Cast

Production credits,

Cast and Crew List, and Bios

are all still under construction!

Be sure to check back for

updates as we grow.

Sonny Mitchel Johnson

as Makoons-- "Little Bear"

"Living History" and Our Cast and Crew

Glenn Sandiford as David Thompson

Amos and Jim Miller as William Morrison

Michael Meuers as Governor Lewis Cass

Danielle DerAsadourian

as Countess Julia deMedici

Jeremiah Liend as Giacomo Beltrami

William Tanner

as Ozawindib

Reed Olson as

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Norwood Hall as Joseph Nicollet

Chris Keenan as Willard Glazier

Greg Gasman as Jacob Brower

Danniell McCallister as Mary Gibbs

Chris Ripkin as Zebulon Pike

Sarah Jane Einerson

as Mrs. McGillis

Shep Wilimek as

Hugh McGillis

Max Bowman as Metis furtrader

Edward Bredon as Lt. James Allen

Wallace Douglas, Minnesota Attorney General

Casey Peterson as

Sgt. Kimmerer

Lisa Boulay with sled dogs Shasta and Lola

Sam Larsen,

Pike's survey party

Martin Drop,

Pike's survey party

Aubrey Ripkin,

Pike's survey party

Additional Credits

Lisa Ripkin as

Anishinabe Ikwe

Project Crew

Screenwriter and Scene Director:

Norwood F. Hall II

Research and Production :

Janet C. Rith-Najarian, Ph.D.

Film Crew:

Jim Miller

Jon Blessing

Jeremiah T.S. Liend

Michael Bredon

Set Crew: Sarah Jane Einarson,

Anita Marocco and Lisa Ripkin

Project Supervisor: David Lanegran, Ph.D.

Soundtrack: Norwood Hall and Jim Miller

Administrative Assistance: Laura Kigin

David Bates Douglass,

Cass Expedition botanist

Click on thumbnail images in each frame below to open up full sized images

Mark Carter as

Chenogowesic

Anita Marocco,

Metis furtrader's wife

Scott Merschman,

Cass survey party

Kevin Williamson as Alexandre-Jean Martin

Gerald Illies as voyageur and

Tom Jessen as Rev. Boutwell

Our Cast of Characters

Click here to find out all about how we do our reenactments and film production!

When you click on this link, you will be taken to a photo gallery on our Facebook Info page. Be sure to click on the first photo of the gallery, then click on the arrow to the right of that photo to scroll through the slide show.

Illustration of Schoolcraft's arrival at lake Itasca,

by Seth Eastman, 1851

From W. Glazier's Down the Great River

Sue Swartz as schoolteacher, and

students and parents from St Philips' School, Bemidji,

as townsfolk

Portius Deming, Minnesota legislator

Newton Horace Winchell, Minnesota State Geologist

Ron Brown as town bandleader

and Roy Booth as mayor

Lisa Boulay, Patty Lester and Pat Grimes

as townsfolk

Florence Bramhall, Minnesota Forestry Commission

Lawrence Taliaferro,

Fort Snelling Indian Agent

REIS HALL (1923-2003)

was a founding member of the Bemidji Mississippi River Revival,

and was an adventurous outdoorsman who, over the course of

his lifetime, paddled many of the miles of streams and lakes throughout the Headwaters region. He came to know these waterways better than most anyone else in northern Minnesota.

His journeys also inspired his son Norwood to take part in this project, after he had grown up to become a river explorer himself.

JIM MILLER (1947-2013)

Jim took on many roles in our project, working on the film crew for landscape and wildlife shots, researching the music that was popular during the lives of our different explorers, and composing ballads to tell a bit of each explorer's story. Jim, along with his son Amos, also reenacted the role of explorer William Morrison, the little-known fur trader who claimed to be the first European-American to see Lake Itasca.

Jim passed away during the course of our production,

and is sadly missed by our crew.

This film project is dedicated

to the memory of