9/11/2009:
Throughout the nineteenth century, humanity's knowledge of the world expanded at a spectacular rate. As Europeans set out for destinations around the globe in search of new trade routes, to spread their faith, sell their goods or simply explore the world, many returned with detailed maps and fabulous stories about lands the rest of Europe knew little about. Whether it was Captain Cook's exploration of the South Pacific or David Livingstone's trek deep into the African continent, those 'blank spots' on the world map were quickly being filled in.
Not least among these intrepid explorers was the French scientist Joseph Nicolas Nicollet. Born in Savoy, France in 1786, Nicollet was appointed to the Paris Observatory in 1817, establishing himself as a respected scientist and astronomer. But however skilled Nicollet was as a scientist, his ability at predicting the French stock market was less than stellar. Following the French Revolution of 1830, the French stock market crashed, and with it the fortunes of Joseph Nicollet. So, in 1832 at the age of forty-six, Nicollet, disgraced and with little money, traveled to the United States where he hoped to find employment.
After his arrival in the US, Nicollet quickly acquainted himself with a number of European scientists. With their help he was able to find employment mapping large portions of the American South and the Mississippi Valley. Doggedly working over the course of the next decade, Nicollet greatly increased American knowledge of the Upper Mississippi River system. Eventually, his work attracted the attention of the US government, who hired the Frenchman to provide a more detailed survey of the Upper Mississippi River system, a region as large as all of France.
A significant portion of Nicollet's mapping expedition was conducted in present-day North Dakota. Throughout 1839, Joseph Nicollet and John Frémont traveled up the Missouri from Fort Pierre and then cut across the rolling prairies to Devil's Lake; painstakingly documenting the Dakota countryside as they went.
The result of Nicollet's work on the Northern Plains was the masterful "Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River." It not only earned the French astronomer a place in the pantheon of great Nineteenth Century explorers, but proved instrumental to the expansion and settlement of the American West.
By the early 1840s, Nicollet's services as both a scientist and cartographer were in hot demand. But years of hard travel and a stomach disease of mysterious origin had taken their toll on his health. On September 11, 1843 Joseph Nicolas Nicollet succumbed to his illness. While the Frenchman never regained his financial fortunes, he left behind maps and works of importance not only to science, but to the development of American history.
Dakota Datebook written by Lane Sunwall
Sources
Bray, Martha Coleman. "Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, Geologist." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 114, no. 1 (1970): 37-59.
Lottinville, Savoie. "Review: The Journals of Joseph N. Nicollet: A Scientist on the Mississippi Headwaters, with Notes on Indian Life."." Minnesota History Magazine 42, no. 5 (1971): 192.
Thrower, Norman J. W. "Review: Joseph Nicollet and His Map." Minnesota History Magazine 47, no. 5 (1981): 206-207.