Early European and American Exploration. [related links]
A. French Exploration
J. V. Brower, Minnesota: Discovery of Its Area, 1540-1655 (1903) -- not an easy book to find, but contains accounts of the explorations of Radisson and other French pathfinders.
Alan R. Woolworth, The French Presence on Lake Superior and at Grand Portage, 1650-1740 (1996) -- nice summary of the French fur trade and exploration around Lake Superior and into the Minnesota region.
B. British Exploration
Elliott Coues, ed, New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest: Being the Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry, Fur Trader of the Northwest Company, and David Thompson, Official Geographer and Explorer of the Same Company, 1799-1814. (1965) -- reprint of the 1897 original publication of these two important exploration journals which provide details on their explorations of the northwest region, including parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and points west.
Wayne E. Stevens, The Northwest Fur Trade, 1763-1800 (1928) -- a solid account of exploration and the fur trade in the upper Midwest.
C. American Exploration
Lucile M. Kane, et al, eds., The Northern Expeditions of Stephen H. Long: The Journals of 1817 and 1823 and Related Documents (1978) -- extremely well organized volume of the records of the U.S. Army expeditions into the region just prior to and after the building of Fort Snelling.
Meriwether Lewis, Lewis and Clark in North Dakota, ed. by Russell Reid. (1988) -- although Lewis and Clark did not traverse the lands that became Minnesota during their expedition, this work, published in 1947 and reprinted in 1988, still provides a detailed and valuable picture of the flora, fauna, and lives of the Native Americans on the upper prairies in the early 1800s, before settlement began to rapidly change the region.
Joseph N. Nicollet, Joseph N. Nicollet on the Plains and Prairies: The Expeditions of 1838-39, With Journals, Notes, and Letters, ed. by Edmund and Martha Bray (1976) -- an excellent work that draws together much of the writings of this explorer whose observations on the region are of great value.
Henry Schoolcraft, Travels Through the Northwestern Regions of the United States (1966) -- most readily available edition of Schoolcraft's journals and letters concerning his explorations, especially his search for the source of the Mississippi River.