| 1200/00/00 |
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Woodland people bury their dead. |
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| 1805/00/00 |
Zebulon Pike |
Explorer |
Lt Zebulon Pike treks north to Upper Red Cedar Lake (today's Leech Lake and Cass Lake), records seeing the Turtle River trickling into Cass Lake's north end, then the agreed-upon source of the Mississippi. |
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| 1820/00/00 |
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft |
Member |
Members of the Cass expedition, Henry Schoolcraft and David Bates Douglass journal recounts Indians describing the Mississippi's true source is more than 50 miles west at Lac Le Biche or Elk Lake. |
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| 1820/00/00 |
Lewis Cass |
Explorer |
Lewis Cass leads an expedition to the mouth of the Turtle River, turns and heads south down the Mississippi. |
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| 1832/00/00 |
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft |
Explorer |
Schoolcraft returns, renaming Lac Le Biche "Itasca". - Presently, we reached the brow of a ridge, the bright gleams of a lake burst upon our vision. It was Itasca Lake. |
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| 1881/09/00 |
Willard Glazier |
Explorer |
Ojibwe chief named Flat Mouth, has a guide named Chenowagesic lead Glazier beyond Lake Itasca through a marshy network of rushes to a lake that is the real source of the father of waters. |
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Willard Glazier Exploration of the Mississippi River |
| 1888/00/00 |
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Minnesota Legislature passes a bill - with one vote to spare amid pro-logging dissenters - creating Itasca State Park and earmarking $21,000 to buy the land from loggers. |
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| 1903/02/00 |
Samuel Rinnah Van Sant |
Governor of Minnesota |
The park's first director, John Gibbs, dies and Gov Samuel Van Sant, a logger, names Gibbs' 24 year old daughter and park secretary, Mary, as his successor. |
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| 1903/04/00 |
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Loggers dam the lake, Mary Gibbs demands the level be dropped to protect the old-growth pine forests. After a lumber boss with a rifle later threatens her warrant server, Gibbs, reportedly armed, stands her ground. The Loggers opened the gates. |
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| 1903/04/28 |
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Governor Van Sant appoints C E Bullard park commissioner. Mary Gibbs resigns. Her last official act is selecting the logs for a new park lodge. Named for Attorney General Douglas, who helped her defend the park, it is still in use. |
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| 1933/00/00 |
Civilian Conservation Corps |
Architect |
The CCC builds Itasca State Park's Old Timer's Cabin. This rectangular building with gabled roof ranks among Minnesota's first CCC built state park structures. The cabin is composed of logs so large that just four of them made an entire wall. |
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| 1983/02/04 |
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At the age of 104, Mary Gibbs dies in Vancouver, Canada. Ms Gibbs had moved to Edmonton, Canada and married William A Logan. Mr Logan became a successful builder of homes, many he built are in the exclusive Shaughnessy district of Vancouver. |
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