Unveiled August 12, 1909, by members of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Green Bay Historical Society.
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Whether this is truly the correct historical location is yet a different matter. See Jerrold Rodesch's article in Voyageur (Spring 1984), "Jean Nicolet".
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Samuel de Champlain
1567-1635
Considered to be one of the fathers of Canada, Champlain soldier, explorer, artist, naturalist, and most importantly a cartographer who sent Nicolet on his voyage to the land of the Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago Indians.
In 1608, he was commissioned by King Henry IV of France to lead 32 colonists to establish a fur trading center in North America, which led to the founding of Quebec. In 1632, he bcame governor of New France.
He suffered a stroke and died on Christmas Day in 1635.
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1634 - Wisconsin Tercentenary - 1934
Nicolet's landing on the shores of Green Bay
The U.S. Postal Service issued this commemorative stamp in 1934 to celebrate the three hundred year anniversary of Nicolet's landing on the shores of Green Bay. It is one of many similar images of Nicolet's landing.
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Jean Nicolet
1598 - 1642
Nicolet was born in France, possibly Cherbourg. He moved to Quebex in 1618. At the direction of Samuel de Champlain, he was sent to live among various American Indian tribes to learn their language and customs, to establish trade, and to assure them that the French were there in peace.
In 1634, as an envoy of Champlain, then governor of New France, Nicolet traveled from Quebec to the Bay of Green Bay, making him the first European to set foot in what is now Wisconsin. He met the Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, Indians in the vicinity of Red Banks.
In 1642, while traveling by boat from Quebec to Three Rivers, he drowned when his boat was overturned by a storm.
