The written history of Brown County and the area known as Wisconsin was first brought to light by Jean Nicolet, a daring Frenchman who in 1634 explored the region of the upper great lakes. He is the first white man, known to have set foot on the area known as Brown County. In his writings he left only a brief description of the area and makes mere mention of a river - the Fox.
1669 - Mission St. Francis Xavier:
The next visits, though unrecorded in the written record ,were by fur traders who learned of the area from Indians who gathered around rapids and falls of Ste Marie. Early in 1669 Louis Joliet visited the region, possibly reaching the islands at the mouth of Green Bay, but he left no account of his visit. The founding of the Mission of St. Francis Xavier upon the shores of Green Bay on December 2nd, 1669, by the Jesuit missionary, Father Claude Allouez marks a tenuous period of temporary (on and off again) white habitation of the area until around 1687.
1680 - Louis Hennepin:
Louis Hennepin and his party, as a detail from La Salle's expedition to the Illinois reached the mouth of the Wisconsin River on his way from the upper Mississippi to the great lakes passing up that river to the portage and crossing this carrying place to the Fox River and thence to the Bay of Puants (Green Bay) where they found Frenchmen trading with the Indians.
1683 - Le Sueur:
Le Sueur a noted voyager, was at Green Bay in 1683 making his way up the Fox River to the Wisconsin River and thence to the Mississippi where he spent seven years among the Sioux.
1684 - Nicholas Perrot:
Nicholas Perrot began a notable figure in Wisconsin's early history appeared in Green Bay as the trusted agent of the French Government. He was commissioned to manage the interests of commerce from Green Bay to the west.
1685 - Du Lhut (Duluth):
Daniel Greysolon Du Lhut (Duluth) assumed military command of the west in 1685, under the superintendency of the commandant at Mackinaw. He arrived in Green Bay and assisted by Perrot collected Indian allies for war against the Iroquois.
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