Named for Schoolcraft

I’ve been following Every County lately while the author winds his way virtually through, well, every county. He was at the northern end of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula at the time of publication. Slowly he’s blogging his was down from the Straits of Mackinac. The name Schoolcraft(¹) kept recurring as I read through new installments, a frequent geographic designation in Michigan.

Schoolcraft, for those unfamiliar with Michigan’s history, was Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864). He lived as a jack-of-all-trades; a geologist, explorer, geographer, politician, ethnologist, writer, publisher, you name it. So he wandered within and around many parts of the American Frontier as defined in early 19th Century. This included the Upper-Midwest in Michigan and Minnesota, specifically. As a result, a lot of places in both states bear the Schoolcraft name.

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Schoolcraft County, Michigan

Schoolcraft County (map) was the largest geographic namesake, an area familiar to Henry Schoolcraft during his lifetime. Michigan established the original Schoolcraft County in 1843. Then the state reorganized it in 1871 and established the current boundaries in 1885. These changes appear in the Newberry Library’s Atlas of Historical County Boundaries for Michigan. The Schoolcraft Chamber of Commerce explained,

“In 1832, the ‘Snowshoe Bishop’ Frederic Baraga established a Catholic mission on the eastern shore of Indian Lake. It was also during this time that Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Michigan’s first Indian Agent and the county’s namesake, was mapping the area, documenting the lives of tribal residence and negotiate treaties. Schoolcraft County was officially organized in 1871, with Manistique designated as the county seat.”

I drove through this area a number of years ago on a trip around and across Lake Michigan. I’d love to return someday.

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Village of Schoolcraft, Michigan

Paradoxically the Village of Schoolcraft didn’t sit in Schoolcraft County, rather it appeared on Michigan’s Lower Peninsula south of Kalamazoo (map).

“The Village of Schoolcraft was the first settlement established in Kalamazoo County. In fact, the original Village was platted in 1831, six years before Michigan became a state… Lucius Lyon, who had settled in the area and who had… been a member of the Cass expedition, as well as a friend of Schoolcraft, decided to name to Village in his honor.”

Schoolcraft had also been a member of the 1820 Cass Expedition, named for its leader Lewis Cass who was the Territorial Governor of Michigan. Schoolcraft served as the expedition’s geologist. Think about that for a moment. The governor led an expedition through the wilderness. Imagine the governor of any state today with enough courage and leadership to do something that physically demanding, dirty, and even a little dangerous.

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Schoolcraft Lake and River

The Cass Expedition focused on several objectives and motivations, including some scientific. One involved a search for the true source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. So the explorers trekked as far inland as Cass Lake. Then they turned back because water levels were too low for their canoes to paddle any farther in July. The expedition named the lake for its leader, declared Lake Cass the source of the Mississippi and called it a day.

That differs from what people understand today, with Lake Itasca identified as the Mississippi source. Indeed Cass Lake was many miles downstream from Itasca (map). Even at the time, Schoolcraft suspected the river source lay beyond Lake Cass. So he returned in 1832 to finish the job. Then he identified Lake Itasca as the “true” headwaters of the mighty river and garnered all the fame.

In his honor, a tiny Schoolcraft Island on Lake Itasca bears his name (map).

It wasn’t very far away from the spot where one could Walk Across the Mississippi River as Twelve Mile Circle did a few years ago. However there was a more significant accolade nearby than just the tiny island within Itasca, specifically Schoolcraft Lake and River (map), the first significant tributary of the Mississippi River.

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Schoolcraft College

There were several more Schoolcraft tributes although I’ll feature only one more. Educators established a Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Creatively, they named their dining hall “Henry’s Food Court,” in a fitting tribute to Henry Schoolcraft.

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12MC Loves Footnotes!

(¹) I think the name grabbed my attention because it sounded like a version of Minecraft. Maybe one created by an educational institution? Minecraft is frequent and ubiquitous in our household with our two young boys. It’s all Minecraft all the time in our home.