Verendrye brothers' journey to the Rocky Mountains
The Vérendrye brothers were trappers, hunters, and explorers, who were possibly the first Europeans to cross the northern Great Plains and see the Rocky Mountains, during an expedition in 1742–1743.
The French founded Quebec City in 1608 and soon built a fur trade empire throughout the Saint Lawrence River basin.
From about 1690, they expanded southwest into the Mississippi River basin hoping to bottle up the English along the Atlantic coast.
In 1720, the Spanish Villasur expedition left Santa Fe (in modern day New Mexico) to contact the French, but was defeated by the Pawnee in Nebraska.
In 1739 the first European crossing of the Great Plains was made by Pierre Antoine and Paul Mallet who travelled from the Mississippi River to Santa Fe.
In 1738, the elder Vérendrye and two of his sons left Fort La Reine (modern Portage la Prairie, Manitoba) at the south end of Lake Manitoba reached the Mandan country in North Dakota on the upper Missouri River.
He was told that it would take all summer to reach the lower part of the river and that there one could find men like Frenchmen who wore armor and rode horses.
Next year (September 1739), they reported back that every summer the Horse People (Gens du Chevaux) visited the Mandans to trade.
The Horse People said that they knew of bearded white men to the west who lived in stone houses and prayed to the "great master of life" while holding what looked like husks of corn [books].
When they did not show up, they found two Mandan guides and, on 23 July, departed and marched for twenty days west southwest through a land with multi-colored soils, seeing many animals but no people.
A month later, on 14 September, they saw smoke on the horizon and contacted the Handsome People (Beaux Hommes)[e] and stayed with them for 21 days.
They suggested going to the Bow People (Gens de l'Arc) who were said to be the only tribe brave enough to fight the Snakes.
After staying with the Horse People for a number of days, they marched southwest meeting the Gens de la Belle-Riviere on 18 November.
At the fort they met a man who had been brought up among the Spanish who said that they were twenty days away by horseback, but the journey was dangerous because of the Snake People.
On the ninth they met twenty-five families of the Glued Arrow People (Gens de la Flêche Collée) or "Sioux of the Prairies.
The elder Vérendrye gave its latitude as 48°12' which is about 10 miles (16 km) north of any point on the Missouri River.
If the reading was not too inaccurate it implies a northern location, possibly a site near modern New Town, North Dakota, as first suggested by Libby in 1916.
The front has a die-stamped Latin inscription referring to Louis XV, Pierre La Vérendrye and the year 1741.
On the back is hastily scratched "Placed by Chevalyet de Lave; [garbled] Louis la Londette, A Miotte; 30 March 1743".
