Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1842-1843

pg 35                     Chapter 2.  Notre Dame du Lac 1842-1843       
     
                               1.  Topographical Description

                  It was on Nov 26th 1842 that F. Sorin arrived at Notre Dame 
             du Lac with seven Brothers, Mary (later changed to Br. Francis 
             Xavier), Gatien, Patrick, William, Basil, Peter, and Francis, 
             after a journey of more than one hundred leagues through the 
             snow.  This property was then known as St. Mary of the Lakes; it 
             is situated on the right of the St. Joseph's River, half a league 
             from South Bend, the county town of St. Joseph's County; one 
             league from the northern boundary of Indiana; about twelve 
             leagues from Lake Michigan; thirty-five leagues from Chicago; 
             seventy leagues from Detroit; and four hundred from New York.
524 acres         It contains about five hundred and twenty-four acres of 
             land, or nearly one third of a league square, only ten acres of 
             which were under cultivation, the rest being virgin forest, with 
             the exception of about eighty or ninety acres, the centre of 
             which was occupied by two charming lakes fed by springs, and its 
             bed being about twenty five feet deep.  The banks contain an 
             inexhaustible supply of white marl, which being worked like