In 1792, Jean Pierre Petit Le Rouge, a squirrel eager for adventure, stows away in the canoe of a group of voyageurs, unaware of what they are traveling so far to trade. Includes pronunciation guide, historical notes, and a recipe.

The voyageur's highway was the route from Lake Superior along inland waterways to the Minnesota North Country. Countless people-explorers, fur traders, missionaries, map makers, lumberjacks, miners, naturalists-were drawn to the region's woods and lakeshores. Indians, French Canadians, Scandinavians, and Slavs all used the rich resources of the land to follow an old way of life or to find a new one. In a lively, clear style, Grace Lee Nute tells the...

Excerpt: "If the average student of Western American History in our schools were asked to recall those names which loom large for him during the four decades from the purchase of the Louisiana Territory to the coming of the settlers, he would doubtless think of Lewis and Clark, Lieutenant Pike, Major Long, and General Frémont, with perhaps one or two others. That is to say, the average student of Western History is familiar with the names of official...