Everything about Jacob V Brower totally explained
Jacob Vandenberg Brower (1844-1905) was a prolific writer of the Upper Midwest region of the
United States who championed the location and protection of the utmost headwaters of the
Mississippi and
Missouri rivers.
He was born in Michigan and moved to Minnesota. In 1862 he served with
Henry Hastings Sibley during wars against the
Sioux in Minnesota.
After the war he was County Auditor and County Attorney for
Todd County, Minnesota. The City of
Browerville, Minnesota,which he originally plotted, is named in his honor.
Lake Itasca
In 1888 acting as surveyor he visited
Lake Itasca to settle a dispute over the source of the Mississippi River.
The issue was whether Nicollet Creek at the southern tip of the Lake Itasca and flows into the lake was the official start of the Mississippi. Brower followed the stream through swamps, ponds to Lake Hernando de Soto. Brower spent five months on Lake Itasca and eventually ruled that since the Nicollet Creek was intermittent stream it didn't qualify as the source.
Brower was to lead a campaign to stop logging around Lake Itasca by companies owned by
Friedrich Weyerhäuser. On April 20, 1891 the state legislature by a margin of one approved the plans for a state park.
The official visitor center for the park is now called the Jacob V. Brower Visitor Center and Brower is often referred to as the "Father of Lake Itasca."
Brower's Spring
In the late 1800s he questioned the conventional wisdom that
Meriwether Lewis had discovered the true source of the
Missouri River on August 12, 1805, above
Lemhi Pass on the
Continental Divide at the source of Trail Creek.
Studying maps, he said the source should be 100 miles further away at the source of Hell Roaring Creek at about 8,800 feet on
Mount Jefferson in the
Centennial Mountains on the Montana side of the Continental Divide.
Once again there were streams higher and further on the mountain but they were also intermittent. In 1888 he visited the site of
Brower's Spring and left a metal tablet with his name and date. In 1896 he published his findings "The Missouri: It's Utmost Source."
Both sources ultimately drained into the
Jefferson River which combines with the
Madison River to form the Missouri at
Missouri Headwaters State Park.
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