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Tonty's Iron Hand LbNA #20438 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Feb 11, 2006
Location:
City:???
County:Mystery
State:Illinois
Boxes:1
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Last edited:Feb 11, 2006
Tonty’s Iron Hand In the land of the tribes known as the Illiniwek, the native people believed he possessed special powers. They called him Iron Hand and said he had ‘Big Medicine.’ To René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, he was his trusted lieutenant and friend. To Louis, King of France and Navarre, and his chief Minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, he was a key player in their great ambition to convert North America into a vast French sovereignty – and along the way discover the Great Water, west of the great lakes, that led to the coveted wealth of China. He was Henry de Tonty. Born in Paris to Neapolitan parents, he served the Crown as a marine. When an exploding grenade blew off his right hand in battle in Sicily, an iron hook or hand was made to strap to his arm. It was often covered with a glove. With LaSalle, Tonty came to the new world on several voyages of exploration, always beginning in Quebec, administrative headquarters of New France. The French had been looking for the rumored passage to the west for forty years. In fact, the Great Water was the Mississippi River – not an ocean, and it flowed south, not west. One smaller water was part of the passage from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. Today, it runs with two other waters, and along its shores the Iron Hand is remembered. The big Quercus may not have been there when Tonty, LaSalle, and the Black Robes paddled by in their birch bark canoes, but then again, thirteen feet around is Tres Ancien. If the Frenchmen were here, they could reach Eau Claire in 48 paces. Instead, you walk the drinking age then stroll toward A. Lincoln’s ten-year client. You’re near M.P. (George Orwell’s 1948 book) x (0.01). Green ink preferred. Please replace branches on the downhill side of the iron topped fallen tree. If you find it, please let me know. betula1682@mac.com

Box has been missing for a long time. I will try to replace it by mid April. - betula1682 March 23, 2007