Before the birth of the United States as a nation in 1776, the Jesuits were making history at Prairie du Chien. For in the year 1673, one hundred and sixteen years previous to the drafting of the Constitution, Father Marquette discovered at Prairie du Chien the Mississippi River, the Father of Waters. This great American explorer and Jesuit missionary had sailed down the Wisconsin River with his companion, Louis Joliet, in search of more souls to save for Christ. Coming to the present site of Campion's campus-