INTRODUCTION Rivers played a very important part in America's exploration. In this lesson set we will see why this was true and what it meant to our history.
| 1. If you completed the previous lesson series on rivers and geography, you mapped some important rivers of America. You learned how rivers flow from higher sources to lakes, seas, and oceans. You also learned how they carry rain and melting snow from areas we call "drainage basins." Every place within a drainage basin can be reached by boating or walking up the rivers draining it. Often the easiest way to reach higher points in a drainage basin is by boating "upstream" along the rivers that drain it. What would be an exception to this rule? |
| 2. You also learned that the outlet of a river is its "mouth." For example, the mouth of the Mississippi River is near New Orleans, Louisiana. List three things you can say about the mouth of a river. |
| 3. One of the things you may have said is that the mouth of a river is its entrance. At the mouth, a boat can enter the river and sail upstream as far as river depth and conditions permit. Usually a boat can sail up larger rivers a very long way from the mouth. What would stop a boat from going farther? What might the crew of the boat do then? |
| 4. When European explorers first came to the "New World," they did not understand what a huge land mass it was. They thought they could go past it and sail on to India. What do you suppose they looked for as they sailed along America's shore? |
| 5. When the mouth of a large river was found, they thought it might offer the passage they were looking for. On a map of North America find the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is on the southeastern coast of Canada a short way north of Maine. It is the mouth of a very large river that runs from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean. What is the name of this river? When this river was discovered, what do you suppose the first explorers did? |
| 6. Almost 200 years after the voyages of Columbus, a French explorer named La Salle decided to follow a route suggested by a priest named Marquette. He sailed up the St. Lawrence River and through the Great Lakes to Lake Michigan. There he entered a river flowing east in today's Wisconsin. He went up that river until he came close to another river leading west and south. The Indians called at the "Father of Rivers." La Salle hoped he had found a way to the Pacific Ocean. Instead he found the Mississippi River and sailed it to its mouth. Where was La Salle then? |
| 7. When La Salle reached the Gulf of Mexico, he realized he had not found a passage to India. But he had crossed a huge land of opportunity. He called it "Louisiana" in honor of his king. Then he claimed the Mississippi and all the land draining into it in the name of France. What part of America was he claiming? (Look at a map.) |
| 8. Soon it was apparent that this new world was not an island or narrow strip of land that could be easily crossed. The large rivers explorers found did not lead to India, but became important for another reason. The explorers realized these large rivers drained large basins. What did this mean to the explorers? |
| 9. They began sailing up these rivers farther and farther exploring the land through which they passed. Now they were not looking so much for a way to India, but for something else. What do you think they were looking for? |