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Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye
18th-century French Canadian military officer, fur trader and explorer / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Gaultier, see Gaultier (disambiguation).
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (17 November 1685 – 5 December 1749) was a French Canadian military officer, fur trader, and explorer.[1] In the 1730s, he and his four sons explored the area west of Lake Superior and established trading posts there. They were part of a process that added Western Canada to the original New France territory that was centred along the Saint Lawrence basin.
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Quick Facts Born, Died ...
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye | |
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![]() Portrait of de Varennes by Edgar Samuel Paxson (1912) | |
Born | (1685-11-17)17 November 1685 Trois-Rivières, New France |
Died | 5 December 1749(1749-12-05) (aged 64) |
Resting place | Notre-Dame Church (Montreal) |
Occupations |
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Known for | exploration of lands beyond Great Lakes |
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He was the first known European to reach present-day North Dakota and the upper Missouri River in the United States. In the 1740s, two of his sons crossed the prairie as far as present-day Wyoming, United States and were the first Europeans to see the Rocky Mountains north of New Mexico.[2]