French in the History of Wyoming from La Salle to Arland

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French in the History of Wyoming From La Salle to Arland

Daniel A. Nichter

https://wyo.press

To Professor Emeritus Walter G. Langlois

ii Preamble

Let's address the elephant in the room: this is a book about history. And if that isn't boring enough, it's about Wyoming history, a state few people seem to know anything significant about. And to make it really boring, it's about French influences in the history of Wyoming. Wake up! This book is exciting and entertaining! Don't think of it as a history bookI don't. This is a book of stories, real and extraordinary people and their lives. Reality TV? Survivor series? Top chef? Amateurs, all of them! The people we're about meet will amaze and inspire you because, although their world was different, everything about them as humans is timeless. It doesn't matter that you and I have smart phones with GPS but they didn't even have hand-drawn maps of Wyoming. It doesn't matter that you and I have antibiotics but they just let a fever run its course, sometimes for a month or more. The facts of our worlds are radically different, but our hearts are the same: inspiration, determination, grit and perseverance; the joy of discovery, the loneliness of exploration; love, happiness, celebration; jealousy, anger, hatred; doubt, worry, and courage. This book is the product of years of research, undergirded by historical fact and the rigor of academic truth, but au cœur it is a book of stories as relevant today as one hundred years ago or one hundred years to come, for we are all explorers struggling to discover and settle new lands.

iii Preface

This book changes history. It rejects the prevailing one- dimensional view of Wyoming history and identity which are both firmly posted in a single concept: the American cowboy. Cowboys entrain other concepts like ranches and, more historically due to its great influence on the West, the railroad. Consequently, Wyoming history has been dominated by a focus on developments from 1867 onward when ranches and railroads took hold of the territory before statehood in 1890, retaining that hold until the present day. Ranches and railroads have changed significantly since, but Wyoming still retains much of the cowboy character. But all throughout the state there exist quiet glimmers of a different past, stories that don't begin and end with an American man astride a horse, warm leather creaking as he shifts his weight in the saddle under the dust and sun of a trail vanishing o'er the horizon. The history of the American cowboy is important and wonderful, a true and unique piece of American culture, but history is an ocean into which many waters flow. Perhaps ranches and railroads are the Mississippi River of Wyoming history, but let me guide you down the Snake River of Wyoming history and we'll see far more than ranches and railroads, for on this particular river the people are more likely to greet us with "Bonjour" than "Howdy".

v Table of Contents

Preamble iii

Preface iv

1. You First 3

2. Wyoming History Since Heliocentrism 7

3. Cowboy State Kaleidoscope 18

4. Go West and Die 32

5. Too Many Beavers 68

6. Not Enough Saloons 84

7. Opportunity 114

Bibliography 121

French in the History of Wyoming From La Salle to Arland

1. You First

On ne peut pas courir les aventures et rester à la maison. Victor Arland1

The ski lift takes you and a friend into its recline, rocking gently under your weight. Its procession is slow and the top is far, so you relax and use the time to prepare mentally. It's your first black diamond run. The bunny slope is full of people. Kids slide down, fall over, and laugh. A small group of people watch an instructor demonstrate how to snow plough. And many people simply pass through on their way to the lodge or lifts, exhibiting different levels of proficiency. You recall when you first learned and wonder why you stuck with it after spending most of the time eating snow and walking back up the hill to retrieve your skis. Thankfully, the lodge made those early days sufferable. Many comforts lose their efficacy after growing up, but not hot chocolate; it comforts kids and adults alike. The green and blue slopes are a good twenty feet below your skis, which begin to feel heavy dangling from the chair. You know these runs, having done most of them. They're fun but

1 Victor Arland Collection, May 16, 1875.

easy, except that one time you lost control and slid into a tree, lucky enough to hit it broadside rather than head-on. Despite realizing that skiing can be truly dangerous, you kept on. Is that sensible, you wonder? Why risk serious injury? No good answer is apparent, and none is required at the moment. You recall, however, that the hot chocolate had a little extra something in it that day. As the coldness of the chair begins to penetrate your ski pants, the lift rises above the subalpine into brilliant fields of snow atop the mountain. The head of the run is in sight. It's called "Last Chance". It's comforting to know that it's not literal. You could simply stay on the lift and go back down, or, worse case, walk it down. You have many more chances. This is the first chance, not the last. Regardless, as you and your friend hop off the lift at the landing, you wonder how bad it can be. No one has ever died here; that's bad business. Maybe some have broken bones, but it's safe enough. Plus, you've been skiing for years. The most difficult blue run isn't challenging any morefun, but not challenging. Do you want challenging? Is it worth the risk? Why break a leg just to be able to say you skied a black diamond? It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it gnaws at you, and you find your heart races as much for fear as it does for knowing you must do it anyway. After checking and adjusting all clothes and gear, you and your friend stand ready at the signpost, the beginning, "Last Chance". Your friend turns to you and says, "You first."

∞

What do George Washington, Neil Armstrong, and the State of Wyoming have in common? They are all associated with an important "first": George Washington was the first President

of the United States of America, Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon, and Wyoming was the first state to grant women's suffrage and is also home to the first national park and monument, Yellow Stone National Park and Devils Tower. These firsts are widely known, but less widely known are the second president, the second person on the moon, or the second state to grant women's suffrage.2 That fewer people know these "seconds" highlights the social and cultural significance of firsts, leading to the question: why is being first significant? Dr. Peter Diamandis, founder of the Ansari XPRIZE—a ten million dollar competition "to build a reliable, reusable, privately financed, manned spaceship capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface twice within two weeks."3— gave this answer: "Every time someone pulls off a first, people subconsciously realize that means there will be a better world for us." 4 The idea that first events signal a better world seems intuitively correct in many cases, not just space flight. In fact, Joseph Nathan Kane compiles first facts in Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries, and Inventions in American History, an encyclopedia with over nine thousand firsts from the first abdominal operation to the first zoom lens. Intuition and evidence, like Kane's encyclopedia, suggest that "firsts"—first people, first events, first inventions—are significant because they change what is known and possible. Viewing modern historical accounts of Wyoming through the lens of first people reveals those who were involved

2 John Adams, Buzz Aldrin, and Colorado 3 Ansari XPRIZE, accessed November 5, 2016, http://ansari.xprize.org/. 4 Rayasam, "Does Being First Matter?"

with ranches, railroads, and government. This is not surprising because Wyoming was nearly unpopulated by Europeans before the arrival of these industries in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Therefore, these people were formative and influential in present-day Wyoming and, quite simply, they are still fresh in people's memories. However, the history of Wyoming is much older and richer than modern historical accounts. Viewing the wider history of Wyoming through the lens of first people reveals a different and distinct group of people: Frenchmen. This book tells their story which, as first people, contributed significantly to making the West known and life in it possible, leading ultimately to the founding of Wyoming in 1890. Before telling their story, it's important to understand two things. First is Wyoming's place in a larger historical context. Although the territory (before it was a state) was isolated, its history was not. Therefore, the next chapter provides an overview of the history of Wyoming since the seventeenth century which serves to contextualize the dates, places, and people discussed in subsequent chapters. Second is historical views of Wyoming past and present because, to be blunt, some people laugh at the idea that the French had anything to do with the history of Wyoming. Prima facie, their skepticism is justified because French influences in Wyoming have waned—nearly disappeared—in favor modern historical accounts which focus squarely on ranches, railroads, and statehood government. Chapter three addresses and puts to rest the skepticism because, as we'll see, Wyoming's earliest historians had much to say about the French. With the historical context set and the laughter of skepticism quieted, chapter four and beyond tell the stories of Frenchmen as first people in the history of Wyoming. Allons-y!

2. Wyoming History Since Heliocentrism

Before statehood in 1890, and before the last quarter of the nineteenth century in general, there is a lot to say about the history of Wyoming since in the seventeenth century. A general understanding of the people and events of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries in Wyoming provides an important historical backdrop. Furthermore, the summary of these centuries highlights the pervasiveness of Frenchmen in Wyoming because they appear from beginning to end of this account. 5 The approach to this brief summary of Wyoming history is in terms of discoveries and developments rather than, for example, politics and government. People make discoveries, and developments results from their actions. This approach is logical since this book deals with people and their stories (specifically, first people and first events). The following historical overview divides the history of Wyoming into five periods and focuses on "who discovered and did what":

5 I recognize that I could be bias: I argue for French influences in the history of Wyoming, therefore my summary highlights them. I try to avoid bias in two ways. First, all information presented is found in nearly every historical account of Wyoming, although to what extent depends on the author; and information to the contrary is essentially nonexistent. In other words, I endeavor to include only the standard corpus of people, places, and events. Second, the comparison of four major histories of Wyoming in the next chapter shows that I am not alone in highlighting French influences.

1. Spanish Expeditions 1500s-1700s 2. La Salle and French Louisiana 1673-1803 3. Fur Trade and Mountain Men 1803-1843 4. Building Wyoming 1867-1890 5. State of Wyoming 1890-present

These periods closely resemble how C. G. Coutant organized his work The History of Wyoming from the Earliest Known Discoveries: they are generally chronological and uncontroversial because no historian denies, for example, that the fur trade period was in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Similarly, no historian affirms that there is substantial, credible evidence of white men in Wyoming between roughly La Vérendrye in1743 and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. However, these periods are also subjective; other writers have chosen different periods. For example, Frances Birkhead Beard organized her work Wyoming From Territorial Days to the Present into three jurisdictional periods: The Pre-Territorial Period, Wyoming as a Territory, and Wyoming as a State. It is also not uncommon to begin an historical account of Wyoming around 1803 with the Lewis & Clark Expedition followed by John Colter discovering Yellow Stone National Park, a discovery which is also subject to interpretation because others have noted that Colter went into the Yellow Stone area to trap for Manuel Lisa, suggesting that Lisa had already explored the area.6 Other starting points for the history of Wyoming include the formation

6 Coutant, History of Wyoming, 62.

of Wyoming Territory in 1868 and the formation of the State of Wyoming in 1890. One could therefore debate the appropriateness of calling events before 1868 or 1890 "Wyoming history" because the territory or state, respectively, did not yet exist. Further back in time, before 1803, Wyoming alternated between Spanish and French rule. Finally, all this ignores completely the fact that before Europeans discovered the Americas, Wyoming was home to Native Americans who might tell its history differently. 7 Having at least partially addressed these meta-historical issues,8 the goal here is to present the most common, reoccurring information about the history of Wyoming from the earliest discoveries that one would learn by reading the sources cited.

Spanish Expeditions, 1500s-1700s

The Spanish arrived, explored, and claimed parts of North America as early as the mid-sixteenth century. After De Soto's expedition of 1541-1542, Spain claimed "all the territory bordering on the Grande River and the Gulf of Mexico", that is, the Mississippi Valley. 9 For two centuries afterwards, the Spanish dominated the Southwest and West coast, from Texas to

7 The ultimate first people in Wyoming were Native Americans. Most works on the history of Wyoming treat at length the interaction of Native Americans and Europeans, usually to detail their conflicts. However, I am not aware of any works which include Native American sources. Native American sources could significantly contribute to and possibly alter the current understanding of Wyoming history. 8 White, Metahistory. 9 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 75-76.

Northern California. 10 They also explored present-day Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah, however there is no evidence that they explored Wyoming. 11 Nonetheless, Spanish expeditions are significant for the history of Wyoming because "they exerted an influence upon subsequent events, in that they gave the first information concerning the interior of the American continent."12 Such "first information" was vital because the country west of the Appalachian mountains was alien territory to white people; for all they knew, the West could have been home to dragons and other monsters. By making it known that the West was not entirely alien, despite new people and new lands which were exotic to white people, Spanish explorers set the stage for everyone who followed.

La Salle and French Louisiana, 1673-1803

The Spanish were not alone in their explorations during the seventeenth century. Quebec was founded in 1608, and Frenchmen began pushing west, exploring the Great Lake region.13 In 1673, a Jesuit priest, Jacques Marquette, and a fur trader, Louis Joliet, set out to discover a water route to the

10 Beard, Wyoming, 3-4. 11 Larson, History of Wyoming, 8. Coutant, History of Wyoming, 23. Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 109. Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 8. Linford, Wyoming, Frontier State, 64. 12 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 109. 13 Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 5.

Pacific.14 They were the first Frenchmen to venture as far west as the Mississippi, which they navigated south to the Arkansas River. Although De Soto had discovered the Mississippi in 1541, these Frenchmen were the first to map and explore it.15 Nine years later, in 1682, René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle obtained a permit from the present King of France, Louis XIV, to continue the exploration of Marquette and Joliet. La Salle successfully navigated the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico (on his second attempt) and took possession of "all the country drained by the great river and its tributaries, in the name of France, and conferred upon the territory thus claimed the name of Louisiana, in honor of the French King." The new Province of Louisiana contained Wyoming east of the continental divide (today, that would include the major cities: Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie, Gillette, etc.). Although Spain claimed the same region more than one hundred years prior, it did not enforce its claim, so European powers recognized La Salle's claim.16 One word summarizes the primary motive for French explorations in the seventeenth century: beaver. Eric Jay Dolin writes in Fur, Fortune, and Empire:

The dawn of the seventeenth century was a horrible time for beavers. Killed by trappers for hundreds of years, the beaver had been just one of many furs in the universe of fashion ... [then], toward the end of the 1500s, the evolution of style transformed the beaver hat into a necessary accoutrement for the well bred and well

14 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 77. 15 Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire, 99. 16 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 77-78.

heeled. Suddenly the beaver ... became the most sought- after commodity of the fur trade. Its popularity would not be surpassed for more than two hundred years.17

Indeed, the beaver fur craze did not end until well into the nineteenth century.18 More than fashion, beaver was big business in which the French and English competed. As a response to English competition, the French stepped up westward expansion to find evermore beaver.19 In 1742, at his own expense and in return for any trade he may develop, 20 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, and his sons, set out once more—like Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle—to find a water route to the Pacific. They spent more than a decade in the Far West, from roughly 1733 to 1744, but failed to find the western passage. 21 However, they might have discovered Wyoming. Whether or not La Vérendrye and sons made it into Wyoming is an important debate that we'll examine in the next chapter. The eighteenth century ended with wars and revolutions that fundamentally altered the presence of the French in the Far West. Tensions between the British and the French lead to the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and, in Europe, the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Consequently, France lost its empire in the New World to the British who would not retain it for long

17 Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire, 13. 18 If one can call more than two hundred years a "craze". 19 Coutant, History of Wyoming, 35-36. 20 Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 6. 21 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 112-113. Coutant, History of Wyoming, 37-38. Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 6.

because in 1776 America declared its independence from England. The details of these events are more nuanced, but the result is that France, England, and America vied for control of the fur trade and western lands until America won its independence, with the support of France. Not long after, in 1803, France sold its Province of Louisiana to the United States of America—the Louisiana Purchase.

Fur Trade and Mountain Men, 1803-1843

The fur trade was the raison d'être for the French and English in North America for nearly three hundred years. Before Americans migrated west and built ranches and railroads, Frenchmen ranged all over Wyoming to trap beavers, and their trails became our roads, and their campfires our cities. 22 Although the French and Indian War formally ended French rule in the New World and France sold its Province of Louisiana to the United States of America in 1803, the French did not disappear from the West because the fur trade was still in full swing. When the Lewis & Clark Expedition set off in 1804 to cross the country all the way to the Pacific Coast, new attention focused on the American West. The West was new to America, but the French had been pushing its boundaries since La Vérendrye and his predecessors in the seventeenth century. For example, St. Louis, the last French establishment in the West,23 was founded in 1764, forty years before Lewis & Clark. Also, if the French had not already exerted such an influence in the West,

22 Chaffin, Pathfinder, xxiv. 23 Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier, 15.

the Lewis & Clark Expedition probably would not have needed their French guide and interpreter, Toussaint Charbonneau, and his wife, Sacajawea.24 Since the Lewis & Clark Expedition did not enter Wyoming, the state remained unexplored by white men, at least any that left evidence of their journeys. It was the pursuit of more fur that brought the first white men into Wyoming. 25 Trappers, both solitary and in groups, both freelance and employed by fur companies, began exploring and mapping Wyoming. In 1834 William Sublette, Robert Campbell, and a number of French Canadians erected the first garrisoned post in Wyoming: Fort Laramie.26 In the forty years from 1803 to 1843, untold numbers of trappers (or mountain men) roamed Wyoming. Among these men, the French outnumbered Americans four to one.27 Some mountain men have been fixtures in nearly every account of Wyoming history: John Colter, John Charles Frémont, William Sublette, and Benjamin Bonneville, James Bridgerjust to name a few. Trapping gave rise to the rendezvous, large meetings of trappers each summer in the wilderness to exchange goods, share stories, etc. (a "trappers convention" so to speak), most of which were held in Wyoming.28 In a sense, Wyoming was booming in the early nineteenth century. The problem was that no one lived in Wyoming to benefit from the boom. Apart from Fort Laramie

24 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 114. 25 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 93. 26 Coutant, History of Wyoming, 296-299. 27 Hafen and Lecompte, French Fur Traders and Voyageurs, 11. 28 Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire, 226.

and other posts built later, no white people claimed Wyoming as home for the simple reason that the area was still completely wild and undeveloped. The fur trade began to dwindle in the 1830s because beavers were scarce and so was demand for them,29 but emigration into the Far West began in 1843 when James Bridgerone of the aforementioned fixtures of Wyoming historybuilt a post on the Green River for emigrants.30 In the mid-nineteenth century, the transcontinental railroad was also coming west which would enable more emigration into the West once completed.

Building Wyoming, 1867-1890

The transcontinental railroad arrived in Wyoming in 1867. Cities like Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, and Evanston sprung up in advance of its arrival, signaling the end of Wyoming as a no-man's-land, and the beginning of civic development. 31 In addition to the Pony Express and transcontinental telegraph line, which had already crossed the country, Wyoming now had cities and transportation, and was connected to the rest of the country.32 However, the jobs that the railroad created when it arrived in an area disappeared once its construction through that area was complete. Consequently, Wyoming struggled in the 1870s to establish new industries and attract new settlers, which proved difficult given that the area is

29 Hafen and Lecompte, French Fur Traders and Voyageurs, 16. 30 Chittenden and Vinton, American Fur Trade, ix. 31 Larson, History of Wyoming, 41-42. 32 Larson, History of Wyoming, 11.

subject to a rather harsh climate and views of the area from the railroad did not entice travelers to stop and stay.33 In 1877 the Black Hills gold rush brought new life and money to eastern Wyoming, but like other gold rushes it too went bust. 34 The 1880s brought a more enduring industry: ranching. That industry also boomed and busted in the 1880s, but it genuinely recovered in time.35 In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, people were building Wyoming from corner to corner: roads, ranches, cities, businesses. Three Frenchmen participated directly in the building. Victor Arland started a town in the Big Horn Basin (the northwest corner of the state, encompassing present-day Yellow Stone National Park) to serve the surrounding ranches. Emile Granier tried to revitalize Atlantic City mining operations in South Pass. And James Bordeaux created a town between Cheyenne and the Blacks Hills during the gold rush. These Frenchmen were certainly the minority compared to the thousands of Americans operating primarily in the larger cities of the southeast corner of the state, but their efforts were nonetheless significant for various reasons that we'll examine in chapter six. Finally, in 1890, Wyoming became the forty-fourth state in the United States of America with a population of 62,555 people.36 Ranches covered the state from corner to corner, and with them, cowboys.

33 Larson, History of Wyoming, 108ff. 34 Larson, History of Wyoming, 32. 35 Larson, History of Wyoming, 193. 36 Larson, History of Wyoming, 619.

∞

Even in brief, that's a lot of history to digest if you've never read about it before. The much shorter takeaway is this: although Wyoming was nearly unexplored and unpopulated until the 1900s, its history was both influenced by and influential in many of the country's pivotal events: the earliest western explorers, the Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, the mountain men of the fur trade, the Great Western Migration, the transcontinental railroad, the Black Hills Gold Rush, andlast but not leastWestern culture and the cowboy. Against this historical backdrop, let's turn to the historical views of Wyoming past and present.

3. Cowboy State Kaleidoscope

People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote generations. Macaulay37

"Forever West." "Live the West." "We are the West." "Cowboy Culture. Western Style." These are marketing slogans used by the state of Wyoming and various associations that promote Wyoming.38 The state logo is a cowboy on a bucking horse with one hand holding the saddle and the other raised in the air holding a cowboy hat because Wyoming calls itself the Cowboy State even though officially it is the Equality State. These expressions do not fail to capture the spirit of Wyoming today, which is personified and exemplified by the stereotypical, Hollywood cowboy. Ironically, however, cowboys had less to do with building the state of Wyoming than one might think given its homage to them. A moment of reflection should make this irony apparent because no amount of cow punching (branding) or other historically accurate cowboy activities can build a state; rather, a state is built by far more mundane people and actives,

37 A.W. Bowen, Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, title page. 38 The city of Cody adopted an even stronger claim: "We are the West".

like city planners and engineers, politicians, businessmen and businesswomen (as was the case for the town of Meeteetse because her cowboy husband was useless in business). Certainly, cowboys were a vital part of Wyoming's history because after the fur trade declined in the mid-nineteenth century ranching became the primary, nearly exclusive industry. Therefore, Wyomingites owe a tip of their hats to the sturdy cowboys of the late- nineteenth century who braved to ranch on lands where winters are so severe that even livestock sometimes don't survive. As the Cowboy State, the history of Wyoming in one sentence could pass as follows:

In the mid-nineteenth century, ranches and railroads came to the Dakota Territory which lead to the establishment of the State of Wyoming in 1890 and its primary cities: Cheyenne, Laramie, and Casper.

Wyoming's foremost historian of the twentieth century, the late Taft Alfred Larson, should accept that ultra-summary because the second revised edition of his authoritative work History of Wyoming expends only the first thirty-five pages (chapters one and two) covering "The Natural Setting and First Visitors" and "The Indians" before jumping into "The most exciting years in Wyoming history were 1867, 1868, and 1869."39 The remaining five hundred eight-two pages of the book chronicle ranches, railroads, and governments where these latter two are confined primarily to the southeast corner of the state because that is where one finds Cheyenne and Laramie. Larson's History of

39 Larson, History of Wyoming, 36.

Wyoming is undoubtedly authoritative and enlightening, but it leaves unanswered two important questions: what about the rest of the state, and what about before 1867? After all, Wyoming has three more corners and a vast interior, and people were in Wyoming before 1867. Before the mid-nineteenth century, Wyoming was as remote and inaccessible to most people as the moon is today, but there were first people who, from the late-seventeenth century, nearly two hundred years before ranches and railroads, began to make known and make possible life in the large square of mountains and semiarid plains that would become Wyoming. No one did it alone, and no one could have done it alone; it required many people from many countries. Among these many, one group influenced the history of Wyoming stretching back from the end of the nineteenth century all the way to the time before the land belonged to the United States of America: the French, including native-born Frenchmen, French Canadians, and French Americans. Apart from their ancestry, the most distinguishing mark of this group is the French language, which was far less foreign in early Wyoming history than the present.40 Of course, the French were not the only group to influence the history of Wyoming for long or short periods of time. Englishmen and Americans played important roles, too, but two points make French influences in the history of Wyoming significant. First, there is a story to be told about French influences in the history of Wyoming from the late-seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. Second, in the same span of time, there are many first people who are French. Only the French can claim

40 Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier, 1.

this breadth of historical pervasiveness. Consequently, as first people in the history of Wyoming from the late-seventeenth century through the nineteenth century, the French played a vital role in making known and possible life in Wyoming. However, in the Cowboy State of today, French influences have all but disappeared from Wyoming culture. Rodeos have replaced rendezvous, leaving one to ask: where are les cowboys? In other words: how did the French maintain a presence in Wyoming for so long then disappear? And what of their influences, if any, remain today? Subsequent chapters will bring to light specific answers to these questions, but in general: the French disappeared from Wyoming for various reasons, and place names are their primary remaining influences. As time tends to do to all things, the remaining French influences in Wyoming have been obfuscated. For example, Yellow Stone National Park, world-renowned treasure of the state, first bore the French name Roche Jaune.41 Early engineer and scholar of the park Hiram Martin Chittenden explains:

The French name was, in fact, in general use among the traders and trappers of the Northwest Fur Company when Lewis and Clark met them among the Mandans. Even by members of the expedition it seems to have been more generally used than the new English form.42

Of course, renaming or altering the pronunciation of place names is not a grievous oversight of cultural heritage, but it nonetheless

41 Translates literally to "Yellow Stone". 42 Chittenden, Cress, and Story, Yellowstone National, 4.

demonstrates how the original influence can be lost because "Yellow Stone" does not look or sound like the original French name. We see that, on the one hand, Wyoming identifies with cowboys, calling itself the Cowboy State, and this view is supported by the most recent and accessible work on the history of Wyoming, T. A. Larson's History of Wyoming, which begins essentially with ranches and railroads. But on the other hand, we also see that there is more to the history and culture of Wyoming than ranches and roads, and more that happened in the state before these industries arrived in the late-nineteenth century. Is the earlier history of Wyoming significant, and does it contain significant French influences? To answer these questions, let's compare four major historians' works on the history of Wyoming to see what they highlighted and treated with significance. Since Wyoming is a relatively young state, several early works exist:

• 1899: C. G. Coutant • 1918: I. S. Bartlett • 1933: Frances Birkhead Beard • 1978: T. A. Larson In every work, French and other foreign influences are treated, but the extent and significance of the treatment wanes from 1899 to 1978, nearly disappearing in the last. Coutant (1899) and Bartlett (1918) were alive before statehood. For them, American influences in the early state of Wyoming were not historical, they were actual, in-progress. These authors wrote extensively about both American and foreign influences. Beard (1933) and Larson (1978) were historical, writing decades after statehood. Beard's work contains rather extensive treatment of both early foreign influences and American influences, but Larson's work contains only a few pages on events before the arrival of the

railroad in 1867. Comparing these four historians from the earliest (Coutant) to the latest (Larson) demonstrates two points: the extent and significance of foreign influences wanes over time, and each historian highlights, or at least mentions, French influences. Let's take a brief look at each...

C. G. Coutant, 1899

The first chapter of Coutant's work makes the point that first people are significant in part because their accomplishments changes what is possible. His dedication highlights this point:

To the memory of those pioneers, living and dead, who explored our mountains and valleys regardless of the dangers which beset them on every hand and who finally conquered the wilderness and made it possible to organize here a commonwealth, these pages are reverently dedicated.

Coutant leaves no stone unturned in recording the pioneers who made the commonwealth of Wyoming possible. Chapter III is titled "French Canadian Explorations" but it is really a ten page recounting of La Vérendrye. Coutant does not even question that La Vérendrye made it into Wyoming; it is a matter of fact that he did. Chapter XII discusses trappers and traders, followed by three chapters on Bonneville. Still later, starting with chapter XIX, Frémont also receives three chapters of attention. The volume of material devoted to Bonneville and Frémont is unique; no other individuals are so thoroughly recounted, which

signals the importance of these men of French heritage in the history of Wyoming. Since Coutant's work was published in 1899, Coutant himself was alive during or very soon after the histories he records. Therefore, his work carries special weight, being more documentary than history.

I. S. Bartlett, 1918

Bartlett writes unequivocally that early French explorations were important in the history of Wyoming:

To the casual reader it may seem that the early French explorations have little or nothing to do with the preset State of Wyoming. But it should be borne in mind that the voyage of Marquette and Joliet opened the way for the later voyage of La Salle and his claim to the country drained by the Mississippi, under which all that portion of Wyoming whose waters reach the Mississippi became a dependency of France.

Bartlett's clarity on this point echoes Coutant's certainty that La Vérendrye was the first white man to set foot in Wyoming. Thus for these earliest Wyoming historians, there seems to be little question about the significance of French influences. Bartlett's work is also unique because it is topical not chronological. The first ten chapters are:

I WYOMINGA GENERAL VIEW II WYOMING'S PRE-HISTORIC RACES III YELLOW STONE NATIONAL PARK IV INDIAN HISTORY V WYOMING UNDER VARIOUS JURISDICTIONS

VI THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE VII THE FUR TRADERS VIII EXPLORERS AND EXPLORATIONS IX MORMONS AND ARGONAUTS X STORIES OF THE PIONEERS

If we presume he did not randomly order the chapters, the logical ordering would be to put the most important or interesting topics first. Chapter V discusses Spanish expeditions, La Salle, Marquette, and Joliet similar to Beard (whom we'll look at next), but La Vérendrye is discussed later in chapter VIII. What is also unique is chapter VI which gives extensive information concerning how and why France sold its Louisiana territory, including most of Wyoming, to the United States in 1803. Bartlett even reprints the Treaty of Paris (in English), the document by which the United States officially acquired the vast, fifteen million dollar territory (which works out to two cents an acre). He concludes the chapter by describing how President Thomas Jefferson approved an act of Congress to divide Louisiana, from which Wyoming ultimately resulted. The emphasis on the Treaty of Paris is important because, like Beard, it shows that Bartlett considers such early events as part of Wyoming's history, which for us is one more significant French influence: we bought from France the land that would later become Wyoming. In chapter VII, Bartlett states: "The French were pioneers in the fur trade" and "The first white men in Wyoming were the fur traders and trappers." 43 As previously mentioned, the French dominated the fur trade four to one. In

43 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 93.

this chapter Bartlett focuses on fur companies rather than individuals, which is still important because some notable French trappers like William Sublette were attached to such companies. Chapter VIII contains about one full page on La Vérendrye where Bartlett states assuredly, like Coutant, that "Vérendrye and his associates were no doubt the first white men to set foot upon the soil of Wyoming." 44 Bartlett's conclusion contrasts with Beard's which, moreover, indicates that the debate about this Frenchman is an important part to most histories of Wyoming. In the same chapter, Bartlett dedicates two pages to Captain Bonneville who "explored a large part of the country included in what is now the State of Wyoming", noting also that he was born in France in 1796. Finally, he talks about Frémont, giving him two pages.45

Frances Birkhead Beard, 1933

Beard is unique for her extensive treatment of two topics: Spanish expeditions and La Vérendrye. The Spanish expeditions do not concern us, but her extensive analysis indicates from the start that she sees more importance in early foreign influences in Wyoming's history than Larson, whom we'll examine next. The importance that she gives to such influences is reinforced by her equally extensive analysis of La Vérendrye. But even before that topic, in the section titled "The French Regime", she summarizes French activity in America

44 Emphasis mine. 45 Two pages might not seem like a lot, but printed copies of Coutant, Bartlett, and Beard are large tomes, not small paperbacks.

from the very early explorers of Quebec, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi including La Salle in 1682 and Marquette and Joliet in 1673. Even though La Salle, Marquette, and Joliet certainly did not venture as far as Wyoming, like Bartlett and Coutant (but unlike Larson), Beard considers these "precursors" important enough to record as part of Wyoming's history. Then she writes a very detailed account of La Vérendrye, ending the aptly titled section "Not in Wyoming" with the claim that he did not make it into Wyoming. We will consider her argument later, and it is disappointing that she does not conclude in favor of La Vérendrye being the first white man to set foot in Wyoming because that event is a significant first, but she ends the section with this insightful gem:

Thus, throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century, all the continent west of the Mississippi River, including Wyoming, was Spanish territory. In the meanwhile Wyoming was subject to influences far beyond her borders.

The last sentence directly supports the idea that foreign influences were at work in Wyoming's history. Which influences and by whom? In the next section, "French and the Fur Trade", Beard answers these questions: "First among these influences was the fur trade." And later on she states: "It was the fur traders, and not the official expeditions of any nation, which first penetrated and brought to the knowledge of the outside world the region that is now Wyoming." And quoting Constance L. Skinner from her book Adventurers of Oregon, a Chronicle of

the Fur Beard affirms: "It was the French who first caught the vision of the fur trade... who, in advance of all others, pursued the little beaver into the wilds of the continent."46 The fur trade period of the early 1800s was fundamental to the history of Wyoming. Beard, Bartlett, and Coutant agree, which is why they dedicate chapters in their works to the subject, whereas for Larson the men of this period left virtually no imprint on modern Wyoming. Furthermore, Beard notes that fur traders (or mountain men) "brought to the knowledge of the outside world the region that is now Wyoming", which agrees nicely with the significance of first people: their accomplishments change what is known and possible. Synthesizing all these ideas and quotes, the significance is that the fur trade made the region that is now Wyoming known to the rest of the world, and that the French pioneered the fur trade. Finally, Beard dedicates a whole chapter to Frémont, unlike Larson who only mentions his name.

T. A. Larson, 1978

For the previous three, earlier Wyoming historians, French and foreign influences in general held a distinct position of importance. Larson, the latest historian, declares the contrary:

Like the mountain men, the emigrants left no significant imprint on modern Wyoming. Mingling with the emigrants in the 1840's and 1850's were many unusual persons [who] contributed to the opening of the West.

46 Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 11-12.

Of course, Larson was keenly aware of earlier Wyoming history, for in the preface to the first edition of his work, 1965, he notes:

Until now, there has been no attempt to prepare a critical history of Wyoming for adult readers. In order to treat in detail territorial and state developments, I have excluded all but brief mention of the explorers, fur traders, and travelers on the Oregon Mormon, and California trailsthe people who came and went many years before there was a Wyoming. Since excellent studies of these interesting transients already are in print, perhaps I can be forgiven for slighting them.47

On the one hand, this prefatory note explains why French and foreign influences are glossed over: because Larson wants to focus on territorial and state developments. On the other hand, it reaffirms that for Larson the people of earlier Wyoming history were not significant; rather, they were "transients" who "came and went". It is therefore easy to examine French influences that Larson discusses because barely three pages are given to the subject in two subsections of chapter one titled "First White Visitors" and "Trails". As every historian of Wyoming seems fond of doing, Larson begins by mentioning the Vérendrye brothers, just after mentioning the extremely scant evidence of Spanish expeditions in the 1700s. Larson only mentions La Vérendrye in one sentence, followed by a mention of the French trader Larocque in 1805. Finally, several other notables are mentioned (John Colter, William Price Hunt, and Robert Stuart)

47 Larson, History of Wyoming, vii.

before concluding the section with "[The mountain men] explored the area thoroughly, skinned thousands of beaver, lived virtually as savages, and for the most part vanished from history without leaving an imprint, except for a few place names, on modern Wyoming."48 The next section, "Trails", from which the quote above was taken, adds nothing more of interest, although it does mention John Charles Frémont, whom we will meet later, as one of those "unusual persons".

∞

This chapter began by looking at how Wyoming views itself today as the Cowboy State, a view founded in the state's history since the 1860s when ranches and railroads arrived, and supported by the most recent and accessible historical work, T. A. Larson's History of Wyoming published in 1978. However, this view is limited given that there were many people and events that influenced Wyoming before ranches and railroads. To see if this argument has merit, we looked at four authoritative works on the history of Wyoming, from the earliest in 1899 to the latest in 1978, to see how the significance of French influences wanes over time and that each historian highlights their influences, the earlier the stronger:

• C. G. Coutant, The History of Wyoming from the Earliest Known Discoveries (1899) • I. S. Bartlett, History of Wyoming (1918) • Frances Birkhead Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present (1933)

48 Larson, History of Wyoming, 9.

• T. A. Larson, History of Wyoming (1978) All told, the information presented supports the view that there is more to the history of Wyoming than the ranches and railroads of the late-nineteenth century that undergird the cowboy image of the Cowboy State. The history of Wyoming contains many French influences, clearly acknowledged by the state's earliest historians. Who were these Frenchmen and what did they do to become enshrined in the tomes of several historians? What follows are their stories.

4. Go West and Die

With mockery and insult, they stripped [the corpse] naked, dragged it into the bushes, and left it there, a prey to the buzzards and the wolves. Thus in the vigor of his manhood, at the age of forty-three, died Robert Cavelier de la Salle ... without question one of the most remarkable explorers [in] history.49

Can you explore Wyoming today? Yes, of course! Millions of people from all over the world visit Wyoming every year. Why isn't this surprising? (That's not a trick question.) It's not surprising because it's been done before, it's very well known. How about the planet Mars? Presuming you wanted to, could you explore it today? Your reaction is most likely not "Yes, of course!" but rather like "Yes, maybe?". Why? (Also not a trick question.) The technology exists, and the journey would be long but nonetheless possible in one human lifetime, and despite the mortal risks there are people who are eager to go,50 so why haven't we sent people to Mars yet? The answer is rather dull: we lack the greater will necessary to achieve this "giant

49 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 317. 50 I would go first, despite any odds of returning alive.

leap for mankind". We had the greater will in the 1960s, and despite any ulterior motives the result was truly a giant leap: we left our planet, landed on our moon, and lived to tell about it. Today, leaving the planet doesn't seem spectacular because we have the International Space Station, and we often launch probes and robots into space, not to mention the myriad satellites orbiting Earth. But before the 1960s no human had ever left the planet, not even close! Here is the surprise: exploring the Far West in the seventeenth century was as difficult as exploring the moon in the twentieth century. The challenges were different, but the requirement and the risk were the same: it required a greater will, and the risk was death. This chapter looks at two Frenchmen who explored the Far West earlier than any other Europeans: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye.51 Each of these Frenchmen claimed a first: La Salle the first to descend the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, and La Vérendrye the first to set foot in Wyoming. Granted, La Salle did not venture as far as present- day Wyoming, and it is debated whether or not La Vérendrye actually made it into Wyoming or just the Black Hills, but regardless, their bravery and sacrifice made known and possible what was previously unknown or thought to be only a hopeless enterprise. 52 To study their accomplishments is to gain a new appreciation for le chemin dur that had to be traversed before Wyoming could be reached.

51 With the possible exception of the Spanish. 52 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 109.

Coutant, Bartlett, and Beard treat La Vérendrye prominently, no doubt because he might have been the Neil Armstrong of Wyoming, but only Bartlett treats La Salle. Conversely, Larson and other more recent historical works only mention these explorers in passing, if at all. Why has their significance waned over time? A probable explanation is that no tangible influences of these men remain in Wyoming: no mountains, rivers, counties, cities, or other places are named after them; their heirs did not eventually settle in Wyoming; and they did not participate in territory or state politics. In short: there is nothing to remember them by. If there were place names in Wyoming like "La Salle River" or "Vérendrye Valley", it would be understandably easier to remember that these men figure in Wyoming history even if one forgets why they do. The name "Laramie" is an example: it seems most people who have lived in Wyoming for a few years are aware that the name comes from the French fur trapper Jacques Laramie, although not many people seem to know more than that. It is curious that, even though Laramie was an inconnu compared to La Salle or La Vérendrye, his name is more widely recognized. This curiosity aside for the moment, it is fair to ask: if there are no tangible influences of La Salle and La Vérendrye, why should they figure prominently in Wyoming history? The answer relates to the significance of first people. These two men were the first to make known the Far West, and by doing so, they were the first to make it possible for other explorers to reach Wyoming, which in turn made it possible for homesteaders to settle Wyoming. This was far from a trivial accomplishment in their times, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The distance and months of travel were the easy challenges for La Salle and La Vérendrye; the difficulties were hostile Indian tribes who still owned and controlled the West, or in the sad case of La Salle,

anyone with a gun and a good shot. Therefore, the lasting influence of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, in the history of Wyoming is as those first people who risked and met death in their attempts to make known the West, wherein Wyoming remained unknown and inaccessible. Let's explore with them...

Figure 1 - The Mississippi River and Its Tributaries

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

The only significant mention of La Salle in a major work of Wyoming history is in History of Wyoming by I. S. Bartlett. In a section of chapter V aptly titled "La Salle", Bartlett notes that La Salle descended the Mississippi successfully on his second attempt and claimed all lands in the Mississippi Valley for France in the name of King Louis XIV. For this reason, "it should be borne in mind that the voyage of Marquette and Joliet opened the way for the later voyage of La Salle and his claim to the country drained by the Mississippi, under which all that portion of Wyoming whose waters reach the Mississippi became a dependency of France." Thus, as a direct result of La Salle, the first recognized sovereign claim to Wyoming was made by France, which sold the land to the United States in 1803. "By this sale," continues Bartlett, "the way was opened for [the] present status [of Wyoming]."53 The exploration and claim of La Salle is his primary influence in the history of Wyoming, but his life reveals clearly the price at which these accomplishments were purchased. As such, Wyoming may appreciate the Frenchman who paid dearly to advance the frontier of the known and possible that would one day encompass the state. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was born into an old and rich family in Rouen, France. One might summarize his character as Catholic, intelligent, austere, and driven. Not tempted or mislead by typical amusements, his goals, towards which he strove unceasingly, defined him. From the first, he

53 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 77-78.

wanted to find a western passage to China. Thus began decades of discovery and hardship, but also success.54 La Salle came to Canada in 1666 and began exploring soon after. 55 His first discoveries were the Ohio and Illinois rivers, not the Mississippi, 56 which had had already been discovered by De Soto and, later, Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette.57 The first expedition to the Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette was successful but ended with a tragedy: Joliet's canoe capsized within sight of the first French settlements after returning from the two year journey. He lost all his papers, not to mention two men.58 La Salle could not know it, but this bitter- sweet success was to become the leitmotiv of his expeditions, too. La Salle's first attempt to descend the Mississippi River had many detractors because his ambitions were not merely exploratory but rather "occupation, fortification, and settlement" 59 of the new western frontier, ambitions that conflicted with the Jesuits, who wanted to establish a new holy empire, and Canadian merchants, who did not want the competition.60 Despite being poisoneda little hemlock in his saladand recovering, La Salle continued with his grandiose plan that, rather than descending the Mississippi in the traditional fashion of birch bark canoes, called for the "Griffin": a forty-five

54 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 4-12. 55 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 6. 56 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 22-23. 57 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 40ff. 58 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 54. 59 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 77. 60 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 75-77.

ton ship with five canons.61 Granted, the mission was dangerous, and the explorers were sure to meet hostile Indian tribes, and the Mississippi is large and turbulent in spots, but the Griffin was nonetheless like exploring the Savanna in a tank. That is not to say, however, that the choice of vessel was a sign of machismo; on the contrary, it demonstrates La Salle's determination to succeed because in theory nothing should have impeded the Griffin, nothing from the outside at least. Thinking the expedition harebrained and that La Salle would never return, his creditors promptly seized all his assets soon after he embarked.62 To remedy the situation, La Salle sent the Griffin back loaded with furs as compensation and continued in canoes with a number of men until the Griffin returned.63 While staying with the Illinois Indians, La Salle suffered two more setbacks. A Mascoutin chief named Monso came to the Illinois and told them that La Salle intended to rally other tribes beyond the Mississippi to join with him and the Iroquois in a war against the Illinois. Thus, the Illinois should prevent La Salle from continuing. They tried to do so by warning him and his men that their journey would surely end fatally, and that the Mississippi was home to monsters and hostile tribes who would kill them immediately. This was all a lie, a plot by his detractors, that La Salle recognized. As such, he tried to convince the Illinois that Monso was an imposter and a liar, but several of his men were scared by the Illinois's warning. Consequently, six men deserted La Salle in the middle of the night. To add insult to

61 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 106-109. 62 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 109. 63 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 114-120.

injury, La Salle was poisoned a second time but again recovered.64 La Salle built the first European settlement in the region that is now the state of Illinois: Fort Crèvecœur; or translated: Fort Broken Heart. It was aptly named since the Griffin had disappeared, nobody quite knows how, thereby seriously complicating La Salle's plans. The Griffin had supplies that La Salle was going to use to build another ship to ultimately descend the Mississippi. Now the situation was grim: hostile tribes could lie ahead, deserted by six men, and without supplies. Give up? Go back? Not La Salle. He knew how to "cowboy up" before there were cowboys. He and his remaining men built the second ship by felling and planking trees in the vicinity, and they succeeded: a forty-ton vessel with high bulwarks for protection from arrows. The ship still needed supplies, so La Salle resolved to return to Canada, leaving several men at Fort Crèvecœur and sending a friar, Hennepin, ahead to explore the Illinois River to the Mississippi. It was the winter of 1680 and La Salle's return voyage would not be easy:

During sixty-five days, [La Salle] had toiled almost incessantly, travelling, by the course he took, about a thousand miles through a country beset with every from of peril and obstruction; "the most arduous journey," says the chronicler, "ever made by Frenchmen in America." ... He had reached his goal; but for him there was neither rest nor peace. Man and Nature seemed in arms against him. His agents had plundered him; his

64 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 128-132.

creditors had seized his property; and several of his canoes, richly laden, had been lost in the rapids of the St. Lawrence.65

Amazingly, even more grief awaited La Salle: just before leaving Canada to return to Fort Crèvecœur, he received a letter informing him that the men he had left there ransacked, destroyed, and then deserted the fort. Even more amazing and appalling, twelve of the deserters attempted to kill La Salle in an effort to escape punishment, but they failed.

And now La Salle's work must be begun afresh. He had staked all, and all had seemingly been lost. In stern, relentless effort, he had touched the limits of human endurance; and the harvest of his toil was disappointment, disaster, and impending ruin. The shattered fabric of his enterprise was prostrate in the dust. His friends desponded; his foes were blatant and exultant. Did he bend before the storm? No human eye could pierce the depths of his reserved and haughty nature; but the surface was calm, and no signed betrayed a shaken resolve or an altered purpose. Where weaker men would have abandoned all in despairing apathy, he turned anew to his work with the same vigor and the same apparent confidence as if borne on the full tide of success.66

65 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 133-138. 66 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 146-148.

What resolve! And so in December 1681, La Salle, twenty-three Frenchmen, and eighteen Indians, began yet again to descend the Mississippi River. This time, however, La Salle went by canoe and fortune finally favored him. For three months he and his entourage explored western lands along the Mississippi, never before seen by Europeans, until they reached the Gulf of Mexico on April 6, 1682. "On that day, the realm of France received on parchment a stupendous accession."67 Even if the aforementioned was all there is to say about René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, it would be enough to demonstrate the pains, both physical and emotional, that he endured to establish firmly in the connaissance of Europeans the West to, and all the way down, the Mississippi. This hard-won knowledge was essential in establishing the long road to Wyoming because the Mississippi River and the city of Saint Louis were later to become a gateway to the Far West during the fur trade. However, the aforementioned is not all there is to say about La Salle because his explorations and struggles did not end on April 6, 1682, and the conquest of the Mississippi was only the prelude to a much larger conquest. In 1684 La Salle sailed back to Paris and, riding on the success of his recent discovery, proposed an ambitious new plan to King Louis XIV: establish a Gulf Coast port on the Mississippi and a second fortified outpost two hundred miles upriver where the land is fertile, control the continent from these points, amass an army of fifteen thousand Indians in the region (who typically did not like the Spanish), then attack the Spanish in northern Mexico and take their gold and silver mines. In short, La Salle wanted to establish a French

67 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 217-225.

empire in the West and oust the Spanish who forbade the French from entering the Gulf of Mexico and barred them from their ports.68 For this mission, La Salle asked for two ships but was given four: Aimable, Joly, Belle, and St. François.69 King Louis XIV was evidently “all in” on the bet that La Salle would establish a vast empire for him in the New World while also taking care of problems with the Spanish. Unfortunately, the leitmotiv of bitter-sweet success returned with a vengeance because, although La Salle succeeded in reaching the Gulf of Mexico, the mission ended in a series of tragedies. First, the envoy of ships overshot the Mississippi by more than four hundred miles and landed near present-day Galveston Bay, Texas. Second, due to a series of mishaps and treason, three of four ships were lost, including most of their supplies, and the forth returned to France. Not knowing where they were, the would-be colonists erected a crude fort a little inland from the shore, and La Salle concluded that he must head east where he would eventually cross the Mississippi and from there return to Canada and France to reorganize. On January 6, 1687 La Salle and a band of adventures departed for Canada.70 The trek across the vast prairies of Texas, a land completely unknown to all in the party, was extremely taxing, fomenting preexisting animosities. By and by, several of the weary travelers were compelled murder. They killed three men in their sleep: Nika, a Shawanoe hunter who had long followed La Salle faithfully; Saget, La Salle's servant; and Moranget, his cousin. When

68 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 254-257. 69 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 260. 70 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 279-309.

Moranget failed to return to camp, La Salle set off to find him but met his own death instead. As he approached the camp, the murderous men remained hidden in the tall grass, lying in ambush. They had no intention to confront him. Once close enough, two shots instantly ended La Salle's life.71 Had he not sailed six leagues beyond his intended destination, La Salle might have succeeded in establishing a French empire in the West, thereby reshaping history in the Mississippi Valley in which lies most of Wyoming. "America owes him an enduring memory; for, in this masculine figure, she sees the pioneer who guided her to the possession of her richest heritage."72 La Salle's life and strife underline how difficult it was to make the first step towards the Far West, wherein Wyoming remained unknown and inaccessible. La Salle was well suited to the task: he had financial resources, physical stamina, and an iron will. That such difficulties befell him demonstrates how the road to Wyoming would not be won easily but by grit and determination. If grit and determination are characteristics familiar to cowboys, then La Salle was the first great American cowboy. As such, he should figure more prominently in the history of Wyoming for blazing the trail through which Wyoming cowboys of the late-nineteenth century and their forefathers passed with ease.

71 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 310-319. 72 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La Salle, 319.

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye

There is a lot of literature on the topic of La Vérendrye and sons. In his journeys he traveled west from Montreal to present day Winnipeg, then south into present day North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. This last state, Wyoming, evokes the liveliest debate because the evidence is ambiguous: did La Vérendrye enter Wyoming in 1743, thereby becoming the first white man in the state, sixty years before John Colter who currently holds the honor, or did he only reach the Black Hills of South Dakota? 73 Before looking at various sources' responses to this question, let's follow La Vérendrye's adventures in brief. We'll see that, like La Salle, he paid a high price to nearly complete the road to Wyoming. La Vérendrye was born in Trois-Rivières, Canada in 1685, fought in Europe in the War of the Spanish Succession, returned to Canada in 1711, and had four sons. 74 These sons accompanied him during his trips; the family was inseparable. Two sons, Pierre and François, made the trip which possibly reached Wyoming while their father had to stay behind to attend to business interests.75 From an early age, growing up in Trois- Rivières, La Vérendrye was exposed to men of the fur trade who told of vast lands to the west. Where former explorers like La Salle had failed to find a passage to the Western Sea,

73 Trenholm, Wyoming Pageant, 12. 74 Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 1-9, 14. Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 13. 75 La Vérendrye and his sons are often spoken of as one person. Saying that La Vérendrye might have reached Wyoming is a gloss; it was the two Vérendrye sons Pierre and François.

La Vérendrye was determined that he would succeed for the glory of France.76 On his first attempt, La Vérendrye left Montreal in the summer of 1731 with his three eldest sons and a number of other men. 77 On August 26th, they reached Grand Portage, west of Lake Superior. La Vérendrye wanted to continue, but his men had already had enough hardship and they mutinied—a bon début for the explorer not unlike the mutinies that beset La Salle.78 Fortunately, everyone came to an agreement and the journey continued. In 1734, roughly three years and twelve hundred miles later, La Vérendrye left Fort Charles (on Lake of the Woods, south of Lake Winnipeg) to return to Montreal because his resources had ran out.79 Having to return to Montreal empty-handed was embarrassing because La Vérendrye had had difficulties raising funds before leaving in 1731. But this setback was to pale in comparison to the death of his oldest son, Jean- Baptiste, and his cousin and first lieutenant, La Jémeraye, in 1736. Stories vary slightly, but the main account is that Jean- Baptiste, along with several other men, were caught off guard by a group of Sioux who killed the entire party. The Sioux, however, were avenging prior deaths of their own people that the Cree had deceived them into believing were perpetrated by the

76 Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 14. 77 Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 19. 78 Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 28. Laut, Pathfinders of the West, 205. Crouse, La Verendrye, Fur Trader and Explorer, 59. 79 Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 32. Crouse, La Verendrye, Fur Trader and Explorer, 93-94. Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 31-32.

French. 80 Whatever the story, the result is the same: La Vérendrye lost his eldest son. As for La Jémeraye, he fell sick and did not recover. La Vérendrye and his remaining three sons, the youngest now old enough to join the expedition, did not recommence until 1738. Between 1738 to 1742, La Vérendrye and his sons pushed farther and farther west, encountering, befriending, and learning from new Indian tribes. In 1742, the eldest two living sons, Pierre and François, left Fort La Reine, guided by Mandan Indians in search of the Gens des Chevaux (Horse People) who were thought to live in the Far West. Upon reaching them, the brothers learned that none of that tribe lived far west due to the path being blocked by the feared Gens du Serpent (People of the Snake; Snake Indians; Shoshone). However, the Gens de l'Arc (People of the Bow) were not afraid of the Gens du Serpent and, upon arriving at their camp, the brothers learned that they were already on the march to find and attack the Gens du Serpent who lived in the western mountains. Although not intending to fight—rather, intending to pacify all the tribes— the Vérendrye brothers accompanied the Gens de l'Arc in hopes of ascending the mountains and glimpsing the Western Sea. No Europeans knew at the time that more than a thousand miles separate the Rocky Mountains from the Pacific Coast. On January 8, 1743, the brothers and their Indian companions "reached the mountains" which appeared very high to them. The Vérendrye family was at the doorstep of unprecedented discovery when the

80 Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 39-40. Crouse, La Verendrye, Fur Trader and Explorer, 104-109. Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 34-35.

leitmotiv of bitter-sweet success that had also haunted La Salle reappeared. The Gens de l'Arc had sent scouts ahead to locate the Gens du Serpent. These scouts returned and reported that the Gens du Serpent were gone from their camp. The Gens de l'Arc feared that the Gens du Serpent had learned of their advance, skirted them, and were already en route to attack their unguarded camp. This fear prompted a swift withdrawal, including the Vérendrye brothers since they were in unfamiliar territory and reliant upon on their Gens de l'Arc companions.81 Thus, the goal for which La Vérendrye had set out twelve years, thousands of miles, and one brother ago was lost at the point of being so incredibly close. The brothers were "much vexed", and the chief of the Gens de l'Arc, for whom the brothers had developed a great respect and admiration, found it "very annoying to have brought [them] this far and to be unable to go any farther."82 Eventually, La Vérendrye and his sons returned to Montreal with neither the discovery of the Western Sea nor a profitable western fur monopoly. Even though the sons of La Vérendrye had reached the mountains just beyond which they believed lied the Western Sea, political posturing prevented La Vérendrye from continuing the exploration. None of the family returned to those western mountains. Consequently, the Rocky Mountains remained in cloud of mystery for another sixty years until the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

81 Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 104-110. Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 74-85. Laut, Pathfinders of the West, 230-234. Crouse, La Verendrye, Fur Trader and Explorer, 174-184. Campbell, Pioneer Laymen of North America, 280-283. 82 Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 104-110.

In conclusion of La Vérendrye's life, it can once again be seen how difficult it was to make the first step towards the Far West wherein Wyoming remained unknown and inaccessible. Like La Salle, La Vérendrye was apt, eager, and utterly devoted. His dream of opening the Far West defined and consumed his life. While it did not lead to his own death, it took the life of his eldest son and a relative. In a figurative sense, one could say that La Vérendrye was also killed by his explorations because he devoted his life to them yet, in the end, his efforts were ignored. France could have ruled the West and Far West if it had shared in and supported the vision of La Vérendrye. After all, it was for the glory of France that he labored. And so the difficulties and the disappointment, offset only by going farther West than any Europeans had ever gone before, became further testaments to le chemin dur which separated the known East from the unknown West. The first step was fought and won by La Salle, and the second step was fought and won by La Vérendrye and his sons.

In Wyoming

Were Pierre and François de La Vérendrye the first Europeans to set foot in Wyoming in 1743? This historical debate is nearly perfect because it is significant but the evidence falls just shy of proof. For over one hundred years, scholars have analyzed, argued, and concluded with varying degrees of certainty. The truth, if ever revealed by new evidence, is the very heart of this book because Wyoming was as remote to most people in the eighteenth century as the moon was to humankind until the mid-twentieth century. Therefore, reaching Wyoming was, perhaps, the most significant first event.

One authoritative work on the explorations of La Vérendryes is The Explorations of the La Vérendryes in the Northern Plains, 1738-43 by G. Hubert Smith. Chapter six of that book provides a full translation of a letter written by Pierre and François to a colleague in France which recounts their journey from 1742 to 1743. This letter is the only known primary source, but it is unfortunately bereft of details sufficient to resolve the debate. Given that no Europeans had ever been where the Vérendrye brothers were during those years, the lack of detail is reasonable because the places and land features had yet to be named. Also, their astrolabe (a precursor to the sextant) was broken, so they could not measure latitude or elevation.83 What follows is part of the letter (with non-relevant paragraphs omitted), beginning when the brothers were traveling with the Gens des Chevaux (Horse People) to find the Gens de l'Arc (People of the Bow) who could lead them to the Western Sea because they were brave enough to face the Gens du Serpent (People of the Snake; Snake Indians; Shoshone) who blocked the way...

Having traveled steadily southwest, we encountered on November 18 a very large village of the Gens de la Bell Rivière [People of the Beautiful River]. They gave us information about the Gens de l'Arc, who were not far away. We went together to the southwest. On the 21st we discovered their village, which appeared to us very large. All the nations of these regions have a great many horses, asses, and mules, which they use to

83 Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 113.

carry their baggage and for riding, both in hunting and in traveling.

[3 non-relevant paragraphs omitted]

I asked [the chief of the Gens de l'Arc] if they knew the white people of the seacoast, and whether they could take us there. He replied: "We know them through what has been told us by prisoners from the Gens du Serpent, among whom we shall arrive shortly. Do not be surprised if you see many villages assembled with us. Word has been sent in all directions for them to join us. You hear war songs every day; this is not without plan. We are going to march in the direction of the great mountains near the sea, to hunt for the Gens du Serpent. Do not be afraid to come with us; you have nothing to fear, and you will be able to look upon the sea for which you are searching."

[1 non-relevant paragraph omitted]

He spoke a few words in their language. I recognized that he was speaking Spanish, and what confirmed me in my opinion was the account he gave of the massacre of the Spanish who were going in search of the Missouri [River], a matter I had heard mentioned. All this considerably lessened my eagerness, concerning a sea already known; nevertheless I should very much have liked to go there, had it been feasible.

We continued our march, sometimes south- southwest, sometimes northwest, our band continually increasing through the addition of various villages of

different nations. On January 1, 1743, we found ourselves in sight of the mountains. The number of warriors exceeded two thousand; these with their families made a considerable band. We continued to march over magnificent prairies where wild animals were plentiful. At night there was nothing but songs and shouting, and scarcely anything was done, except that they came to weep upon our heads, to get us to accompany them in the war. I steadily resisted, saying that we were sent to pacify the country, not to stir up things.

The chief of the [Gens de] l'Arc said over and over that he was troubled on our account, not knowing what all the nations would think of our unwillingness to accompany them. Seeing that we were committed to going with them and could only withdraw on returning from the war, he asked us a favor to accompany him simply as spectators and begged us not to expose ourselves. The Gens de [sic] Serpent, he said, were our enemies as well as theirs, and we must surely know that they were friendly with no one.

We deliberated among ourselves about what we should do. We resolved to follow them, seeing that in our situation it was impossible to do anything else. I had, moreover, a strong desire to see the sea from the top of the mountains. [Remainder of paragraph omitted.]

[1 non-relevant paragraph omitted]

We continued our search until January 8. On the ninth we left the village, and I left my brother behind to

guard our baggage, which was in the lodge of the chief of the [Gens de] l'Arc. Most of the men were on horseback, advancing in good order. Finally, on the twelfth day, we reached the mountains. In general, they are well wooded, with all kinds of trees, and appear to be very high.

Having coming near the main part of the village of the Gens du Serpent, our scouts returned to inform us that these people had made their escape with great haste and had abandoned their dwellings (cabannes) and a large part of their belongings. This report brought fear to all our people, who were afraid that the enemy had discovered them, were making for their villages, and would get there before they themselves could. The chief of the [Gens de] l'Arc did what he could to persuade them otherwise and to urge them forward, but no on would listen to him. "It is very annoying," he said to me, "to have brought you this far and to be unable to go any farther."

I was much vexed not to be able to climb the mountains as I had hoped to do. We then decided to return. We had come to this place in very orderly fashion, but the return was very different: everyone fled his own way. Our horses, though good, were very tired and had not been fed often enough. I went in company with the chief of the [Gens de] l'Arc, and my two Frenchmen followed us. After having gone a considerable distance without looking behind me, I noticed that they were missing. I told the chief of the [Gens de] l'Arc that I could no longer see my

Frenchmen. He replied: "I will halt everyone who is with us."

I retraced my steps at a gallop and saw them at the point of an island, letting their horses feed. Having joined them, I saw fifteen men approaching from the woods, covering themselves with the shields (paré- flêches) [cf. parflêches, rawhide containers]. One of them was far ahead of the others, and we let them come within half a musket shot. Seeing that they were preparing to attack us, I thought it advisable to fire several shots at them, which made them retreat hastily. This weapon is highly respected among all these nations, which do not have the use of them, and whose shields cannot protect them against a musket ball.

We remained there until night, after which we set out following our notions [of direction] (selon notre idée), in hope of finding our own Indians. The prairies over which we passed were bare and dry, and the trail of the horses does not show. We continued on our way at random, not knowing whether we were on the right track. We finally arrived, among the first to do so, at the village of the Gens de l'Arc on February 9, the second day of our retreat.84

Near the end of the letter, the brothers mention burying a lead tablet inscribed with their names and the date: March 30, 1743. Amazingly, this crucial piece of evidence remained hidden for

84 Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 110-111.

one hundred seventy years until, in 1913, schoolchildren in Fort Pierre, South Dakota found it.85 The letter is fascinating and once again highlights the perils faced and bravery of early French explorers in the Far West, but it also lacks geographic detail because there are several mountains and prairies in southwest South Dakota and northeast Wyoming.

Figure 2 - Northeast Wyoming

From the letter and the lead tablet scholars have generated five conclusions:

1. The Vérendrye brothers reached the Wind River Range, deep inside Wyoming (bottom-left on the map) 2. The Vérendrye brothers certainly reached the Big Horn Mountains, in northeast Wyoming (left of center on the map)

85 Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, 125

3. The Vérendrye brothers probably reached the Big Horn Mountains 4. It is not possible to determine where the Vérendrye brothers were 5. The Vérendrye brothers did not reach Wyoming, they only reached the Black Hills in South Dakota (left of Rapid City)

With such little evidence, how can the conclusions vary so widely? Let's briefly examine the reasoning of each group.

• January 1, 1743: "On January 1, 1743, we found ourselves in sight of the mountains. [...] We continued to march over magnificent prairies where wild animals were plentiful." • January 8: "We continued our search until January 8." • January 9: "On the ninth we left the village, and I left my bother behind to guard our baggage" • January 12 or 21: "Finally, on the twelfth day, we reached the mountains. In general, they are well wooded, with all kinds of trees, and appear to be very high."86 • 27 or 18 days pass (from Jan. 12 or 21, respectively) • February 8: First day of retreat • February 9: "We finally arrived, among the first to do so, at the village of the Gens de l'Arc on February 9, the second day of our retreat." • Almost 2 months pass (February 9 to March 30) • March 30: "On an eminence near the fort I deposited a lead tablet" Figure 3 - Timeline of La Vérendryes from January, 1743

86 It is unclear if "the twelfth day" means January 12th or the twelfth day of travel, i.e. twelve days later. Other sources presume the latter. In either case, it is clear that the Vérendrye brothers spent January "on the road" because the letter clearly states that the two-day retreat ended February 9th.

The first group concludes that the Vérendrye brothers were certainly well inside Wyoming. Coutant, 1899, writes that he learned of the Vérendrye brothers' whereabouts through a communication written by Granville Stuart in the first volume of the Montana Historical Society. According to this source, the brothers reached the Big Wind River and met the Shoshone.87 Similarly, Bartlett, 1918, writes that "One account says", without citing the source, and then recounts nearly the same story as Coutant and concludes that "Vérendrye and his associates were no doubt the first white men to set foot upon the soil of Wyoming." 88 T. J. Campbell S. J., 1916, quotes Vérendrye's letter but concludes: "The scene of this curious two-sided panic must have been in the vicinity of Fremont's Peak, possible on the level plain, north of it. The fact that the Snake River runs down the western watershed at that place makes the suggestion plausible. If so, the Vérendryes had reached a point one hundred twenty miles west of the present Yellow Stone Park."89 Lastly, A. C. Laut, 1904, states that, after making camp at the Big Horn Mountains, the Vérendryes and Indian warriors reached the base of the Rocky Mountains two weeks later.90 All these claims are fantastic but dubious. Coutant and Bartlett do not mention the frightful retreat that the letter clearly details. Campbell mentions it, but there is no evidence that puts the Vérendrye brothers farther west than the Big Horn Mountains and certainly not one hundred twenty miles west of Yellow Stone Park. Laut also mentions the frightful retreat, but she neither quotes the letter nor

87 Coutant, History of Wyoming, 37-38. 88 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 112-113. 89 Campbell, Pioneer Laymen of North America, 283. 90 Agnes C. Laut, Pathfinders of the West, 233.

cites her sources. Without better evidence or sources, it is not reasonable to conclude that the Vérendrye brothers ventured deep into Wyoming. The second group, which concludes that the Vérendrye brothers certainly reached the Big Horn Mountains, used to contain one scholar. In the 1986 edition of Frontier Spirit by Craig Sodaro and Randy Adams, the authors claimed that the Vérendrye brothers were in Wyoming. However, they redacted this affirmation in the 1996 edition to read: "They may have entered the Wyoming area near the Big Horn Mountains." 91 Curious about this redaction, I contacted Randy Adams and asked why the change was made. He informed me that more scholarly evidence had come to light after the first edition which made the original claim less plausible.92 Therefore, this group no longer contains any scholars. The third group claims that the Vérendrye brothers probably reached the Big Horn Mountains. Nellis M. Crouse, 1956, writes: "On January 1, 1743, they found themselves within sight of a chain of mountains, probably the Big Horn range in Wyoming."93 The Big Horn Mountains can be seen from quite a distance, so this statement is ambiguous but nonetheless suggests that the Vérendryes were in Wyoming, else they would have been seeing the Black Hills instead. G. Hubert Smith, 1980, writes that is "very possible" that the brothers traveled as far as

91 Sodaro and Adams, Frontier Spirit, 14. 92 Personal correspondence with Randy Adams. 93 Crouse, La Verendrye, Fur Trader and Explorer, 182.

the Big Horn Mountains, later clarifying that the unnamed mountains cannot be positively identified.94 The conclusion of the fourth and largest group is that the extent of the travels of the Vérendryes is indeterminable. The earliest scholar in this group is Lawrence J. Burpee, 1922, one of the earliest and most authoritative scholars of La Vérendrye. His recount does not mention any names other than to say that "the mountains" were the Rocky Mountains.95 However, it is unclear if Burpee means the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming, or the Big Horn Mountains, or some other mountains. No other hints are found in his work to resolve this question. Four more scholars, whose works were published in 1946, 1947, 1978, and 2007, reach similar noncommittal conclusions: that it is possible but not factual or proven that the Vérendrye brothers reached the Big Horn Mountains.96 The fifth and final group includes two scholars: Frances Birkhead Beard, 1913, who, in her work, cites South Dakota historian Doane Robinson in a titled section "Not in Wyoming" which concludes, unsurprisingly, that the Vérendrye brothers were not in Wyoming, that they only reached the Black Hills of South Dakota. 97 It is difficult to follow Robinson's reasoning because he considers the whereabouts of the brothers in February and March after the retreat from the mountains, but the pertinent

94 Smith and Wood, Explorations of the La Vérendryes, ix and 116. 95 Burpee, Pathfinders of the Great Plains, 80-84. 96 Trenholm, Wyoming Pageant, 11. Linford, Wyoming, Frontier State, 71. Larson, History of Wyoming, 8. Tennant, "Fame Over Misfortune," 115. 97 Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 8.

period is the month of January, 1743 during which the brothers were traveling with the Indian warriors to find the Gens du Serpent. It is during this month that they could have entered Wyoming. Furthermore, Robinson assumes "At all times the Verendryes traveled very slowly, rarely exceeding seven or eight miles per day", but this assumption is incorrect because it is directly contradicted by the letter: "Most of the men were on horseback, advancing in good order." Moreover, the group was certainly not galloping across the Plains, but eight miles per day would be a crawl given that three miles per hour is a comfortable walking speed for humans. All in all, it is difficult to imagine the group moving as slowly as Robinson assumed, and given his focus on the post-retreat months of February and March, his and Beard's conclusion that the Vérendryes did not reach Wyoming is arguable at best. Robinson does, however, note a vexing point: the brothers searched for nearly a month but made the retreat in only two days. One possible explanation is that the search was slow and circuitous but the treat, being made in fear, was fast and direct. Regardless, this cannot tell us anything about the whereabouts and extent to which the party travel during the month of January. Having briefly examined the five conclusions of scholars, let's step back and view the matter from another angle. Previous scholars have attempted to determine the extent of travel by using geography: mountains, parries, rivers, rates of travel, etc. As we've seen, this approach is difficult when the geography is new and has no names. The mountains the Vérendryes reached could be any mountains in the area, as could the "magnificent prairies" be any of the vast prairies in Wyoming or South Dakota. Is this approach fatally flawed? No, it would have been tremendously more illuminating if the brothers had had a working astrolabe to measure elevations because the Big

Horn Mountains in Wyoming are significantly higher than the Black Hills in South Dakota.98 Alas, all the brothers left us is the letter which has insufficient detail for a geography-oriented approach. However, there is another approach: a destination- oriented approach. One point from the letter is undisputed: the Gens de l'Arc, with whom the Vérendrye brothers were traveling, were looking for the Shoshone. This was their destination. It is also undisputed that the Gens de l'Arc were familiar with and thus knew where to find the Shoshone, which why they eventually found them: "Having coming near the main part of the village of the Gens du Serpent..." (One can debate how near "near" is, but a few miles is reasonable.) We can therefore reason about the extent of travel by asking: where did the Shoshone live in 1743? If the answer was as simple as "The Shoshone never lived east of Wyoming", the Vérendrye debate would be solved. You can imagine by now that the answer is not so simple. First of all, we are concerned with the Eastern Shoshone who originated in the Great Basin and eventually migrated northeast to the Great Plains. Like many Great Basin and Plains Indian tribes, the Eastern Shoshone were nomadic and lived in an extended area. Without a doubt, they lived in Wyoming in the 1700s, from Green River in the southwest to the Big Horn Mountains in the northeast, and it is not uncommon for sources

98 An astrolabe measures latitude but not longitude. Northeast Wyoming and southwest South Dakota share latitude, so that measurement would not have determined if the Vérendrye brothers were west of the South Dakota border. Elevations are not unique, either, but knowing 5,000' vs. 10,000' elevations would have helped distinguish the Black Hills from the Big Horn Mountains, respectively.

to stop there, placing the Shoshone no farther east than Wyoming. 99 This historical gloss stems from the fact that the Shoshone originated from the Great Basin, therefore being home to the mountains more than to the plains. However, in the eighteenth century the Shoshone were active in the Great Plains. 100 The literature on this period in Shoshone history is practically nonexistent except for passing mentions because European explorers after the Vérendryes did not arrive en masse until the nineteenth century, after Lewis and Clark and during the fur trade decades. By 1806 the Shoshone no longer lived east of the Big Horn Mountains.101 Therefore, the period of Shoshone living east of Wyoming is a single, poorly documented century. Nonetheless, we must acknowledge that the Shoshone could have been in South Dakota in 1743, and one could argue that the Vérendryes and the Indian warriors arrived at a Shoshone village in the Black Hills. How do we factor this into the Vérendrye debate? By asking two questions. First, could the Vérendryes have encountered the Eastern Shoshone in the Black Hills? Yes, that is possible. Second, could the Vérendryes have encountered the Eastern Shoshone in the Big Horn Mountains? Without a doubt, yes. (The Eastern Shoshone still live in Wyoming.) This is not a smoking gun, but it shifts the preponderance of evidence in favor of the Big Horn Mountains because that is the more indubitable location for the Vérendryes to have encountered the Eastern Shoshone.

99 Marquis, Guide to America's Indians, 190-191. 100 Stamm, People of the Wind River, 3-6. Ruby and Brown, Guide to the Indian Tribes, 196-198. Madsen, The Northern Shoshoni, 18. 101 Stamm, People of the Wind River, 3-4.

Add to this the language used by La Vérendrye who was a seasoned explorer: "the mountains", "very high", "to climb the mountains". Some early scholars thought the Vérendryes reached the Wind River Range deep inside Wyoming, but most today are content with either the Big Horn Mountains or the Black Hills. Which range is more likely to evoke such language? (Pictures of each are included below.) Having grown up in the Big Horn Basin and visited both places, I think that "very high mountains to climb" describes the Big Horn Mountains, not the Black Hills.

Figure 4 - View of the Black Hills

Figure 5 - View of the Big Horn Mountains

Let's review the evidence:

• The Vérendryes and the Indian warriors were traveling, searching for the better part of a month (January, 1743) • "Most of the men were on horseback, advancing in good order." • They came near the Gens du Serpent: "Having coming near the main part of the village of the Gens du Serpent" • Wyoming is unarguably home to the Eastern Shoshone • "Very high mountains to climb" more accurately describes the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming I find it difficult to accord the evidence and a personal knowledge of both places with the Vérendryes being at the Black Hills; rather, like the earliest scholars, I think the Vérendryes reached the Big Horn Mountains, being the first Europeans to enter Wyoming in 1743.

∞

This chapter examined two Frenchmen who were deeply and tragically involved in the early explorations of the West: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye. Discovering the West was neither quick nor easy, but it was required before Wyoming could become home to people other than hardy explorers like La Salle and La Vérendryes. La Salle made the first leap by several times reaching and exploring the Mississippi River which became the gateway to the West and home to St. Louis, the last major city built for the fur trade. La Vérendrye made the second leap by having two of his sons reach northeastern Wyoming in an attempt to find the “Western Sea”. In Wyoming, Frontier State Velma Linford eloquently states the significance of La Vérendryes:

Whether or not the Vérendryes entered the state of Wyoming is unimportant compared to their other achievements. They crossed the continent half-way to the Pacific. They established friendly relations with the Indians. They were the first white men ever to see the Rocky Mountains from the east. Their account led to further exploration of the Rocky Mountain West.102

Although no tangible influences of these two men exist in Wyoming today, that nearly all historians of Wyoming mention them is evidence that historical influences remain. The nature and importance of these historical influences can be summed up in one word: sacrifice. La Salle and La Vérendrye were first people who risked and met death in their attempts to make known the West, wherein Wyoming remained unknown and inaccessible.

102 Linford, Wyoming, Frontier State, 71-72.

5. Too Many Beavers

General John C. Fremont did more for the West than any other explorer, statesman or patriot.103

Place names in Wyoming such as Fremont, Sublette, and Laramie call attention to French influences in the history of Wyoming. Who were these Frenchmen? What did they do to deserve the recognition? The fur trade period in the early nineteenth century was the historical birthplace of these Frenchmen who were fur trappers and traders. Whereas beavers had been hunted nearly to extinction in the rest of the country, they remained plentiful in Wyoming because the area remained virtually unknown to Europeans until the turn of the nineteenth century. Consequently, Wyoming became the center of fur trade activity,104 and a horde of Frenchmen came to Wyoming to hunt and trap. The French positively dominated the industry until it ended around 1840 with the passing of fur fashion. 105 T. A. Larson's History of Wyoming does not cover the fur trade period because his work begins largely in 1867 when railroads and ranches arrived in Wyoming. Nevertheless, nearly

103 Coutant, History of Wyoming, 285. 104 Linford, Wyoming, Frontier State, 82. 105 Hafen and Lecompte, French Fur Traders and Voyageurs, 11.

every work before Larson highlights the importance of the fur trade period, as the following list of sources confirms:

• Velma Linford, Wyoming: Frontier State (1947): Chapter IX: Fur Traders and Beaver "Gold" • Virginia Cole Trenholm, Wyoming Pageant (1946): Chapter 4: Trapper Trails • Frances Birkhead Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present (1913): Chapter II: In the Domain of Trapper and Fur Trader • I. S. Bartlett, History of Wyoming (1918): Chapter VII: The Fur Traders • C. G. Coutant, The History of Wyoming from the Earliest Known Discoveries (1899): Chapter XII: Fur Trappers and Traders Accordingly, the plaza at 1st Street and Grand Avenue in Laramie, Wyoming features a short "history walk", the first square of which briefly explains that the town and other place names were named after Jacques Laramie, a French-Canadian fur trapper in 1810-1820, and that only Jim Bridger has more places named after him. The fur trade period is therefore a true influence in Wyoming history. This chapter highlights several men of French heritage who, by their accomplishments during this period, imprinted their names on Wyoming, thereby leaving tangible evidence that Wyoming was home to rendezvous before rodeos. Much can be, and much has been, written about mountain men and fur trappers.106 The most extensive work on this historical period is the ten volume set Mountain Men and the Fur Trade by LeRoy Hafen which documents two hundred

106 Except Jacques Laramie because records of his life are scant.

ninety-two men. This chapter, however, presents only the highlights of four men's lives which directly affected Wyoming and account for their lasting influences:

• William Lewis Sublette • Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville • John Charles Frémont • Jacques Laramie These four men account for many, but not all, French name places in Wyoming. More extensive research would yield other Frenchmen in Wyoming during the early nineteenth century, like Pierre Lesperance who was allegedly camping with Jacques Laramie when he was killed. 107 Although Frenchmen outnumbered Americans four to one in the fur trade, the latter were still an important group, especially since Wyoming had just become the property of the United States of America in 1803.108 American mountain men and trappers also accomplished significant firsts, like discovering South Pass, and their exclusion from the following is only due to the focus on French influences. The aim here is to reassert French influences during the fur trade period which were numerous and significant.

William Lewis Sublette

Sublette county in Wyoming takes its name from William Lewis Sublette, one child in a family of eight which traces its origins to France. In 1700, Abraham Soblet (the original spelling of the family name) came to America with his

107 Hafen, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, volume VI, 241. 108 Hafen and Lecompte, French Fur Traders and Voyageurs, 11.

wife and five children to escape the persecution of Huguenots enacted by then King of France Louis XIV. Two generations later, in 1799, William Sublette was born in Kentucky to Phillip Allen and Isabelle Whitley Sublette.109 William Sublette started working in the fur trade industry in 1823, and by 1824 he was in Wyoming on the Sweetwater River near South Pass.110 Two years later, in 1826, the fur trade company of Smith, Jackson and Sublette was formed.111 The venture only lasted four years, until 1830, but the work of Sublette and his men accomplished had far-reaching influences. Each year the company traveled by foot and horse from St. Louis to the rendezvous, but in 1830 Sublette was the first to bring wagons through the Rocky Mountains to the gathering.112 Until that time, people trekked to the rendezvous on foot or horse because the trails were originally created by feet and hooves. Therefore, the trails were not designed for larger vehicles. Knowing now that wagonsbeing much wider, clumsier, and heavier: 1,800 lbs. each 113 could traverse the mountains "[inaugurated the] great overland migration toward the Oregon country." 114 Not many people can claim to have inaugurated a national migration. But this first event by Sublette made it known to Americans that they could come west in

109 Nunis, Andrew Sublette, Rocky Mountain Prince, 1808-1853, 1-9. Sunder, Bill Sublette: Mountain Man, 3-7. 110 Sunder, Bill Sublette: Mountain Man, 47-53. 111 Sunder, Bill Sublette: Mountain Man, 66-67. 112 Sunder, Bill Sublette: Mountain Man, 3-7.84-85. Nunis, Andrew Sublette, Rocky Mountain Prince, 1808-1853, 19-20. Chittenden and Vinton, The American Fur Trade, 294. 113 Hafen, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, volume V, 352. 114 Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 38.

wagons loaded with their supplies and possessions. After this feat, Smith, Jackson and Sublette sold their business to five other trappers, among whom were Milton G. Sublette, little brother of William, and famed mountain man Jim Bridger. Before the fur trade began to dwindle and die by 1840, Sublette and his partner at the time, Robert Campbell, built a fort in Wyoming which became the first permanent settlement in the state: Fort Laramie, originally named Fort William, in 1834.115 Today, Fort Laramie is a National Historic Site, no longer a populated settlement, but in its day it was tremendously important:

For more than half a century Fort Laramie was the most important historical point in the great Northwest region between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast. It was the central base of supplies and a military station on the overland trails across the plains and mountains to Oregon, California and Utah, over which the "forty- niners,'' Mormons and Oregon emigrants treked [sic] in huge trains and cavalcades. For many years it was the rendezvous of the most powerful Indian tribes of the Northwest. It was the headquarters of the most famous explorers, hunters, trappers, scouts, guides and fur traders known in western history ... Nearly all of the early United States geological surveys and reconnaissances [sic] made Fort Laramie a base of operations or supplies. Many important military

115 Trenholm, Wyoming Pageant, 275. Hafen and Young, Fort Laramie and the Pageant of the West, 25-30. Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 48-49.

expeditions were organized there and some of the most noted Indian treaties were there concluded. As a midway station on the old Government trail, it afforded protection and a resting place to thousands of emigrants crossing the plains bound westward, who recuperated their stock on the grasses of the valleys of the North Platte and Laramie rivers and here they purchased needed supplies before entering on their long and tedious journey through the mountains.116

Granted, Sublette did not act alone; he was constantly in partnerships with Americans and other Frenchmen, but Wyoming history records his name because he took the initiative and was the principal person of two important firsts: the first person to bring wagons through the Rocky Mountains which marked the beginning of western migration via that route, and the first person to build a permanent settlement in what would become Wyoming. The glory days of these accomplishments have long passed, but Fort Laramie still stands as a reminder that a son of French immigrants influenced the early history of Wyoming.

Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville

Fort Bonneville, Mount Bonneville, and Bonneville Lakes take their names from Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville, a Frenchmen of "distinguished antecedents."117 Born

116 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 305-306. 117 Mattes, Colter’s Hell & Jackson’s Hole, chap. VI.

in France in 1796, his family was brought to America by Thomas Paine because the father Bonneville provoked the ire of Napoleon with a controversial writing after the French Revolution. 118 (Wyoming history has such interesting and profound ties to pivotal events and people in world history!) After graduating from West Point in 1819, the son Bonneville took a leave of absence from the Army to explore the West and participate in the fur trade. 119 Bonneville only operated in Wyoming for three years, from 1832 to 1835, but he is a French- born explorer of whom Wyoming should be exceedingly proud because in his short tenure he accomplished two firsts and inspired a third. Whereas William Sublette was the first to take wagons through the Rocky Mountains to the 1830 rendezvous, Bonneville was the first to take wagons through South Past, along the Oregon Trail, to the 1832 rendezvous. In future years, the Oregon Trail would become a highway of sorts for westward-bound American emigrants. By taking the first wagons through South Pass, known as the "saddle of the Rockies" because it is where passage is easiest, Bonneville affirmed the feasibility of this route for emigrant wagon trains.120 Moreover, he affirmed that the route was traversable by sizeable groups because his entourage included one hundred ten men and twenty wagons.121 Whereas William Sublette established the first permanent settlement in WyomingFort LaramieBonneville

118 Hafen, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, volume V, 45. 119 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 117. 120 Hafen, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, volume V, 49. 121 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 118.

built the first fort in Wyoming: Fort Bonneville.122 With the help of Lucien Fontenelle, a French-American from New Orleans, Fort Bonneville was erected in the Fall of 1832 near the city of Daniel in Sublette county. However the fort was very short- lived: after a single month, Bonneville relocated to the Snake River because winter weather in the area proved too severe. Consequently, Fort Bonneville became known as "Fort Nonsense" or "Bonneville's Folly."123 It was a total failure but a first nonetheless: an establishment in the Rocky Mountain West of Wyoming decades before all others. Bonneville overstayed his military leave of absence which resulted in him being declared lost and dropped from military enlistment. When he returned, President Andrew Jackson had to order his reinstatement, but the War Department refused to report Bonneville's records and findings that he had accrued during his three years in the Far West.124 Fortunately, he met Washington Irving who used Bonneville's adventures in the West to write and publish The Adventures of Captain Bonneville in 1837. Since Wyoming was still out of reach in the 1830s for all but hardy mountain men and Indians, average person had little knowledge of the area, an ignorance which Washington's book ameliorated by being one of the first "colorful accounts of the Wyoming country."125 Thus, by "wagonizing" South Pass on the Oregon Trail, and building the first, albeit quickly abandoned, establishment in

122 Beard, Wyoming from Territorial Days to the Present, 42. 123 Linford, Wyoming, Frontier State, 99. Trenholm, Wyoming Pageant, 83. 124 Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 119. 125 Linford, Wyoming, Frontier State, 386.

Wyoming, and contributing to the general exploration and knowledge of the area to become Wyoming, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville was another influential Frenchmen in the history of Wyoming, as well as a foundation for Western literature.

John Charles Frémont

C. G. Coutant wrote a superb introduction for John Charles Frémont in the context of Wyoming history:

The exploring expedition of Lieutenant John C. Fremont into Wyoming in 1842 was an important event in our early history. The commander of the expedition, though only twenty-nine years old, was a ripe scholar, a keen observer, and withal possessed the genius of an explorer. He left throughout Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains indelible footprints and gave to the world a comprehensive knowledge of things as they were in our country at that time. ... The cloud of mystery which had covered mountain and plain in Wyoming was cleared away by this intrepid explorer, and the locality was given its proper place on the map of the west.126

Two points about this introduction from the earliest Wyoming historian merit attention. First, the footprints of Frémont are "indelible". Although he did not start a city, or even a ranch, his work was nonetheless important enough to preclude erasing or

126 Coutant, History of Wyoming, 238.

fading from history. Second and related, his work cleared away the "cloud of mystery" over Wyoming. This echoes and reaffirms the work of La Salle and La Vérendrye who risked and met death in their attempts to make known the West, wherein Wyoming remained unknown and inaccessible. From La Salle in the seventeenth century to Frémont in the mid-nineteenth century, Wyoming had to be reached, explored, and made known before life here was possible for average people. In a word, a foundation had to be established before the building boom of the late-nineteenth century could commence. The impetus for this foundation is often attributed to the railroad, which in truth did make settling Wyoming faster and simpler, but before "big iron" men like La Salle, La Vérendrye, Sublette, Bonneville, and Frémont laid the most important foundation of all: knowledge. Fremont County, Fremont Peak, Fremont Lake, Fremont Canyon, every business name which includes "Fremont" (Fremont Motors, Fremont Electric, etc.), Pathfinder Dam, Pathfinder Reservoir, and Pathfinder National Wildlife Refuge all take their names from John Charles Frémont, Jr., the son of a French refugee. John Charles Frémont, Sr., came to America to escape Napoleonic persecution, not unlike Bonneville's father. Frémont, Sr., taught French and dancing in Georgia where Frémont, Jr., was born. The young Frémont inherited his father's culture and refinement, and he was soon discovered to be exceptionally bright, a genius one might say, but his love for nature outweighed his love for the classroom. Although expelled from Charleston College, the university would later confer upon Frémont a bachelors and master’s degree. In addition to intelligence, the Frémont family was well-connected, having the ear of prominent senators and even the President. By marriage, Frémont joined the lineage of George Washington. With such connections, it was easy for him to secure a position in the

Military Topographical Corps on a mapping expedition in 1839 with the French explorer Jean Nicholas Nicollet. It was during this expedition that Frémont learned from Nicollet all the ropes of working in the unknown West: logistics, staffing, Indian relations, etc. Thus, the great Pathfinder, Frémont's nickname, was the protégé of a Frenchman for whom he retained a great respect and admiration.127 After gaining experience with Nicollet, Frémont made five western expeditions, but only the first in 1842 was specific to Wyoming because, in general, Frémont was concerned with accurately charting and opening the entire West to America because, even though he was a first-generation French- American, he was also a fervent American patriot like his French-born father. In Wyoming, Frémont and some of his men traveled from Fort Laramie to the Wind River Range where, leading the way, he ascended what he erroneously believed to be the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains: Fremont Peak at 13,602 feet (4,146 meters). 128 Being a consummate patriot, Fremont planted an American flag on the summit of this peak. Apart from this first accomplishment, his party made no more significant discoveries, and they returned to St. Louis.

127 Eyre, The Famous Fremonts and Their America, 1-39. 128 The Rocky Mountains were largely uncharted in 1842, so Frémont could not have known at the time that his peak was not the highest.

Figure 6 - Frémont Planting the American Standard on the Rocky Mountains

Although it seems at first that the expedition was rather uneventful, one must bear in mind that Frémont was constantly charting the area with exactitude never before achieved, and it was this precise information that cleared away the cloud of mystery over Wyoming. Of course, accurate maps alone do not convince people that a land is hospitable; that requires knowing something of the land's character. Before migration to and through the West began in earnest in the mid-nineteenth century, America west of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains was still the "Great American Desert". The descriptions Frémont reported of the West helped change this perception. He wrote of "lush vegetation", "swift, treacherous, trout-filled streams", and

"awe-inspiring scenes".129 Therefore, one might call John Charles Frémont the first promoter of Wyoming, prefiguring one of the state's marketing slogans by one hundred seventy years: "Live the West." 130 However, given that French was one of his maternal languages, perhaps he would have said "Vive l'Ouest". The preceding has not even scratched the surface of the life and works of Frémont. He is a character whose place in the history of the American West is prominent and significant. He did not operate as extensively in Wyoming as Sublette or Bonneville, but even short sojourns were enough to persuade nearly every historian of Wyoming to at least mention his role in the state's history. Even T. A. Larson, in whose work people and events before 1867 are nearly absent, mentions Frémont. Like the other men of French heritage discussed hitherto, John Charles Frémont is one whom Wyoming can be proud to claim as part of its history.

Jacques "Laramie"

Perhaps no figure in the history of Wyoming has received more recognition for doing less than Jacques "Laramie". However, a French history of Wyoming would not be complete without his name because many places bear it: Laramie City, Laramie County, Laramie River, Laramie Peak, Laramie Plains, and Fort Laramie. Whereas all the aforementioned Frenchmen accomplished significant first events, Jacques Laramie merely

129 Linford, Wyoming, Frontier State, 105. 130 In 2012, Laramie, WY used this slogan. As of 2016, the slogan is "Real History. True Adventure."

died. No one is even sure if "Jacques" was his real first name, and "Laramie" is certainly an Anglicized version of his real last name. Nonetheless, the name "Laramie" marks many significant places; for example, the city of Laramie is home to the University of Wyoming, and the capitol of Wyoming, Cheyenne, is located in Laramie County. Several sources attempt to reveal the details of this fur trapper's life, but there are simply no records. Regardless, there are two accounts of Laramie's death. The most prevalent and probably best account is given by C. G. Coutant who wrote a mere eighty years after Laramie's death, and was therefore able to talk to people who lived during Laramie's years, the 1810s and 1820s. As the story goes, in 1820 Laramie went to trap on the Laramie River (before it bore his name), an area known to be dangerous. Consequently, he was never seen again. Some accounts say he was found dead in a cabin that he had built, others say his body was not found. Perhaps he was killed by Arapahoe Indians, who denied the charge, but there is no evidence about his death.131 The second account is the supposed eyewitness account of Pierre Lesperance, an "undistinguished" trapper who reputedly told a story how, in 1814, he and several other trappers including Laramie were camping one night, were awoken by gunshots a little before dawn, and thus found Laramie dead where he slept. Being witness to his death, Lesperance named Laramie River in honor of the deceased. 132 Which account is true cannot be determined. The account of Coutant has become the standard,

131 Coutant, History of Wyoming, 296-299. Hafen, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, volume VI, 223-225. 132 Hafen, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, volume VI, 243.

but that does not make it true; conversely, the account of Lesperance appears in only one source, but that does not make it false. In either case, one detail is consistent: Jacques Laramie was murdered. Apart from that, nothing is certain. If, however, the second account could be verified, that would resolve an important question that no known source poses: why were several places named after Laramie? Most sources only say that such-and-such place was named after Jacques Laramie without saying why. Stories of his death aside, there is one interesting account of his birth and origins:

Recent correspondence with J. Edmond LaRamee of Montreal has yielded the information that the fur trapper was a descendent of Jacques Fissiau dit LaRamee of Blois City, France. Arriving in Canada in 1708, the Frenchman settled in Pointe-Aux-Trembles near Montreal and began the line of the LaRamees in the New World. Family tradition has it that the trapper in question was the great grandson of Jacque Fissiau, and the son of Joseph and Jeanne Mondou LaRamee of Yamaska, Quebec. Church records show that Joseph was the father of five sons, none of whom was named Jacques or Baptiste. However, the third son, who was born on June 8, 1784, bore the name Joseph.133

For having so many places named after him, Wyoming knows surprisingly little about Jacques Laramie. Exhaustive research,

133 Hafen, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, volume VI, 224-225.

both domestic and foreign, could uncover an important chapter of Wyoming history that still lies obscured in a cloud of mystery.

∞

During the fur trade period from the 1820s to the early 1840s, more Europeans entered Wyoming than ever before. They came to trap beavers and other animals because the fur fashion crazy that began in Europe nearly two hundred years prior was still à la mode. Those who came did not stay, but some influences of their activities have remained. This chapter highlighted four men of French heritage whose presence in Wyoming during these years is still primarily evident by the multitude of places named after them: William Lewis Sublette, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville, John Charles Frémont, and Jacques Laramie. It is not surprising that Frenchmen were pivotal in the fur trade, and therefore prevalent in Wyoming, because the French outnumbered Americans four to one, and the French had always been pioneers in the business. The "firsts" of these men exemplify French initiative: they were the first to build forts in Wyoming, the first to push wagons through trails thereby opening the West for later American emigrants, the first to scale Wyoming mountains, and the first to report back that Wyoming is a fertile land. Their accomplishments were a continuation of French influences in the American West which began with La Salle and La Vérendrye and reached Wyoming en masse during the fur trade period. The next chapter discusses more Frenchmen who continued the tradition of French initiative and influence in Wyoming history to the end of the nineteenth century.

6. Not Enough Saloons

In the development of the Great Northwest, has the French nation contributed more than an ordinary share. In writing of the progressive men of Wyoming, it will be seen that many men of French extract are among them...134

The French did not disappear from Wyoming like beavers at the end of the fur trade in the 1840s. Rather, in the second half of the nineteenth century three Frenchmen capitalized on emerging industries in the state:

• Emile Granier • James Bordeaux • Victor Arland Each was an entrepreneur who foresaw the need for a new market and undertook a business to meet the need. Their business ventures are fascinating because they are scarcely found in any major historical work, and all three failed despite being rather lucrative. Only Bordeaux is mentioned in major historical works due to his connection to Fort Laramie, which he managed for several years. In general, major histories of Wyoming

134 Bowen, Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming, 865.

document thoroughly and comprehensively people and events in the southeast corner of the state where Fort Laramie, the capitol, the university, and the three largest cities are located. The same is not true for other corners of the state for which there are several historical works but none so thorough and comprehensive as for the southeast corner. For example, there is no single, great volume on the history of northwest Wyomingwhere the city of Cody, Yellow Stone National Park, and the Tetons are locatedlike the voluminous works of Coutant, Bartlett, Beard, and Larson. Granier and Arland operated in the central-west and northwest, respectively, which explains their absence in major histories. Granier is documented rather well for reasons that will be clear after discussing his business venture. Arland, on the other hand, has been either neglected or misrepresented by the few historians that document him. By turning the historical Wyoming spotlight from its usual southeast bias to other corners of the state, one again finds Frenchmen at work, this time building cities in the late- nineteenth century. Let's visit them...

James Bordeaux

James Bordeaux was the American-born son of French- Canadian immigrants. He spoke French and English, and although he probably could not read or write, that did not stop him from participating in an array of professions: trader, manager, entrepreneur, interprète, farmer. Given that he was intimately involved with Fort Laramie and various aspects of Wyoming for more than twenty years, it is surprising that histories of Wyoming only mention him in passing. The near absence of Bordeaux from Wyoming history is probably due first

to his multiple occupations and second to his questionable character. Among his occupations, he was most influential as a manager and an entrepreneur. For several years, he was in charge of Fort Laramie, perhaps the most important fort west of the Mississippi in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Later, he started trading posts and participated in other commercial ventures. In a word, James Bordeaux was industrious, but none of his ventures lasted in their original forms. Therefore, he lacks an historical totem, so to speak, on which a chapter in Wyoming history could focus. As for his character, some accounts of Bordeaux do not cast him in the best light. He was no villain, but business seems to have been his raison d'être, to the exclusion of chivalrous personality traits like selflessness and bravery. Even if James Bordeaux lacked the affluence, refinement, or intelligence of others like John Charles Frémont, he nonetheless has a significant place in the history of Wyoming due to his connection to Fort Laramie and his successful trading posts. James Bordeaux was a "shrewd business man" with little patience for conflict that threatened or disrupted business. 135 Consequently, different people expressed different feelings about his affability. As the manager of Fort Laramie from 1842 to 1849, Bordeaux met several notable historical figures: John Charles Frémont, Francis Parkman, Chief Red Cloud, and Brigham Young. 136 Frémont found Bordeaux to be hospitable and helpful, and he gave Young a "cordial" welcome, but Parkman found him to be "much inflated by a sense of his new

135 Trenholm, Wyoming Pageant, 89. 136 Parkman called Bordeaux the "bourgeois", meaning "boss" or "manager" at the time.

authority". Parkman also related how Bordeaux refused a duel with another trader with whom he had had an altercation and by whom he was spared a beating thanks to the intervention of an Indian relative. 137 Similarly, it is recounted that Bordeaux averted becoming a victim of Grattan's Massacre when he began to ride to Grattan's aide as a sober interpreter but turned back claiming that his stirrups were too long. Soon after, Indians killed everyone in Grattan's party. 138 Did Bordeaux act cowardly? First, one must bear in mind that Bordeaux was a businessman, not a soldier or West Point graduate like Grattan. Conflict with Indians hurt business, so he tried to avoid it. Second, Bordeaux warned Grattan against his actions, but Grattan wanted conflict, saying: "I hope to God we will have a fight.” 139 Third, the conflict centered on a lame cow that an Indian had killed, so it hardly justified Grattan's charge. Grattan wanted to find and temporarily take the Indian to Fort Laramie until the tribe could make reparations. Rather than work diplomatically, Grattan charged into the Indian's camp with thirty-nine men, two howitzers, and a drunken interpreter. A misunderstanding led to a fight that proved fatal to all in Grattan's party.140 Forty men died for one lame cow. No one in the Grattan Massacre was a hero, but if Grattan had listened to Bordeaux, Grattan could have avoided senseless death and hostility. Perhaps Bordeaux could have done more to prevent the

137 Hafen and Lecompte, French Fur Traders and Voyageurs, 46-47. Bartlett, History of Wyoming, 127. Parkman, The Oregon Trail; The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 97. 138 Nadeau, Fort Laramie and the Sioux Indians., 97. 139 Nadeau, Fort Laramie and the Sioux Indians., 95. 140 Nadeau, Fort Laramie and the Sioux Indians., 92-101.

conflict, but he was a businessman, not a diplomat. Another piece of evidence that Bordeaux was guided by business interests rather than diplomacy is an Indian war that he helped quell: Oglala Chief Whirlwind was ready to go to war against the Shoshone, but Bordeaux convinced him that war was a fool's errand.141 That is to say, he did not convince Chief Whirlwind that peace was preferable, but he convinced him that war was too costly—for Bordeaux. If the Indians were to fight, they would not trap and trade furs. Almost nothing more is recorded about Bordeaux as the manager of Fort Laramie, which is strange given his seven year tenure and contact with the aforementioned notable historical figures. Perhaps as a good businessman he was able to keep risk and volatility low at the fort, so business proceeded with minimal drama year after year. In any case, the historical significance is that, before the United States of America bought Fort Laramie and turned it into a military post, it was managed for many years by an industrious Frenchman. Since Fort Laramie is a cornerstone of Wyoming history, it would be valuable to investigate further how Bordeaux influenced affaires there. The second notable influence of Bordeaux, and another example of his business-minded nature, was the strategic trading post he built in 1867. Thanks to inside information, Bordeaux learned in advance where the War Department was going to build a new fortFort D. A. Russelland a connecting road from it to Fort Laramie. Correctly anticipating traffic between the forts, Bordeaux constructed and stocked a three-room

141 Hafen and Young, Fort Laramie and the Pageant of the West, 121. Parkman, The Oregon Trail; The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 123.

building at a fork in the new road to serve traffic to and from multiple forts. This "road ranch" was successful in two respects. First, it served its primary purpose as a supply station between Fort Laramie and Fort Russell, and it also became a mail distribution point for ranches and encampments in the vicinity. At the same time in history, 1867, the city of Cheyenne had just come into existence due to the arrival of the railroad in the south. Thus the location of the Bordeaux trading post was doubly advantageous being on the main route between Cheyenne and Fort Laramie. Consequently, several notable people and groups passed through the Bordeaux trading post, like Red Cloud on his way to Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, however, very little was recorded at the Bordeaux trading post until John Hunton, one of Wyoming's earliest and most notable historians, bought the site in 1870. Four years later, the Black Hills gold rush began and the Bordeaux trading post, which became called Hunton's Ranch, again found itself on an important route: the Cheyenne-Black Hills stage route. As a result, "4-horse and 6-horse coaches [were] passing through Bordeaux at all hours of the day and night.”142 Although Bordeaux himself had since moved on, his well-placed trading post continued to serve travelers between Cheyenne and the Black Hills. For all that Bordeaux did in Wyoming, for all his business ventures and assorted involvements and acquaintances, he has received only passing mentions in a few works of Wyoming history in connection to either Fort Laramie or his trading post. By contrast, several works chronicle minutely the one journey into Wyoming made by John Charles Frémont. Why

142 Hunton and Flannery, "Native American Sagas," 7.

has a former manager of Fort Laramie and the founder of a popular trading post been marginalized? Perhaps his smattering of professions or his unwillingness to help Grattan offer some explanation, but neither negate that this son of French-Canadian parents was an accomplished Wyoming businessman for nearly twenty years in the mid- to late-nineteenth century.

Emile Granier

The South Pass area, and specifically Atlantic City, went through a few gold rush booms and busts. The Frenchman Emile Granier initiated the second cycle in 1884. He came from Paris to Atlantic Citya formidable change of climate and culturewith foresight, determination, technology, and money. Granier believed that the land in South Pass still contained gold that was profitably minable with the correct technology. The endeavor required large amounts of determination and money because water, critical for mining operations, was scare in the area. He was not alone in believing the risks were worth the potential rewards. Granier soon became a beacon of hope and prosperity in a state desirous for both. Had he succeeded, Wyoming would surely not have forgotten its "famous millionaire."143 Granier did not succeed, though; he disappeared one winter sojourn in Paris, never to return to Wyoming. It is little wonder that no histories of Wyoming mention Emile Granier because his tenure was fleeting, branded with failure, and crowned with desertion. To find mention of him in

143 "No Tin Could Be Found," Chicago Tribune, October 17, 1891, http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1891/10/17/page/7/.

connection to Wyoming requires consulting histories of mining in South Pass, and even those accounts are brief. The most extensive study of Granier was conducted by Bruce J. Noble, Jr., in his article "A Frenchman in Wyoming: The South Pass Mining Misadventures of Emile Granier" published in the Annals of Wyoming. 144 Why, then, count this "marginal" Frenchman among prominent French influences in the history of Wyoming? His misadventures aside, Emile Granier was an important entrepreneur who invested much in Wyoming, taking all the risk, in honest hope of success for himself, the town of Atlantic City, and the state of Wyoming. Furthermore, his business venture was an early example of the exact same kind of large industrial projects that Wyoming still tries to attract today. Recent examples include the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) datacenter, a Verizon datacenter, and a coal- to-liquids plant. 145 It is historically noteworthy that one man attempted such an ambitious project, yet few individuals in Wyoming history who personally invested as much were ever so marginalized. Let's change history by learning about the work of Emile Granier in Atlantic City (South Pass) in a positive light. In the previous South Pass gold rush of 1867-1872, prospectors mined a rather small but respectable two million dollars of gold. The rush ended, but the belief that there was still gold in those hills endured. A second round of mining was

144 Noble, "A Frenchman in Wyoming," 48-61. 145 "DKRW turns to the state to finance Medicine Bow plant," Wyoming Public Media, accessed November 6, 2016, http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/dkrw-turns-state-finance- medicine-bow-plant.

impeded by a lack of money to finance the operation and water to help separate the gold from the dirt. Unfortunately, moneyed mining-minded men were hard to come by in Wyoming those days, but even if they were not, the scarcity of water in the area was a sufficient deterrent. Thus the outlook for a revitalization of gold mining in South Pass was bleak.146 Then, in 1884, Emile Granier arrived in Atlantic City like a French Superman come to save the day: with one hand he dealt a fantastic flow of cash, and with the other he drafted clever plans to reroute and store water by building canals and dams. Three years and one hundred fifty thousand dollars later (even today, more than 100 years later, $150,000 is an incredible personal investment!), Granier had constructed two canals, a dam, and a reservoir to hold water during the dry summer months. The canals were impressive in their own right. The first was nearly seven feet wide at water level, two and half feet deep, and ran for ten and a half miles. The second was even larger: eleven feet wide at water line, three feet deep, and ran for sixteen and a half miles. Optimism surrounded the completion of the necessary waterworks. The 1886 report by Wyoming Territorial Governor Francis E. Warren to the Ninth Legislature of Wyoming states: "This enterprise is a very important one to the mining interests of the Territory, and if continued cannot fail to be richly remunerative to its projectors." A year later, in 1887, Wyoming Territorial Governor Thomas Moonlight visited and spent two days with Granier and predicted that "next spring will witness a wonderful excitement in [South Pass]. The building of this canal has given employment to a large number of men and teams, and

146 Noble, "A Frenchman in Wyoming," 50.

Mr. Granier has justly earned the right to reap a rich reward."147 The work of Granier was significant enough to attract the attention and praise of two territorial governors, and he was ready to "surprise the world with the output of gold from [his] mines", but success would have to wait. Granier was going to mine Rock Creek, but the grade of the creek was too small, and a larger grade was required to efficiently collect gold from the water. To compensate, he needed a hydraulic mining elevator: a large and complicated piece of equipment to pump water through the gold collection devices at a higher grade. This equipment could not be bought at the local hardware store, nor anywhere in Wyoming, so Granier ordered it from California. Once the hydraulic mining elevator was installed, the Granier gold mining operation was finally ready to begin mining gold. Work proceeded for three seasons, in the years 1890, 1891, and 1892, but despite the support of governors Moonlight and Warren, the financial results of these years have been lost to history. That is the first of two mysteries, the second being: what happened to Granier? One thing is known for sure: Granier never returned to Wyoming after his annual winter trip to Paris in 1892. Some accounts say that he became ill, others say his creditors in France threw him in jail, probably for failing to "surprise the world with the output of gold from [his] mines.” Given that estimates of how much money from gold the Granier mining operation made range from zero to two hundred thousand dollars, it is possible the two mysteries explain each other: because he did not realize fantastic profits after three years of

147 Report of the Governor of Wyoming to the Secretary of the Interior (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887), 36.

work, Granier became hopelessly, legally indebted and therefore unable to return from France. Or, did Granier simply abandon the enterprise in 1892? He purchased other property in 1892 just before leaving, which suggests that he had planned to return. Furthermore, he did not completely disappear: for several years he corresponded from France with various people in Wyoming who were managing his properties until he ultimately sold everything in 1902 to Dexter Mining Company in Rochester, New York. It is frustrating to end the story of Emile Granier on these notes, but nothing more can be said because nothing more is known for sure. However, three conclusions can be drawn from the extant details. First, Emile Granier was a significant person in the history of Wyoming; in his time, he was certainly not an inconnu. He personally knew governors and the state's first engineer, Elwood Mead. Local and other newspapers mention him. And he intended to showcase his work at the 1891 World's Fair in Chicago. These facts indicate a well-known person of importance. Second, despite mysteries and rumors, the work of Emile Granier was significant in the history of Wyoming. He invested years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in Wyoming. He created real jobs and income, and the potential for more jobs and income. Even today, Wyoming jumps at the opportunity for new job-creating industries. Furthermore, all evidence indicates that Granier had good intentions; nothing suggests that he preyed upon a new state desirous for industry and success. In the end, he seems to have been the only victim, for Atlantic City was no worse off than before, yet something serious must have befallen Granier in the winter of 1892 to prevent him from returning to his grand enterprise. Third, Emile Granier reveals a blind spot in the history of Wyoming because he was an important, well-known

person, yet no history of Wyoming even mentions him. At first glance it seems that Wyoming history has forgotten Emile Granier because both he and his enterprise disappeared, leaving more questions than riches. As such, it is difficult to recount his story clearly, but the present analysis of Emile Granier provides an alternative, a positive light: although he failed, his contributions and connections to Wyoming were exemplary. As Thomas Edison said: "I haven't failed. I've found ten thousand ways that don't work."

Victor Arland

The French history of Wyoming ends with a bang, figuratively and literally. There are no French-speaking towns or French-influenced traditions in Wyoming today, but due to one young, adventurous Frenchman the Big Horn Basin in the northwest corner of Wyoming almost became a French colony. Il appela Pierre Victor Arland. The story of Arland is incredible and has the rare and invaluable benefit of primary sources, more than eighty letters written by Arland to friends and family. The Victor Arland letters are indispensable to the story of Arland and, more importantly, to the history of Wyoming because they give a first- hand account of happenings in the Big Horn Basin from the 1880s to 1890. As such, the Victor Arland letters and Victor Arland himself, for pioneering the first mercantile town in the nascent Big Horn Basin, are part of Wyoming's heritage. Although Victor Arland is a significant first person in the history of Wyoming, only histories of the Big Horn Basin written after 1961 mention him in detail for one simple reason: the original sixty letters were only made known in 1961, and more than

twenty additional letters were made known in 2011. 148 Two earlier works on the history of the Big Horn Basin mention Arland: Stories of Early Days in Wyoming: Big Horn Basin by Tacetta Walker in 1936, and The Big Horn Basin by Charles Lindsay in 1930. These works paint a very limited picture because their sources were presumably limited to interviews, common knowledge, or C. G. Coutant's notes.149 Regardless, the relatively late appearance of the Victor Arland letters left a gap in Wyoming history that has since only been filled by various short article and three major works: From Beaver to Oil by David J. Wasden in 1973, Brand of a Legend by Bob Edgar and Jack Turnell in 1978, and Wyoming's Big Horn Basin to 1901 by Lawrence M. Woods in 1997. Woods discusses ranches and railroads in depth, but he also devotes a whole chapter titled "Fleurs-de-lis Along the Stinking Water" to "foreign aristocrats who came to work and to play at the cattle business", the majority of whom were French. He gives a comprehensive account of the short-lived French colony in the early Big Horn Basin, noting that it began with Victor Arland. The chapter also begins with what might be the only extant photograph in which

148 The original sixty-two Victor Arland letters are archived at the McCracken Research Library in the Buffalo Bill Center of West in Cody, Wyoming. In September 2011, Denis Sabrié, a descendant of Victor Arland, contacted the McCracken to make known that he has approximately twenty additional letters. Mary Robinson, a research librarian at the McCracken, put Monsieur Sabrié and myself in contact. I have therefore had the privilege to read Victor Arland letters unknown to other scholars. The additional letters both pre- and post-date the original letters. I cite the additional letters as "Sabrié Collection", and access to them remains at the discretion of Monsieur Sabrié. 149 Lindsay, The Big Horn Basin, 129fn138.

Victor Arland appears.150 The works of Wasden, Edgar, Turnell, and Woods are laudable for making the original Victor Arland letters known to the public, but they do not afford Arland his full significance because their works are still largely dominated by ranches and railroads. Granted, the basin grew up on ranches, so cowboys were historically important, but the history of the Big Horn Basin can also be told by focusing on the early towns which made life possible in the basin. Through this lens, the significance of Arland is seen clearly: by establishing the first mercantile town in the Big Horn Basin, Victor Arland provided many of life's necessities for early settlers: food, work, fun—and more. Although the town of Arland no longer exists, it remains nonetheless an important first accomplishment. Let's begin Arland's story by summarizing his life in the United States before he founded his town in Wyoming. This period of his life is an extensive story but outside the scope of this book. Then let's visit the town of Arland, paying specially attention to the various roles it played in the life of early Big Horn Basin inhabitants. Finally, we'll hear the bang that brought an end to significant French influences in the history of Wyoming, and Arland's life.

Pierre Victor Arland was born in 1848 in Varennes-sur- Amance, France.151 On June 30, 1870 he left Paris for Le Havre

150 I thank Monsieur Denis Sabrié for pointing this out to me. 151 Victor Arland was the great-uncle of Marcel Arland who, I'm told by Professor Emeritus Walter G. Langlois, was a close friend of André Malraux. Marcel Arland mentions Victor Arland briefly in his book Mais enfin qui êtes-vous?: "Tu as souvent évoqué, m'a-t-on dit, ton fameux oncle, qui avait fondé, dans un coin perdu des États-Unis, un

to sail to New York; he was twenty-two years old.152 During his first five years in the United States, he lived on the east coast and worked in vineyards. Arland wanted to move to Mexico where the climate is better for growing grapes, but the Franco-Mexican War prevented him. He went west instead, and by 1875 he was at the Spotted Tail Agency in Nebraska. There he trapped beavers and hunted other game and, later, went to the Black Hills in South Dakota to prospect for gold during the rush. Like most explorers in the Far West, Arland passed through Cheyenne and Fort Laramie during his travels. It is not known if he had contact with James Bordeaux or other notables at Fort Laramie. From 1878 to 1880 he continued to hunt and camp around Fort Custer in Montana before migrating farther west into Wyoming. By the end of 1881 he had begun raising cattle on Trail Creek in the Big Horn Basin. In letters from January 1882, he talked about his ranch that he sold to another Frenchman by the end of 1882. In March 1882, Arland claimed that "we're going to have a French colony here", referring to other Frenchmen also ranching in the basin. After selling his ranch, Arland transitioned from rancher to merchant, supplying the needs of other ranchers in the area. In 1884 he moved operations to a more advantageous location on Meeteetse Creek, a few miles west of present-day Meeteetse. The town was first called Vickburg, then Arland when it

vrai royaume (on l'appelait le comté d'Arland)." This is passage, "Tu" refers to Marcel Arland's father who died at age twenty-eight. To my knowledge, this is the only written mention of Victor Arland outside works pertaining to the history of Wyoming. 152 Sabrié Collection, letter "A", June 14, 1870. Sabrié Collection, letter "B", June 28, 1870. Woods, Wyoming's Big Horn Basin to 1901, 87.

attracted a post office. The town thrived from its founding in 1884 to 1890 when Arland died. Afterwards, it began to dwindle under the management of Arland's friend and business partner, John F. Corbett, and ultimately it disappeared. Although its "golden years" only numbered five, the town of Arland was nonetheless influential in the lives of early Big Horn Basin inhabitants. First and foremost, the town was established as a business venture to provide for the needs of the burgeoning cattle industry in the area, but it also served hunters and Indians. In its primary role, as supplier to ranches, the timing of its existence was impeccable because the basin was stocked between 1879 and 1884.153 Thus, Arland appeared "in the center of the cattle raisers"154 at the same time the cattle industry in the Big Horn Basin came to fruition. By his own estimations, there were about thirty thousand cattle and fifteen ranches within twenty miles of the townmore than enough cattlemen, cowboys, and cows to require a town with supplies. Consequently, Arland boasted that "notre commerce marche très bien" and "notre commerce a considérablement augmenté car nous avons les 3/4 de la clientèle du pays."155 Of course, business owners rarely admit when business is poor, but his letters are replete with indirect evidence that business was steady: Arland mentions working late, being very busy or overworked, and consequently his health was a frequent topic. 156 Running one

153 Lindsay, The Big Horn Basin, 98. 154 Victor Arland Collection, March 16, 1884. 155 Victor Arland Collection, June 17, 1884. Victor Arland Collection, October 6, 1884. 156 Victor Arland Collection, October 6, 1884. Victor Arland Collection, December 5, 1884.

successful business is work enough, but running a small town is difficult to fathom. Arland only mentions one client by name: Ashworth & Johnson, which still exists today as the Hoodoo Ranch. Arland did a lot of business with this outfit. 157 He probably also did a lot of business with the large and famous Pitchfork Ranch just down the road.158 That ranch was started by a German, Otto Franc, who kept a terse diary for many years in which he mentions receiving freight and mail from the town of Arland, employees going there to dance, and Arland himself coming to or calling the ranch. 159 However, as Woods notes: "Otto Franc [...] simply ignored his French neighbors in his diary. Perhaps his actions are understandable, considering the recent war between Germans and French in 1870."160 In addition to cattlemen and cowboys, Arland outfitted hunters and traded with Indians. The latter were primarily Crow, but also some Shoshone, who camped around the town. Arland found them to be peaceful, and all parties were amicable. The Crow Indians once gave Arland two scalps as a token of friendship, and they nicknamed him "Honest Vic".161 As for hunters, Arland did all he could to "encourage the sportsmen of the East to come to the area around our place for hunting, in order to supply them with

Victor Arland Collection, February 14, 1885. Victor Arland Collection, February 25, 1886. Victor Arland Collection, September 19, 1886. Victor Arland Collection, July 6, 1887. Victor Arland Collection, February 2, 1889. 157 Victor Arland Collection, March 26 1884. 158 Charles Lindsay, The Big Horn Basin, 100. 159 Edgar and Turnell, Brand of a Legend, 60-65. 160 Woods, Wyoming's Big Horn Basin to 1901, 85 161 Victor Arland Collection, February 14, 1885. Dadant, "Selling Honey to the Indians," 5.

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the provisions they need." To this end, he met with some success because he goes on to tell the names of various nobles who came west to hunt.162 All told, the influence of Arland reached far and wide, from ranches and cowboys to Indians to East coast aristocrats—the usual motley crew in the American West of the late nineteenth century. Arland may have been a small town, but it served a large population and purpose. Arland supplied early Big Horn Basin settlers in a simpler but perhaps more important capacity: food. The following story, in two letters, reveals important information about the town; Arland wrote in December 1886:

We are short of provisions because it has been impossible for the teamsters to set out on the way because the ferry on the Yellowstone [River] was carried off by moving ice. I am going to be obliged to send wagons from here to get these provisions, for every single person here is short of provisions. Up till now we haven't had much snow, but in certain localities it fell in such great quantities that the roads are impassible. That is why provisions are so scarce, notably flour, which is selling now for $8-$10 per hundred pounds at Lander, and other foodstuffs proportionally.163

The following summer, in July 1887, he wrote:

Last winter was so severe that it was impossible to send anything by freight. Then in Spring, the roads were so

162 Victor Arland Collection, August 25, 1885. 163 Victor Arland Collection, December 19, 1886.

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bad that the teamsters could go only very slowly. Then the bridge over [the Shoshone River] was swept away by floods on the first of June, at the moment when 60,000 lbs. of merchandise [...] had just arrived at the bridge. Since I had over 20,000 lbs. for myself, to get across the river, I had to build a boat to get this merchandise over on the other side, which caused a lot of delay. Happily, I had already received, about in the middle of the month of May, about 6,000 lbs. of merchandise. Without that, I do not know how we would have managed, for every single person here was at the end of his provisions.164

This story reveals three important points. First point, "every single person here" indicates either that several people were living in or very near Arland, or that Arland had enough familiar contact with the majority of people in the vicinity to know how they were faring. This contrasts with early descriptions of Arland like:

Another shoot-'em-up cowpoke town in the Big Horn Basin was Arland. Between Thermopolis and Cody, a few miles off Route 120 and up Meeteetse Creek on a side road, are the crumpled foundations of this hapless burg. Founded in 1884 by pioneer cattlemen Vic Arland and John Corbett, the little inland town was the setting for many uncurbed brawlings. It was a "Saturday- nighter" for waddies of the famous early-day Pitchfork Ranch. After someone pot shot and killed old Vic his

164 Victor Arland Collection, July 6, 1887.

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village lost all incentive to live. In 1896 its buildings were carted to the nearby youthful Meeteetse.165

Described as such, Arland does not sound like a place where anyone would live, or like a town that would concern itself with the locals' wellbeing. There is good evidence that the town was rowdy from time to time, but that was usual for frontier towns in general. The story revealed through Arland's letters paints a different picture wherein the town of Arland was not just a source of Saturday brawls among "waddies" (an old terms for cowboys) but, rather, a source for the day-to-day needs of the people. The second point revealed in Arland's letter supports this: "20,000 lbs." is a lot of merchandise for a single shipment, and it was obviously not all whiskey. We do not know what that merchandise consisted of, but given that Arland was talking about people being at the end of their provisions, it is logical to conclude that the merchandise was mostly food. In fact, most of his letters were sent to Monsieur Charles Dadant from whom he bought a lot of wine and honey. Third point, the quantity of supplies and the knowledge of how "every single person" was faring implies that business was doing well, that Arland was not struggling for customers. It seems, rather, that it had more problems with winter weather and teamsters than anything else. These three points, along with knowing the town's clienteleranches and cowboys, Indians, and East coast aristocratsdoes not frame Arland as a den of iniquity and whiskey, but rather as a valuable, full-service town that provided for the basic needs of the people.

165 Miller, Ghost Towns of Wyoming, 222.

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Like most full-service towns, Arland required employees. The town was therefore also significant for the fact that it created jobs, and not just more ranch-related jobs, but jobs in other lines of work. Granted, it seems no one got rich working for Arland, not even Arland himself, but it is impressive and notable that one man, using his own capital, and doing a lot of the work himself, created so many jobs. In his own words:

We are in the process of building several buildings such as a store, a clubroom, a restaurant, all establishments which cost a great deal to build here. Labor costs run from $40-$50 per man per month, and food is included. We have at the present moment 5 employees.166

Somewhat humorously, he also notes how it was difficult to find a good, reliable cookhumorous because in the Wild West one rarely thinks that a man's challenge is finding a good cook. He solved this problem by hiring a family to run the restaurant.167 Given the number of buildings in Arland, he must have employed many more people over the course of the years; there was a store and saloon, a restaurant, a storehouse, a stable for twenty-five horses, and two cabins.168 He also employed people to help with the buildings and fences around four hundred acres of land he was in the process of acquiring by preemption rights. 169 The only employee he mentions by name was Gus Dodge, on whom he counted the most, but who became ill and

166 Victor Arland Collection, June 17, 1884. 167 Victor Arland Collection, November 12, 1885. 168 Victor Arland Collection, October 6, 1884. 169 Victor Arland Collection, October 15, 1885.

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was no longer able to work. 170 Other sources talk about the "sporting girls" (or "soiled doves"—prostitutes) who worked the saloon; after all, brothels were common in Wyoming even into the twentieth century. The “soiled doves” of Arland are beyond the scope of this book, and Arland never mentions them directly (which was the social norm: everyone knew of it but no one spoke of it), but they serve as examples nonetheless that businesses create jobs. It is logical to presume that Arland did not run everything himselfno one person can run a town night and day. Someone had to cook, clean, tend bar, repair things, clean the livery stable, mange (viz. hide) the money, etc. Perhaps Arland did many of these jobs himself, but he undoubtedly also had help. Therefore, Arland was also the first significant non- ranching employer in the Big Horn Basin. Alone, the aforementioned is sufficient to conclude that the town of Arland was significant and influential in the early days of the Big Horn Basin, but there is one more aspect of Arland that made it particularly important: parties! It is probably a truism that no one will live in a place where there is no access to recreation, an escape from hard work or hard weather, and Wyoming has both in excess. Without a doubt, Arland was the first fun place in the Big Horn Basin. It made life in the basin more attractive because one did not have to travel more than a hundred miles to the nearest town. Arland seemed keenly aware that the "fun factor" was important and profitable because his saloon and dance hall were the first among his buildings. Dancing was popular from the beginning. Otto Franc mentions

170 Victor Arland Collection, July 19, 1886. Victor Arland Collection, September 19, 1886.

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his men going to Arland to dance, and another local, Tom Osborne, recalled:

In 1884 there were quite a number of teepees camped at Arland. There being only two white women in the country the cowboys decided to teach the young squaws to dance. They became very good at dancing the square dances. These girls were danced until they were completely worn out. They rebel and then the cowboys wake them up with pins and needles when the call was given for all to dance.171

One particular dance precipitated the most dramatic event of Arland's life in Wyoming: on February 22, 1888, Arland held a dance to celebrate George Washington's birthday. Accounts vary slightly, but the end result is that a dispute led to Arland killing a local cowboy, Broken Nose Jackson (a.k.a. Rawhide Jackson). In a letter to his brother, Arland wrote:

Le 22 février j’ai été obligé de tuer un de ces fameux coquins du grand ouest «nommé desparado [sic]» qui était venu chez moi avec l’intention de me tuer et aussi d’autres personnes mais je ne lui en ai pas laisser [sic] le temps car je lui ai envoyé une balle un peu plus haut que la bouche qui la [sic] tué raide au moment où il me mettait en joue avec un fusil de manière qu’il est tombé avec l’œil gauche fermé et l’œil droit ouvert. Il faut te dire aussi que j’ai été attaqué deux fois auparavant par ces espèces de coquins et que ce n’est que par mon sang

171 Edgar and Turnell, Brand of a Legend, 50.

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froids [sic] et agilité que j’ai échappé deux fois d’être assassiné. Aussi tu vois que tout n’est pas rose dans cette vie du grand Ouest Américain [sic].172

Typically terse Otto Franc wrote in his diary, "go to Arland and hold coroner's inquest on Jackson; Arland is acquitted by the Jury", and a grand jury in Lander did in fact acquit Arland.173 Life in the Far West was not all roses, as Arland wrote, but what figurative roses there were in the Big Horn Basin were primarily, if not exclusively, found at Arland. Little in fact has changed in the area since 1888: prostitution is illegal, but drinking, dancing, and gambling are still very much alive in the Big Horn Basin. Arland was the first to provide these revelries. Arland seems to have had everything going for it. It was a viable, growing frontier town in the Great American West. It had all the allure of a Hollywood western, but Arland was no copy, it was the original. In the words of John W. (Josh) Dean: "In spite of its promising beginning its skill for keeping itself always in the public eye and furnishing excitement for all corners, and the fact that it met a real need of the region as a base of supplies, Arland died an untimely death." 174 So what happened? Many sources are incorrect about Arland's death, which is surprising because an authoritative, primary source has existed for more than a century, written where Arland died and within hours of his death: the Red Lodge Picket newspaper

172 Sabrié Collection, letter "U", April 12, 1888. 173 Edgar and Turnell, Brand of a Legend, 62. Victor Arland Collection, July 21, 1888. 174 Cody Enterprise, October 26, 1938.

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published April 26, 1890.175 To set the record straight, here is the full article in its original layout:

A Midnight Assassin. —— Tile Winchester of Some Cold- blooded Assassin sends a Ball Into the Heart of Vic Arland Thursday Night. —— The Murderer Kills His Man Through a Window in John [Donnivan's] Saloon. —— Bill Landon Arrested on Suspicion. The denizens of Red Lodge were thrown into a wild state of excitement Thursday night by the assassination of Vic Arland of Arland, Wyoming. Thurs- day afternoon Vic Arland, Lum Wilson and John Dyer, stockmen of Wyoming came to town on business and after sup- per were circulating around among their friends taking in the sights of the city. About 12 o'clock Vic Arland was sitting in John [Donivin's] saloon talking to a crowd of friends about old times and in the twinkling of an eye his life was snuffed out by a shot from some cold

175 Red Lodge, Montana is a small town ninety miles north of Arland.

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blooded' assassin standing on the outside of the saloon. The ball pierced the man through the heart and killed him instantly. Dr. F. R. Musser was immediately sent for but it was useless as the man never made a struggle and was dead by the time he struck the floor. The parties in "Fat" Jack's saloon went to the back door and could plainly see the tracks where the assassin stood and went from there to Fannie Swalls' place and also found tracks where some one had stood at the back window. Immediately after the shooting Deputy Sheriff Frank Bellar at the instigation of Dyer and Wilson arrested a man by the name of William Landon on suspicion. It seems that this man was arrested on the grounds that he and the deceased had some trouble in Wyoming more than a year ago and were considered as bitter enemies. Judge A. P. McAuelly was woke up to hold an inquest over the remains of the murdered man and at once [impaneled] a jury but will not give a verdict until some lime to-day. The justice of the peace telegraphed to Allen H. Joy, the county attorney, who will arrive here to-day on the train and the preliminary examination will be held. We refrain from making any comments on the affair as there is nothing to warrant an opinion on but circumstantial facts in the case. There is no one who will deny that it was

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a cold blooded murder and the guilty party ought to be brought to justice and dealt with according to law. Vic Arland, the murdered man, was a stockman and well known in this section of Montana and was one of the old- timers. His assassination will be a source of much regret to his Wyoming friends who parted with him only two days ago. The remains of the dead man were taken to Fred Routhier's underta- king establishment and prepared for burial. The deceased was buried at 3 p. m. yesterday in the Red Lodge cemetery. Revs. Mr. Comfort and Van Orsdel de- livered the funeral oration. The funeral ceremonies were held at the grave and attended by most of the business men in town who could get away from their business. The remarks at the grave by that old pioneer, Rever- end George Comfort, were indeed pathet- ic and sorrowful and brought the glisten of tears to the eyes of people who have not an exuberance of tears on less mourn- ful occasions and had been strangers to grief for years.176

176 The article, now more than one hundred twenty years old, is illegible in a few places, denoted with brackets: [ ]. No facts, however, are obscured by illegible print.

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Arland the town continued to exist for about six years, until 1896, but mismanagement and competition from other towns like Meeteetse and Cody lead to its disappearance. All the aforementioned only scratches the surface of Victor Arland and the now absent town of Arland. This conclusion is therefore tenuous because a lot has been left unsaid. Sixty-two Victor Arland letters are currently available to researchers, and more than twenty additional letters exist in the private collection of his only known relative in France. General histories of Wyoming do not mention Arland, probably because they focus more on the southeast corner of the state whereas the Big Horn Basin is in the northwest corner. Histories of the Big Horn Basin before 1961 tend to mention Arland, but details are thin and generalized. After the original sixty-two letters were made available in 1961, subsequent histories of the basin began to include them, but none give Arland his full significance because the works are still largely dominated by ranches and railroads. When Arland is analyzed from the point of view as the first mercantile town in the Big Horn Basin to provide many services both necessary and recreational, its historical significance becomes clear: Arland was a romantic, quasi- mythical Far West frontier town were whiskey-drunk cowboys drew their six-shooter over card game disputes, but it was also a genuine, full-service town, the first to help the Big Horn Basin grow by supplying everything one needed: provisions, employment, and a place to socialize. John W. (Josh) Deane lived in the basin in the 1880s and knew Arland first hand. In his words:

The first of these [three early towns], and the one that gave the most promise of becoming a metropolis, was Arland, established in 1884, ten miles above the mouth

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of Meeteetse creek. Some towns grow up gradually and without premeditation to meet the natural requirements of a region. Others, of which Arland, Wyoming, was a good example, are deliberately, planed, platted, and christened, before containing a single inhabitant.177

Victor Arland was the dénouement of significant French influence in the history of Wyoming, and his story creates a strikingly similar and morbid closure: both the début, René- Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and the dénouement, Pierre Victor Arland, were murdered in cold blood by cowards who did not have the courage to face them. Despite this sad fact, La Salle and Arland have inspired and continue to inspire the imagination and admiration of those who learn their stories and the price they paid for being first people.

∞

The three Frenchmen presented in this chapterJames Bordeaux, Emile Granier, and Victor Arlandexemplify the importance of French influences in the history of Wyoming, for these men were operating in Wyoming during its formative years, from the 1860s to statehood in 1890. Although none of them survived to see the early years of statehood, they remain nonetheless important figures in the history of Wyoming because they were members of a very exclusive club: Wyomingites

177 Lindsay, The Mayor of Meeteetse, 117.

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during those years who either started or revitalized towns. 178 Such ambition is significant and laudable alone, but it is even more notable in terms of the "enabling effect" that towns have, specially in vast, harsh, and sparsely populated states like early Wyoming: towns create jobs, provide needed (and not-so- needed) goods and services, become social centers, and more; and when towns thrive, the state thrives. Wyoming is a rather large state, but even today it has less than one hundred incorporated municipalities. The three towns that Bordeaux, Granier, and Arland attempted to sustain were rare and valuable events in their time, and had they survived, French influences might also have survived in Wyoming to the present day.

178 What passed for a "town" in late-nineteenth century Wyoming was not what we would call a town today.

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7. Opportunity

Ces gens sont d'une race qui ne sait pas mourir... Louis Hémon179

History of Wyoming by T. A. Larson is the de facto standard history of Wyoming: it is rather comprehensive, up-to- date, and easily obtained. Thanks to the proliferation of ebooks, obtaining even the oldest history of Wyoming, The History of Wyoming from the Earliest Known Discoveries by C. G. Coutant, has become quite easy. If one takes the time to read even the first one hundred pages of the four major historical works of Wyoming history examined in chapter three, an inescapable difference is perceived: early histories of Wyoming dedicate a few chapters to early foreign explorers, common among whom were Frenchmen, whereas the most modern history of Wyoming, Larson's, dedicates a few pages. However, Larson stated in his preface:

In order to treat in detail territorial and state developments, I have excluded all but brief mention of the explorers, fur traders, and travelers on the Oregon

179 Hémon and Legendre, Maria Chapdelaine, 198.

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Mormon, and California trailsthe people who came and went many years before there was a Wyoming.180

Therefore, one cannot criticize History of Wyoming for something it was not intended to be. Nonetheless, "the deed is done", so to speak, and the history of Wyoming seems to distance itself more and more from its foreign influences in favor of "cowboy culture". It may simply be the case that, searching for its heritage or historically-rooted identity, the state turns to the most obvious extant influence: ranching, or cowboys. Even though ranches, cowboys, and cowboy culture pervade Wyoming, one can still ask the simple question: why cowboys? In other words: why the "cowboy state" and not, for example, the "buffalo state" since the state flag figures a buffalo? What did cowboys do to merit the honor of representing the state? They did serve as liaisons between the "civilized East" and the "wild West" when the former was migrating to the latter, but they did not build railroads, towns, or governments. They did remain in Wyoming, even to this day, but “by 1892 the story of the frontier ranch and its cowboys had already been lived.”181 Moreover, real cowboys could be unsavory characters; it is only the mythical cowboy that rides a high horse (bad pun intended). Therefore, a simpler and somewhat more perplexing question is: why, after more than one hundred years, does Wyoming still identify so closely with cowboys? This question leads into studies far beyond the scope of this book, but in it lies an idea to which we will return.

180 Larson, History of Wyoming, vii. 181 Frantz and Choate, The American Cowboy, 67.

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Regardless of why Wyoming sees itself as the Cowboy State, there is compelling historical evidence which points to a particular group of people in the history of Wyoming from the late-seventeenth century to statehood in 1890: men of French heritage. This book has presented and examined nine Frenchmen:

• Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye • René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle • Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville • William Lewis Sublette • John Charles Frémont • Jacques "Laramie" • James Bordeaux • Emile Granier • Victor Arland Of course, if one researches long enough, one could find nine Germans or nine Irishmen in the history of Wyoming, too. What makes these Frenchmen significant is that the majority of them were first people, and the others were significant in different respects. For example, La Vérendrye might have been the first white man to set foot in Wyoming which puts him on par with Neil Armstrong because Wyoming was as remote to most people in the eighteenth century as the moon was to humankind until the mid-twentieth century. As first people, the accomplishments of these Frenchmen expanded the limits of the known and the possible. Wyoming was nearly unknown and impossible to reach until the mid-nineteenth century. Before the state could come to be, the "clouds of mystery" had to be cleared away. Frenchmen were not only pivotal in accomplishing this, but also nearly singularly responsible for it because by the time Americans arrived en masse in the mid- to late-nineteenth century Wyoming

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had already been explored, mapped, and visited for half a century. What influences of French heritage remain in Wyoming today? Sadly, very few tangible influences have survived. By and large, place names bear French influences: the many places named after Laramie and Fremont; the Teton mountains near Yellow Stone, which was originally called Roche Jaune; the Platte River and Platte County; Dubois, and Arland when it existed; Fort Bonneville; DeMaris Springs; Breteche Creek Ranch; LaBonte Park; and others. French place names are found all over the state, which, although Anglicized, serve as perpetual reminders that in earlier periods of Wyoming history, French men and the French language were common in the state. Apart from but no less important than tangible influences, early histories of Wyoming and region-specific histories of Wyoming reveal other significant influences of Frenchmen related to being first people: their early explorations made latter settlement feasible, and the most recent of them helped build the state by building towns. To reuse a moon analogy, NASA did not simply build a spaceship and send Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon; rather, the achievement took years of gradual steps. As Sir Isaac Newton said, "If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." Frenchmen were giants in early western exploration, and they paved the way for others. These exploratory influences are only as tangible as the pages on which they are read. Consequently, their historical persistence is at the mercy of historians. For French influences in Wyoming, this book has demonstrated that these exploratory influences have waned in favor of modern historical accounts which focus on ranches and railroads, thereby leading back to the earlier question: why does Wyoming still identify so closely with cowboys?

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An answer such as, "Wyoming identifies closely with cowboys because ranching was the first significant and pervasive industry in the nascent state", seems inadequate in light of issues raised earlier: brevity of cowboy influence, why not the "buffalo state", cowboys could be unsavory characters, etc. Furthermore, the knowledge of French influences offers an alternative or competing cultural heritage because the history of Wyoming contains many more real, notable Frenchmen than cowboys. One might also argue that while cowboys did hard work, Frenchmen (and, later, many Americans) did the hard work: reaching this remote land from the East, exploring and mapping all the mountains, valleys, and rivers, and building towns to supply the needs of early settlers and travelers. However, it would be wrong to claim that Wyoming has a French heritage like Louisiana, Vermont, or Maine because the fact remains that the French did not remain. Why they left is not as important, and ultimately beyond the scope of this book, as why they came because in studying why Frenchmen were no strangers to Wyoming for nearly three hundred years provides the inkling of an answer to why Wyoming still closely identifies with cowboys and also what, in the final analysis, French influences in the history of Wyoming mean for the state today. One word captures the reason for which all nine Frenchmen presented in this book came west: opportunity. From the first, La Salle who wanted to vastly expand the French Empire, to the last, Victor Arland who wanted adventure and to capitalize on the booming cattle industry, the story of these Frenchmen, like the story of a great many notable figures in Wyoming history, is rooted in a desire for opportunity. The same is true for the cattlemen and the cowboys whom they employed; as the forty-fourth state, Wyoming was a latecomer, but it is also the ninth largest which means there was a lot of open range for

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cattle. In this light, Wyoming's identification with cowboy cultures begins to make more sense because, not only were cowboys present and pervasive in Wyoming when the state was formed, but they were also successful in exploiting opportunities despite challenges such as the remoteness and the harsh winters. By contrast, no groups of Frenchmen remained in Wyoming, and the success of their endeavors was short-lived. Despite the significance of French influences, their historical and cultural persistence in Wyoming has waned in favor of the much more persistent cowboy culture even if cowboys were less influential. The final analysis addresses the question: what does the "French history of Wyoming" mean for the state today? First and obviously it means that the history of Wyoming is not one- dimensional: there is more to Wyoming's cultural heritage than ranches and railroads. Not everyone in the state identifies with or even likes western or cowboy culture, so French influences in Wyoming provide an alternative. Second, French influences in the history of Wyoming mean that Wyoming has a long history of opportunity: for centuries people came from far and wide in search of opportunities, and that spirit is still alive today. Rather than the Equality State or the Cowboy State, Wyoming could call itself the Opportunity State. People and industries may find that nickname more alluring, if not more accurate. Lastly, it means that Wyoming is a culturally and historically richer state. As the seventh to last state to join the United States of America, Wyoming is very young, but the French history of Wyoming reaches back to the seventeenth century. For some, a rich history, a lineage, is a point of pride and nearly a requirement"the voice" speaking to Maria Chapdelaine comes to mind:

Autour de nous des étrangers sont venus, qu'il nous plaît d'appeler des barbares; ils ont pris presque tout le

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pouvoir; ils ont acquis presque tout l'argent; mais au pays de Québec rien n'a changé. Rien ne changera, parce que nous sommes un témoignage. De nous-mêmes et de nos destinées, nous n'avions compris clairement que ce devoir-là: persister... nous maintenir... Et nous nous sommes maintenues, peut-être afin que dans plusieurs siècles encore le monde se tourne vers nous et dise: Ces gens sont d'une race qui ne sait pas mourir... Nous sommes un témoignage.182

The sentiment of that passage applies equally well to Wyoming as it does Quebec which highlights at least one thing cowboy culture and an old French culture have in common: the persistence and maintenance of tradition and culture. All in all, Frenchmen like La Vérendrye, Frémont, and Arland mean that the story of Wyoming has not stagnated, for I hope that this book has brought to light new and perhaps surprising information about the state and, moreover, that this information will inspire further inquiries into other significant but hitherto forgotten influences in the history of Wyoming.

182 Hémon and Legendre, Maria Chapdelaine, 198.

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