 In 1835 George William Featherstonhaugh conducted a geological survey of the Minnesota River valley and wrote an account entitled A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor . Joseph Nicollet scouted the area in the late 1830s accompanied by John C. Frémont , exploring and mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin , the Saint Croix River , and the land between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers . 
