1838 | Exploration, Colonization
Exploration, Colonization
St. Paul, Minnesota, has its beginnings in a settlement made by French-Canadian voyageur Pierre Parrant, 60, known as "Old Pig's Eye," who moves from Mendota and settles in the upper Mississippi Valley at Fort Snelling, formerly Fort Anthony (see 1819). Parrant and other squatters will be removed from the reservation in 1840, and missionary Lucian Galtier will name the neighboring squatter settlement St. Paul in 1841 (see Minneapolis, 1847).
Explorer-mathematician Joseph N. Nicollet heads an official U.S. expedition to survey the region between the upper Missouri and Mississippi rivers (see 1836). Members of the party include Georgia-born soldier John C. (Charles) Frémont, 25, who has been appointed to the U.S. Army Topographical Corps with help from his patron, South Carolina politician Joel R. Poinsett, now 59.
Explorer-fur trader (and former Missouri governor) William H. Ashley dies near Boonville, Missouri, March 26 at age 59 (approximate); explorer William Clark of Lewis and Clark expedition fame at St. Louis September 1 at age 68.
Kansas City is founded in November on a hill overlooking a bend in the Missouri River by Missouri pioneers who include John McCoy, William Sublette, William Chick, and William Gillis. Their settlement is near Westport Landing, founded earlier as a post for the Indian fur trade and an outfitting station for wagons to Santa Fe and Oregon Territory.