The English Jonathan Carver passed through the area in 1767 while traveling north from the Mississippi River up the Chippewa River. He reported staying at the Indian village on Lac Courte Oreilles (he referred to it as Ottowaw Lakes) from June 22 through 29, 1767. He described the village as being on either side of a channel between two lakes, which he referred to as the Ottowaw Lakes. He next travelled to the St. Croix River (by way of Grindstone Lake, Windigo Lake, the Namekagon Portage, and the Namekagon River) and thence northward to Lake Superior. In describing their visit to the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian village, Carver and another member of the expedition, James Stanley Goddard, said that they were the first white people to have visited the area. They likely did not know about the travels of Radisson and Groseilliers to the area about 1660, more than one hundred years before, and were not likely to have been reading French sources, if available.