Note III-18 — Chapter III · ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: LEECH LAKE TO ST. LOUIS, FEBRUARY 1ST-APRIL 30TH, 1806.

On the up-voyage we figured out camp of Jan. 1st, 1806, to have been between Dean and Hay crs.; the present pat coincidence confirms the former independent determination: see note47, p. 134. From Whitefish l. Pike forged ahead of his party, accompanied by Boley, Buck, and Beau, and bore away from Pine r. direct for Lower Red Cedar l. He struck one of the little lakes connected with Dean cr., followed this creek down to its mouth, and recognized this point on the Mississippi as being a mile below where he had seen the Chippewa canoes turned up Jan. 1st. Dean cr. empties 3½ m. direct, exactly 5 m. by the river, below Hay cr., about up to the mouth of which he goes to camp to-night, and easily makes the N. W. Co. house to-morrow. Some points I did not present in my former note on this locality are these: Between Dean and Hay crs., and just W. of the "guide meridian" which, N. of the Mississippi, marks the separation of the 4th and 5th meridian systems of survey, is a very nearly straight stretch of the river for 2 m., nearly E. and W. This was known to the old voyageurs as the Grande Avenue. Its W. end is 1¾ m. above Dean cr.; its E. beginning is at a sharp turn of the river ½ m. below (N. N. E. of) the mouth of Hay cr., 2¾ m. scarcely E. of N. of the mouth of Cedar r.; Pine Knoll is on this turn. At the end of the first ½ m. ascending the Avenue, the range line between Ranges 27 and 28 (of the 4th M.) strikes the Mississippi from the S., and ends there; this range line is also the inter-county line between Crow Wing and Aitkin cos. Rounding the bend at Pine Knoll and going less than ½ m., one comes to the section line of Sects. 1 and 13, T. 136, R. 25, 5th M.; this is ⅛ m. from the mouth of Hay cr., and from this point upward Aitkin Co. is on both sides of the river. Pike's camp of the 24th was within a small fraction of a mile from the point thus indicated.