Students, teachers re-create journey of French explorer

Exactly 40 years ago, a crew of 16 students and eight teachers - most from Larkin High School in Elgin - set out on a 3,300-mile canoe journey across North America to recreate the expedition of French explorer René-Robert Cavelier La Salle.

The year was 1976, and with it being America's bicentennial, Reid Lewis, a French teacher at Larkin, wanted to promote the history of the French explorers in this country's development, as much as he wanted to create an educational experience for his students.

They spent two years training and intended to make the expedition as authentic as possible, including learning to sew their own 17th-century clothing, build their canoes, and construct black powder rifles, or muskets.

The expedition would take them up the St. Lawrence River, across the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River on a journey that stretched from August to April and involved walking over hundreds of miles of frozen land.

Now, journalist and author Lorraine Boissoneault has written a book that chronicles their adventure. Called "The Last Voyageurs," she will speak about their trek and how it transformed their lives from 7-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, in the Rasmussen Room of the Schaumburg Township District Library. Admission is free.

Boissoneault lives in Chicago and has worked as a writer for the Weather Channel, as well as had articles published in a variety of publications. This is her first book.

In an interview last week, she said that she had lived in France for a year as a teenager and was always interested in whether any French history extended beyond Quebec in North America.

She started researching La Salle and his legacy in the Midwest and she learned about Reid Lewis and the re-enactment.

"I got swept away," she says. "There's adventure, danger, a grand mission - everything that makes a great tale. And it doesn't hurt that all the people involved in the expedition were so friendly and eager to share their memories."

That starts with Lewis, himself. He still lives in Elgin and loves to tell groups about the transformative expedition - one of five he has taken.

"Our purpose was to make it an educational tool," he says. "We did over 500 re-enactment presentations along the route for schools and communities, promoting its history and environmental message."

Lewis says he originally drew 65 students to sign up, and over the course of the two years that number whittled down to 16 who were selected.

One of those was Rich Gross, who now is a science teacher at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates. He has furthered his interest in the explorer LaSalle by becoming involved with the Great Lakes Exploration Group, which is working to find his lost ship, the Griffon.

Another of the members was Terry Cox, a social studies teacher at the time at Downers Grove North High School, whose wife taught at Larkin. Cox was 28 at the time and he says the adventure changed the way he taught U.S. history, from a "top-down" to more of a "bottom-up" approach.

"The expedition was a very complex endeavor," he says. "Everyone had a job to perform in the canoe and a job to perform on land - cooks, fire starters, wood cutters, shelter builders, quartermasters.

"The trip taught me the real meaning of teamwork," he adds. "There were numerous occasions where our very lives depended on how well we functioned as a group - be it individual canoes, modules, or the entire six-canoe group."

Lewis agrees that there were multiple lessons learned from the expedition, which can be applied to overcoming different challenges in life.

"Our biggest success was our decision to do it," Lewis says. "It was an expedition for life."

If you go

What: Author presentation featuring Lorraine Boissoneault and her book, "The Last Voyageurs"

When: 7-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14

Where: Schaumburg Township District Library, 130 S. Roselle Road

Cost: Free

Registration: (847) 923-3347 or visit the information desk on the library's second floor