Other Indications Jacques Marquette Map a Hoax

See La Conception. This name on the fake map is a powerful clue to a 19th century origin of the map. The narrative found at the same time also refers to the Mississippi as La Conception. The map and the narrative were mutually supporting fabrications of "La Conception." The motive? To inflate the reputation of the colonial period Jesuits among the expanding population of Catholics in the developing nation. There is no document from the 17th century with this name for the Mississippi River. The Jesuit Mission of St. Xavier, the name of the location where Marquette was supposed to have drawn the map, is not on the map. Whoever forged the map used for the prototype of the northern region a pre-1669 Jesuit map of Lake Superior. St. Xavier was established in 1669. The angular shape of the Mississippi, including its positioning incorrectly at the 39th degree of latitude, seems to have been pilferred from the Guillaume d'Lisle map of 1703.

copyright 2006 Carl J. Weber