The Last Voyageurs

Lorraine Boissoneault

Reid Lewis never wanted to be an ordinary French teacher. With the approach of the American Bicentennial, he decided to put his knowledge of French language and history to use in recreating the voyage of René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the first European to travel from Montreal to the end of the Mississippi River. Lewis’ crew of modern voyageurs was comprised of 16 high school students and 6 teachers who learned to sew their own 17th-century clothing, paddle handmade canoes, and construct black powder rifles. Together they set off on an eight-month, 3,300-mile expedition across the major waterways of North America. They fought strong currents on the St. Lawrence, paddled through storms on the Great Lakes, and walked over 500 miles across the frozen Midwest during one of the coldest winters of the 20th century, all while putting on performances about the history of French explorers for communities along their route. Weaving the true history of La Salle's initial voyage throughout the narrative, The Last Voyageurs tells the story of a truly unique American odyssey, where a group of young men discovered themselves by pretending to be French explorers.

Lorraine Boissoneault is a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied narrative nonfiction. She is an editor at the Weather Channel and lives in Chicago.

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