Joseph Nicollet - Legacy

Legacy

On September 11, 1839, Nicollet returned to Washington, D.C. where he worked on consolidating the information collected during the expeditions. He fully intended to return to Minnesota to continue his work, but failing health led to his death in Washington in 1843. Later that year, a book containing much of his work, Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi, was published. The maps in the book were highly accurate and covered a region more than half the size of Europe. Nicollet's were also among the first in the world to depict elevation by hachuring and are among the only sources for original Native American place names in the region. Many of Nicollet's sketches and journals from his expeditions are housed at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives.

Nicollet's name is applied to several places in the region he explored, including Nicollet Island, Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, Nicollet County and the city of Nicollet, all located in Minnesota.