National Park Service - Explorers and Settlers (Wisconsin)

Survey of Historic Sites and BuildingsGREEN BAYWisconsinLocation: Brown County.City of Green BayGreen Bay, located along the banks of the Fox River,is the oldest settlement in Wisconsin. Early French voyageurs andcoureurs de bois probably knew about the site and named itBaye des Puants because the Puants, a Winnebago tribe, residedthere. Not until 1634, however, did Jean Nicolet, commissioned byChamplain, arrive at La Baye and claim the region for France. Formore than 30 years little happened at La Baye, but in 1669 FatherClaude Allouez, a Jesuit missionary, founded a mission there. In 1673,Marquette and Jolliet left St. Ignace to open up a water route to theMississippi. They sailed from Lake Michigan to Green Bay and then wentdown the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers to the Mississippi. After thisjourney, because of its strategic position on the water route to theMississippi, La Baye became an important fur trading center andrendezvous. In 1684, the French Government appointed Nicolas Perrotc...