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Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut (c. 1639 – 25 February 1710) was a French soldier andexplorer who is the first European known to have visited the area where the city ofDuluth, Minnesota, United States, is now located and the head ofLake Superior in Minnesota. His name is sometimes anglicized as "DuLuth", and he is the namesake of Duluth, Minnesota, as well asDuluth, Georgia. Daniel Greysolon signed himself "Dulhut" on surviving manuscripts.
He was born about 1639 inSaint-Germain-Laval, nearSaint-Étienne (then inForez), France, and first visited New France in 1674.
In September 1678, Dulhut leftMontreal forLake Superior, spending the winter nearSault Sainte Marie and reaching the western end of the lake in the fall of the following year, where he concluded peace talks between theAnishinaabe (Saulteur) andDakota (Sioux) peoples. On 2 July 1679, DuLhut planted theflag of France "in the great village of the Nadouecioux, calledIzatys", aDakotaMdewakanton town on what is now calledMille Lacs Lake.[1] In June 1680, Duluth heard of the capture of a Catholic priest by the name of "Louis Henpin" (Louis Hennepin) who had been captured by other "Nadouecioux" (Sioux), among whom Duluth was living.[1] After receiving word of his capture, Duluth set out at once to find the Franciscan priest and demand his release. Duluth bartered for the priest's freedom, but in so doing he broke laws banning trading with Natives without government approval, which ultimately led to troubles back in Montreal. Lured by native stories of the Western or Vermilion Sea (likely theGreat Salt Lake inUtah), Duluth reached theMississippi River via theSaint Croix River in 1680 and then headed back toFort de Buade, where he heard that jealousQuebec merchants and theintendantJacques Duchesneau de la Doussinière et d'Ambault were slandering him. He was forced to return to Montreal and then France in 1681 to defend himself against false accusations oftreason, returning the following year.
Duluth subsequently established fur trading posts to further French interests atLake Nipigon andFort Caministigoyan at the mouth of theKaministiquia River onLake Superior, the site of the city ofThunder Bay,Ontario, probably 1684/85, not 1679 as many sources suggest, and atFort St. Joseph (Port Huron) betweenLake Erie andLake Huron, which was garrisoned with 50 men.
He died ofgout in Montreal on 25 February 1710, and was buried in the Recollet church.
Montreal has a Duluth Avenue (Avenue Duluth in French), named after Greysolon, located in "The Plateau" borough of the city (known asLe Plateau-Mont Royal in French). The avenue became quite popular with both residents and tourists after it was redesigned in the early 1980s. It was made to be more pedestrian-friendly with pleasantly-designed sidewalks, many trees, and flower boxes. It is said to have been modeled afterWoonerf streets in the Netherlands and Belgium where pedestrians and cyclists have priority over motorized vehicles, which have a reduced speed limit.
Duluth, Minnesota, also has a road named after duLhut, Greysolon Road, stretching from the Endion to Congdon neighborhoods.
Colder by the Lake, a theater company in Duluth, Minnesota, produced an original comic opera based on the life of Daniel Greysolon, entitledLes Uncomfortables (a play on the title of the musicalLes Misérables), the music was composed by Tyler Kaiser and the libretto written by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek, all of Duluth. The work was performed in 2001, 2002, and 2016.
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