33 Facts About Jonathan Carver

Jonathan Carver was a captain in a Massachusetts colonial unit, explorer, and writer.

Jonathan Carver's father was modestly wealthy and was elected to various public positions in Weymouth and Canterbury.

The family moved to Canterbury, Connecticut, when Jonathan Carver was still a young child.

Around 1748, Jonathan Carver moved his young family to Montague, Massachusetts, at the time a small frontier settlement, where he served as a selectman.

In 1755 Jonathan Carver joined the Massachusetts colonial militia at the start of the French and Indian War.

Jonathan Carver was successful in the military and eventually became captain of a Massachusetts regiment in 1761.

Jonathan Carver sailed to England in 1769, seeking recompense, and remained there for the rest of his life.

Jonathan Carver left Fort Michilimackinac at present-day Mackinaw City, Michigan, in the spring of 1766.

Jonathan Carver's route took him along the northern coast of Lake Michigan, cut across to the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin and proceeded along the western edge of the bay until reaching what is Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Jonathan Carver recorded visiting a small Metis settlement at the foot of Green Bay, as well as a French monastery nearby in Des Peres, Wisconsin.

Jonathan Carver traveled up the Fox River to the Winnebago village at the north end of Lake Winnebago, where the present city of Neenah, Wisconsin, has developed.

Jonathan Carver crossed to the Wisconsin River and then traveled down the Mississippi, emerging at the great trade encampment at Prairie du Chien.

Jonathan Carver spent some time with the tribe near the falls but turned south, down the Mississippi, to find a more suitable place to spend the winter.

Jonathan Carver spent the winter in a tribal village in what is eastern Iowa.

Jonathan Carver learned that his sponsor, Royal Governor Robert Rogers, was under suspicion of plotting treason against England.

Jonathan Carver travelled in the relative comfort of a passenger cabin, while Rogers was forced to travel sitting on the ballast rocks in the hold of the ship.

Jonathan Carver submitted a list of expenses to his superiors, but payment was denied on the grounds that Rogers had not had sufficient authority to order such an expedition.

Jonathan Carver believed that he had been legitimately hired by the Crown to map and explore the newly acquired territory.

Jonathan Carver believed that he had possibly identified a Northwest Passage.

Jonathan Carver had spent two years working and was left with little to show for it but debt, maps and log books.

In 1769 Jonathan Carver left for England to petition the government for his promised payment and to claim the reward for identifying a potential Northwest Passage.

Jonathan Carver left his wife Abigail in the colonies and never saw her again.

Jonathan Carver spent the remainder of his life petitioning the [English] government for his payments.

Jonathan Carver ultimately received two separate grants from the Crown to cover his expenses, although not the great reward for identifying a Northwest Passage.

Jonathan Carver set up a household with a woman and started a second family in London.

Jonathan Carver's book, Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766,1767, and 1768, was an immediate success when first published in 1778.

The publication of this book was a significant event in the history of the exploration of the American West: Jonathan Carver was the first English-speaking explorer to venture west of the upper Mississippi River.

Jonathan Carver was the first to mention a large mountain range to the west that blocks the westward passage and serves as a continental divide.

Jonathan Carver penetrated farther into the West than any other English explorer before the American Revolution.

Jonathan Carver stimulated curiosity concerning routes to the Pacific, with questions later satisfied by Alexander Mackenzie and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Jonathan Carver published a third edition in 1781, "for the relief of the widow and children", Carver's family.

In 1804, a group of descendants of Jonathan Carver petitioned the US Congress for ownership rights to a large tract of land in Wisconsin and Minnesota, claiming that the deed, supposedly dated at the "Great Cave, May the 1st, 1767" entitled Jonathan Carver and his family to over 10,000 square miles of land.

Jonathan Carver's papers are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.