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CONTRIBUTORS

JACOB VAN DER ZEE, Research Associate in The State Historical Society of Iowa, and Instructor in Political Science in the State University of Iowa. (See THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS for January, 1913, p. 142.)

CLIFFORD POWELL, Attorney at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Born at Elliott, Iowa, on December 14, 1887. Graduated from the College of Liberal Arts of the State University of Iowa in 1910, and from the College of Law in 1913. Received the degree of M. A. in 1912 from the State University of Iowa. Author of The Contributions of Albert Miller Lea to the Literature of Iowa History, and History of the Codes of Iowa Law.

LOUIS BERNARD SCHMIDT, Associate Professor of History in the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. (See THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS for October, 1912, p. 593.)

THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS

APRIL NINETEEN HUNDRED FOURTEEN

VOLUME TWELVE NUMBER TWO

VOL. XII-11

FORTS IN THE IOWA COUNTRY

Of the territory now comprised within the borders of the State of Iowa, and indeed of the whole trans-Mississippi region, most of the early history may well be summarized in the statement: "it is a history of governments." But documentary materials unearthed in archives at home and abroad, though largely illustrative of French and Spanish official life in this western country, reveal not a little knowledge of that other phase of history: human adventure and human endeavor. Thus, for example, one may read the accounts of early discoveries and explorations, of the activities of Jesuit missionaries, of traders in furs and minerals, and of Indian tribes with which European invaders came into business and social relations. And although the story of those early years is oftentimes not easily ascertainable because the records are scattered or fragmentary, on the whole a satisfactory picture of the times may be obtained.

TRADING POSTS

Long before the glamor of American frontier romance began to center in Indian treaties and land cessions, in the advance of the pioneers and their occupation of virgin prairies and primeval forests, and in the establishment of government forts for preserving peace among hostile Indian tribes and protecting settlers from pillage and massacre, French traders and explorers dreamed of a chain of well-garrisoned forts along the St. Lawrence River to the

1 See an article on Iowa History from 1699 to 1821 by Professor Benj. F. Shambaugh in the Iowa Historical Record, Vol. XVI, p. 29; and Documentary Material Relating to the History of Iowa, in three volumes, edited by the same

author.

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