whom were loyal to the British, expressed their displeasure with the American proposal. One of their chiefs known as "the count", dressed in the uniform of a British officer, raised a British flag near the expedition's camp. Cass tore down the flag and trampled it under foot, which brought about the submission of the Native Americans, who ceded 16 square miles (41 km2) on the St. Mary's River where Fort Brady was constructed two years later.
The expedition proceeded west along the southern shore of Lake Superior portaging across the Keweenaw Peninsula. A contingent including Cass, Schoolcraft, and Doty made a side trip 30 miles (48 km) up the Ontonagon River to see the huge mass of copper known as the copper rock. At the western end of Lake Superior the expedition proceeded up the Saint Louis River to the American Fur Company's post at Fond du Lac.
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