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The first white man known to have explored this
region is Sieur de la Varendry, who made his way up the Missouri
River during the years 1730 to 1744, and reached the Rocky Mountains
in January 1743. He did not remain, and did not contribute any
valuable historical information about the country.
The journals of Lewis and Clark, recording their
explorations in 1804 and 1805, are full of interesting and valuable
information. With their interpreter,
Charbonneau, a French Canadian,
and his wife,
Sacajawea, known as the bird woman, and members of the
party, they reached the head of the Missouri River in July 1805 and
Sacajawea proved a valuable guide to them in this part of the
journey, as this was her homeland. The explorers were camped close
to the spot where her countrymen, the
Shoshones, or
Snake Indians,
had their huts five years before, when they were attacked by the Minnetare of Knife River, who killed many men, women and boys and
made prisoners of the girls, some women and four boys. Sacajawea,
one of the prisoners, was sold to Charbonneau, who reared her and
married her. A monument has been erected in her honor in the town of
Three Forks by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Manuel Lisa with a group of men ascended the Missouri River in
1807, and established a trading post at the confluence of the
Yellowstone and the Big Horn rivers. He returned to St. Louis, and
with eleven others formed the
Missouri Fur Company, with a capital
of $40,000. In 1809, they came up the Yellowstone River, crossed
what is now known as the Bozeman Pass, and established a post at the
Three Forks of the Missouri that was abandoned a few years later. No
permanent settlement resulted from Emanuel Lisa's trading post, but
for many years the Bozeman Pass served the fur trader, as well as
the Indians as a gateway to the Northwest.
George Droulliard, John Potts and John Colter of
Lisa's group had been with the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Droulliard and Potts were killed by Indians near Three Forks, and
Colter had a narrow escape when chased by Indians, after being
stripped of shoes and clothing, saving his life by jumping into the
Madison River and hiding over night in a beaver house. Colter is
believed to have been the first white man to view Yellowstone Park. |
