Duluth or Du Lhut, Daniel Greysolon, sieur, 1636-1710, French explorer in Canada. He went to Canada with his younger brother c.1672. In 1678 he set out on an expedition to Lake Superior to pacify the indigenous people and end the Ojibwa-Sioux War. Going as far as the Ojibwa village at Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota, he claimed the upper Mississippi region for France. He remained in the West, but his plans for exploration were interrupted (1680) by the negotiation for the release of Hennepin and Aco, members of La Salle's party. Returning to Mackinac, he found himself charged with illegal trading and had to go to France to clear himself. In 1683 he was off on a new expedition, on which he established his brother in trade on Lake Nipigon and built a fort at Kaministikwia. He was recalled to join Perrot in leading an expedition against the Iroquois. Returning to Kaministikwia he prepared to search for the Western Sea, but was again recalled to fight the Iroquois. In 1686 he built Fort St. Joseph on the St. Clair River. He went on his last Lake Superior expedition in 1688. In 1695 he was retired because of lameness. Duluth won the Lake Superior and upper Mississippi region for France; his treatment of the native peoples gained their lasting friendship.

Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut (c. 1639 – 25 February 1710) was a French soldier and explorer who is the first European known to have visited the area where the city of Duluth, Minnesota is now located and the headwaters of the Mississippi River near Grand Rapids. His name is sometimes anglicized as "DuLuth" and is the namesake of Duluth, Minnesota.

He was born in Saint-Germain-Laval, near Lyon, France, and first visited New France in 1674. In September 1678, he left Montreal for Lake Superior, spending the winter near Sault Sainte Marie and reaching the western end of the lake in the fall of the following year where he concluded peace talks between the Saulteur and Sioux nations. Lured by native stories of the Western or Vermilion Sea (likely the Great Salt Lake in Utah), he reached the Mississippi River via the Saint Croix River in 1680 and then headed back to Fort Michilimackinac, where he heard that jealous Quebec merchants and the intendant Jacques 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 of treason, returning the following year.

He subsequently established fortifications to defend French interests at Fort Caministigoyan at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River, the site of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Fort St. Joseph (Port Huron) between Lake Erie and Huron.

He died of gout in Montreal 25 February 1710.

External links

• Canadian Museum of Civilization : Daniel Greysolon Duluth
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Catholic Encyclopedia article