Jim Bridger
Jim Bridger
no
There are no martyrs of the Great Lakes.
Most probably the first person to explore Illinois was a Native American descended from the people who came to North America from Asia. As we have no record of exactly when the first person visited Illinois, we can't know his/her name. The first Europeans to come to Illinois were fur trappers in the Ohio Valley. In 1673, Father Pierre Marquette and Louis Joliet (Jolliet) traveled down the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes, and traveled along what is now the Illinois River.
Samuel de Champlain was born in France. He founded Quebec City and was the first European to explore the Great Lakes.
John Cabot was the first person to explore the new world for England.
The people of the First Nations travelled the Great Lakes in canoes long before any Europeans did.
Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico
The Great Lakes are: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. (In that order, the first letters spell "homes", an easy acronym to remember the names of the lakes.)
There is no record of Europeans having explored as far as the Great Lakes by the year 1600. The First Nations would have had their own names for the Great Lakes. One of their names for Lake Superior was Gichigami.
roald amundsen