Jolliet & Marquette: A New History of the 1673 Expedition

Historian and Author, Mark Walczynski joins us at Harvard Diggins Library to discuss a wealth of original research that will take you among the region’s diverse Native American peoples and into a vanished natural world of treacherous waterways and native flora and fauna. He will also chart the little-known exploits of the French-Canadian officials, explorers, traders, soldiers, and missionaries who created the political and religious environment that formed Jolliet and Marquette and shaped European colonization of Illinois and America’s heartland.

Mark Walczynski is a Park Historian for the Starved Rock Foundation. Mark’s work has been published in historical journals including the Journal of Illinois State Historical Society, Le Journal, and Michigan’s Habitant Heritage. His books include Starved Rock State Park, The First 100 Years, Massacre 1769, The Search for the Origin of the Legend of Starved Rock, Inquietus, La Salle in the Illinois Country, and The History of Starved Rock: 1673 to 1911.

This guest speaker event is FREE and open to the public. Registration is required. Sign up for your free tickets using the form below.