Hennepin, Louis National Historic Person
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Falls by Father Louis Hennepin, 1698
(© Library and Archives Canada | Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-2197 Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana | Collection de Canadiana de Peter Winkworth)
Address :
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
2008-08-26
Life Date:
1640 to 1705
Other Name(s):
-
Hennepin, Louis
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
2007-067
Importance:
A scout in La Salle's expedition; important contribution to North American cartography with his map of New France - the first to accurately locate the Mississippi and to chart its course
Plaque(s)
This Belgian priest and adventurous missionary of the Recollet Order promoted the exploration of North America. A member in Cavelier de La Salle’s expedition from Québec City to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi in 1678–1680, Hennepin published three travel accounts (1683, 1697, and 1698) that were widely read in Europe. His work offered an original view on Indigenous life, an unprecedented mapping of the Mississippi River, and descriptions of landscapes, including the first of Niagara Falls which he describes as a “horrible precipice” and a “prodigious Cascade of Water … the Universe does not afford its Parallel.”