Early European Exploration

• Father Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Joliet sailed towards the Mississippi River in 1673 on a river that the local Native American tribes called Meskousing. Afterward, Joliet used the name Miskonsing on a map he drew; a later author called it the Mescousin River.
  
  

Later Names

• Over the following 150 years, the first letter of the river's name was printed as "Ou," and writers and mapmakers referred to the region as Ouriconsing, Ouiscousen or even Ouiskonche.
  
  

Final Incarnation

• In the 1820s, the U.S. government began to use the American name "Wisconsin." The first printed use was in the U.S. House of Representatives Journal on February 1, 1830.