Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville

In 1749 French explorer Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville asserts sovereignty of France over the Ohio valley by burying a lead plaque called "of Point Pleasant".[1] See picture.

Map of the route followed by Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville along the Ohio River in 1749, drawn by Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps.

From 1743 to 1748, Britain and France fought King George's War. During this war, England blockaded New France, breaking down the French fur trade. The British became the major trading partners with Native Americans in the Ohio valley.

France claimed the Ohio Valley (and indeed the entire Mississippi basin) on the basis of the explorations made by La Salle in 1669 and 1682. Great Britain claimed the Ohio Valley on the basis of purchases from Native Americans in 1744. In fact, both the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania had claims on the Ohio valley, although in the 1740s and 1750s, Virginia was more active in pressing her claim.

According to R. E. Banta, author of The Ohio [Rivers of America series], in March of 1749, the Ohio Company of Virginia received a grant from King George, which included 200,000 acres on the south bank of the Ohio between the Monongahela and the Great Kanawha Rivers. One goal of establishing this grant was to test the French's willingness to defend the Ohio. The grant in turn provoked the immediate dispatch of Céloron's expedition from Montreal (page 65).

In 1748, Comte de la Galissoniere, the governor of Canada, ordered Céloron to strengthen the French claim on the Ohio Valley. Céloron carried out this mission in the summer of 1749 by means of an expedition through the contested territory. He set out from Montreal on June 15, 1749, in a flotilla consisting of large boats and canoes. The expedition included 216 French Canadians and 55 Native Americans. On the shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek in present-day Westfield, New York, the expedition cut a road over the French Portage Road, and carried their boats and equipment overland to Chautauqua Lake, then followed the Chadakoin River and Conewango Creek to the Allegheny River, reaching it on July 29, 1749.

As it progressed, the expedition sought to strengthen France's claim to the territory by marking it at the mouths of several principal tributaries. At each point, a tin or copper plate bearing the French royal arms was nailed to a tree. Below, an inscribed leaden plate was buried, declaring the claims of France. This was a traditional European mode of marking territory, but it might have contributed to Native American anxieties about the intentions of the French, and thus ultimately had a counterproductive effect.

Reaching the Monongahela River, the party boated past Shannopin's Town at the current site of Pittsburgh, and down the Ohio River. They paused at Kittanning, but found the village abandoned except for a Lenape chief, whom they invited to attend a council meeting with Céloron at Logstown. At Logstown, in present-day western Pennsylvania, Céloron discovered English traders. Incensed, he evicted the traders and wrote a scolding note to the governor of Pennsylvania. He then hectored the Native Americans about French dominance of the region. This overbearing behavior offended the Iroquois in his party, some of whom returned to their homeland in present-day New York, tearing down copper plates as they went.

A plate was buried at the mouth of the Muskingum River on August 15, 1749 and the mouth of the Kanawha River on August 18, 1749. Arriving at Lower Shawneetown at the Scioto River's mouth on August 21, he again encountered English traders. Céloron summoned them to his camp on August 25 and demanded that they leave, stating that "they had no right to trade or aught else on the [Ohio] River," but most refused.

The expedition then traveled up the Great Miami River to Pickawillany, arriving there on 13 September. They spent a week camped outside the village and met briefly with the chief Memeskia, who promised to consider returning to live near Detroit as a French ally. Céloron later remarked, speaking in general about his journey, that "the nations of these localities are very badly disposed towards the French, and are entirely devoted to the English."

Five months after the expedition began, it returned to Montreal, arriving November 10, 1749. Céloron's journal is archived at Archives of the Department de la Marine, Paris, France (Galbreath, 12).

In total, Céloron buried at least six lead plates. One was stolen by curious Indians almost immediately, possibly before it was even buried, and placed in British hands. Two more were found in the early 19th Century. Measuring about eleven inches long and seven and one-half inches wide, each lead plate was marked with an inscription as follows (Galbreath, 110-111):

The French continued to press their claim to the Ohio Valley, and colonial friction with the British finally contributed to outbreak of the Seven Years' War.

The French monument in Marietta, Ohio.

Upon his return, Céloron was reappointed to the important post at Detroit, and in 1753, was promoted to Major and appointed to Montreal. He died at Montreal on April 14, 1759 (Burton, 332).