Date Published:
July 2007

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Daniel DuLuth

DuLhut, or DuLuth, Daniel Greysolon (1640?-1710), coureur-de-bois, was born about 1640 at St-Germain-en-Laye, France, and came to Canada about 1674. In 1678 he left Montreal, with seven Frenchmen, to explore the Sioux country; he took possession of this country in the name of the king of France; and he returned to Quebec in 1681. During the greater part of the following ten years he was in the Nortwest, exploring and trading with the Indians, and for a time acting as commandant for the government of New France. In 1686 he built a small fort on the Detroit strait, near the outlet of lake Huron; and in 1696 he appears as commandant at Fort Frontenac on lake Ontario. He died at Montreal on February 26, 1710. The city of Duluth, Minnesota, is named in honour of him. DuLhut wrote accounts of his journeys (1676-8), but these have been lost. A memorandum by him on the western country has, however, been published in Margry, Découvertes et établissements, vol. v, 3-72. See C. W. Colby, Canadian types of the old régime (New York, 1908); W. McLennan, “The death of Duluth” (Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., 1903) ; and B. Sulte, «DuLhut» (Revue Canadienne, 1893).

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 244-245.