Louis Hennepin

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Father Louis Hennepin, baptized Antoine, (12 May, 1626 – c. 1705) was a Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollect order (French: Récollets) and an explorer of the interior of North America.

Hennepin was born in Ath, province of Hainaut, Belgium, but became French in 1659, when Béthune, the town where he lived, was captured by the army of Louis XIV of France.

At the request of Louis XIV the Récollets sent four missionaries to New France in May 1675, including Hennepin, accompanied by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. In 1678 Hennepin was ordered by his provincial superior to accompany La Salle on a voyage to explore the western part of New France.

Two great waterfalls were brought to the world's attention by Louis Hennepin: Niagara Falls, with the most voluminous flow of any in North America, and the Saint Anthony Falls in what is now Minneapolis, the only waterfall on the Mississippi River.

References

Hennepin is the author of

Description de la Louisiane (Paris, 1683),
Nouvelle découverte d'un très grand pays situé dans l'Amérique entre le Nouveau-Mexique et la mer glaciale (Utrecht, 1697), and
Nouveau voyage d'un pars plus grand que l'Europe (Utrecht, 1698).

The truth of much of Hennepin's accounts has been called into question — or flatly denied — notably by the American historian Francis Parkman. In the words of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia:

Hennepin has been denounced by many historians and historical critics as an arrant falsifier. Certain writers have sought to repel this charge by claiming that the erroneous statements are in fact interpolations by other persons. The weight of the evidence is however adverse to such a theory.

Hennepin County, Minnesota, whose seat is Minneapolis, is named after him, as is a street, Hennepin Avenue, in Minneapolis. Also named after him is Father Hennepin State Park, in central Minnesota.

External links

[Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]
Article on [Louis Hennepin.] in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

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