Early Explorers and Trappers

Bishop McGovern

Outstanding among the early explorers and trappers of this section of the United States were French-Canadian [5] Catholics. The first known white men to enter what is now Wyoming were two sons of Pierre Gauthier Varennes (commonly known as Sieur de la Varendrye) on their exploring expedition to the Rocky mountains in 1742-43. They came from Fort La Reine (Portage la Prairie, Manitoba), entered the State from Montana, and reached a spur of the Big Horn mountains Jan. 12, 1743. In 1807, John Colter, a former member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the first American to enter Wyoming, discovered Yellowstone Park. Four years later a party of sixty men, forty of whom were French-Canadians, under the leadership of Wilson P. Hunt, crossed from east to west in the central part of Wyoming. They were in the employ of the Pacific Fur Company which had just been organized by John Jacob Astor. Other distinguished names within the next few decades may be mentioned in this connection: Jacques La Ramie, after whom is named a city, county, river, and mountain peak; the Sublette brothers, Lucien Fontenelle, Etienne Provost, and Thos. Fitzpatrick. All of these were Canadians, the last mentioned being a relative of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, chief justice of Canada.