Jacob V. Brower
{{short description|American writer and politician (1844–1905)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jacob V. Brower
| image = Jacob V. Brower portrait 1897.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Brower in 1897
| birth_name = Jacob Vandenberg Brower
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1844}}
| birth_place = York, Michigan, United States
| death_date = 1905
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| other_names =
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Jacob Vandenberg Brower (January 11, 1844[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica02marq/page/138/mode/2up BROWER, Jacob Vradenberg] in Who's Who in America, 1901-1902 edition; p. 138; via archive.org – 1905) was a prolific writer of the Upper Midwest region of the United States who championed the location and protection of the utmost headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
Brower was born in Michigan and later moved to Minnesota. In 1862 he served under the command of Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley during the Dakota Uprising in Minnesota.{{cite web |url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/uvwxyz/vandenberg_jacob.html |title=Minnesota State University Biography |access-date=February 11, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060831093250/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/uvwxyz/vandenberg_jacob.html |archive-date=August 31, 2006 }}
After the war he served as County Auditor and County Attorney for Todd County, Minnesota. The city of Browerville, Minnesota is named in his honor.{{cite book|last=Upham|first=Warren|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|url=https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|page=[https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog/page/n560 543]}} In 1872, he was elected to the Minnesota State Legislature, where he represented the 41st District from 1873 to 1874.[https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=11435 Brower, Jacob V. "J.V., J. H."], at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library; retrieved March 3, 2023
Brower died in 1905. He lies buried at North Star Cemetery in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. His monument recognizes him as the founder of Itasca State Park and the Minnesota State Park system.
Lake Itasca
In 1888, acting as surveyor, Brower visited Lake Itasca to settle a dispute regarding the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The issue was whether Nicollet Creek at the southern tip of Lake Itasca, which flows into the lake, was the official start of the Mississippi. Brower followed the creek through swamps and ponds to Lake Hernando de Soto. He spent five months on Lake Itasca and eventually concluded that since the Nicollet Creek was an intermittent stream, it should not qualify as the source of the Mississippi.[https://books.google.com/books?id=9K9iyGyeVNwC&dq=%22Jacob+V.+Brower%22&pg=RA4-PA43 Ohio River By John Ed Pearce, p44] 1989 - {{ISBN|0-8131-1693-7}}
Brower led the campaign to stop logging around Lake Itasca by the companies owned by timber industrialist Friedrich Weyerhäuser. On April 20, 1891, the state legislature by a margin of one approved the plans for a state park.{{Cite web |url=http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/itasca/narrative.html |title=Minnesota DNR Park Info |access-date=2007-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628172241/http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/itasca/narrative.html |archive-date=2013-06-28 |url-status=dead }}
The official visitor center for the park is now called the Jacob V. Brower Visitor Center and Brower is often referred to as the "Father of Lake Itasca".
Brower's Spring
In the late 1800s Brower questioned the conventional wisdom that Meriwether Lewis had discovered the true source of the Missouri River on August 12, 1805, above Lemhi Pass on the Continental Divide at the source of Trail Creek.
Studying maps, he said the source should be 100 miles further away, at the source of Hell Roaring Creek at about 8,800 feet on Mount Jefferson in the Centennial Mountains on the Montana side of the Continental Divide.
In 1888 he visited the site of Brower's Spring, which he determined as the true source of the Missouri, and buried a metal tablet with his name and the date nearby. In 1896 he published his findings in "The Missouri: Its Utmost Source."{{Cite web |url=http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/2005/MissouriSource.htm |title=The True Utmost Reaches of the Missouri - Montana Outdoors - July-August 2005 |access-date=2007-02-11 |archive-date=2012-01-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118010715/http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/2005/MissouriSource.htm |url-status=dead }}
Both sources ultimately drain into the Jefferson River which combines with the Madison and the Gallatin Rivers to form the Missouri at Missouri Headwaters State Park.
References
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External links
- [http://www.fromsitetostory.org/nhr/nhrintro.asp Brower's Map of Lake Itasca]
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Category:County auditors in the United States
Category:County officials in Minnesota