Reader Yul Yost shared this photo with the Cook County News-Herald. It can be found in a book entitled The Apostle of the Chippewas: The Life Story of The Most Reverend Frederick Baraga, D.D., the First Bishop of Marquette by Joseph Gregorich, published in 1932 by the Bishop Baraga Association. The photo of “Cross River Point,” taken in 1904, is credited to Mrs. A.G. Fradenburg. The caption states, “Looking closely, a cross may be seen between the trees which is believed to be the one erected by Father Baraga and his guide.” The page facing the photo tells a little of the danger the two men faced as they just barely made it across Lake Superior in 1846 on their way to Grand Portage to help with an epidemic: The guide “saw the turbulent waters become roaring breakers as they crashed upon the cragged shore. In a quandary, he asked the Father where he was to steer the craft; the missionary, still praying fervently and without looking up, answered as if he had been inspired: ‘Straight ahead.’ The unseen hand of God grasped the rudder and steered them safely past the breakers; that hand guided them, in their frail craft, straight into the mouth of a then unnamed river. In gratitude for their deliverance, they erected, on the point of their landing, a cross made of boughs. This rude, inartistic emblem of their faith gave this stream its name of Cross River, which it retains to this day. The village of Schroeder, Minnesota, on the beautiful modern highway that runs along the northern shore of the lake, is located near the mouth of Cross River.” Father Baraga has been nominated for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.
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