The River - Miniature Golf & Family Fun in Glen Arbor
The River at Crystal Bend in Glen Arbor features Miniature Golf, Carriage Rides, Free Wireless, Birthday Parties, Rustic Trading Post & More!
Latest Giveaway!
The last question was apparently too easy, so here's a tougher one:
Who was the first European explorer to record a sighting of the Sleeping Bear, when did they sight it and what did they call it in their native tongue?
Be the first person to post a comment below with the answer below and you'll receive SIX FREE ROUNDS OF GOLF AT THE RIVER!
Past Giveaways
- The first question was the year that John LaRue moved from South Manitou Island to set up a trading post at Sleeping Bear Bay and Mark Haveman had the correct answer of 1848
The first white man known to have visited Michigan's Lower Peninsula was trapper-explorer Adrien Jolliet, who came to the peninsula's eastern shores in 1669. Fur trappers may have preceded him, but it was in 1675 that the first Europeans were recorded to have seen the Sleeping Bear area. They were Pierre Porteret and Jacques Largilier, attendants of Father Jacques Marquette. I have no idea what they called the sleeping bear in French.
Comment by Ed Hahnenberg — June 19, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
Pierre Franscois Xavier Charlevoix
1721
"L'ours qui dort"
Comment by Sally Guzowski — June 19, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
Although the French missionaries Pierre Porteret and Jacques Largilier saw the Sleeping Bear FIRST in 167, in 1721, Jesuit historian-explorer Pierre Franscois Xavier Charlevoix described a large dune along Lake Michigan's Eastern shore as a "kind of bush" shaped like a reclining animal. His journal said "The French call it L'ours qui dort (the sleeping bear).
Comment by Ed Hahnenberg — June 19, 2008 @ 4:02 pm
Correction to submission 3: "Although the French missionaries Pierre Porteret and Jacques Laragilier saw the Sleeping Bear FIRST in 1675, the first recorded name in French of the Sleeping Bear was "L'ours qui dort" found in Pierre Franscois Xavier Charlevoix's journal in 1721. So, the name's origin in French dates almost 50 years after the first Europeans visited the Sleeping Bear area.
Comment by Ed Hahnenberg — June 19, 2008 @ 4:07 pm
Your question goes from the singular to the plural...bad grammar. Perhaps an invalid question? My answers are the reverse. Two European explorers saw the Bear first and one several decades later is given credit for noting what the Bear had been referred to prior to 1721.
Comment by Ed Hahnenberg — June 19, 2008 @ 4:14 pm
One last comment...to assume that Charlevoix SAW the Sleeping Bear in 1721 would require more research. In 1720 he journeyed to America to explore the West and visit the Jesuit missions. Voyaging up the St. Lawrence, through the Great Lakes, and along the Illinois River, he reached the Mississippi and descended it to New Orleans. After a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico he returned to France. In 1744 he issued his Histoire de la Nouvelle France (tr., 6 vol., 1900), which in a valuable appendix contains a detailed journal of his trip, the only full description of the interior of America in the first third of the 18th cent.
Comment by Ed Hahnenberg — June 19, 2008 @ 4:34 pm
Hey Ed & Sally, after consideration, our judges have decided to award you BOTH the prize (and to penalize the questioner for a bad question!).
Comment by Andrew McFarlane — June 27, 2008 @ 6:58 am