I am one who believes this did indeed happen. The official narrative is that it never could have happened because “they couldn’t get their ships from the sea to the lakes”.
My first thought was “What? they didn’t know how to park their ships, walk across land, and build more boats as needed on the other side?” It is one of the most ignorant assumptions I have heard yet. Even the president of the maritime historical society made the comment they never could have done this because the ships would all have to be built in their home ports and “towed” to the new world. WHAT??? The sailors were not certified and approved by the shipbuilder’s union so they were not allowed to build them as need on the other end? If it wasn’t built in a shipyard then it was impossible? Dumbest thing I ever heard.
This prevalent ideology in perspective that dominates the academics is ignorant. They maintain for some reason that landlubbers could never have built boats and floated. And seafarers could never have crossed land. Where did they come up with these assumptions and ignorant stereotyping?
One of the reasons, out of many, that the new world was so enticing was that Europe was running out of trees to build ships.......................