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
Lisa Ripkin as
Anishinabe Ikwe
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
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
Reis Hall & Jim Miller
Resources for the modern day river explorer
Virtual Journey
to the Headwaters
Explorer Expedition Timeline & Maps
MN Alliance for Geographic Education
Adrian Liberty as
Aysh ke Ba ke Ko Zhay--"Chief Flatmouth"
Terry McGibbon as President James Monroe
Max Kelsey as
Jacques Desiret
Derrick Houle as
Francois Brunet
Peter Hajinian as
Napoleon Bonaparte