Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (17 November 1685 – 5 December 1749) was a military officer, fur trader, and explorer. In the 1730s, he and his four sons explored the area west of Lake Superior and established trading posts there. They were part of a process that added Western Canada to the original New France territory that was centred along the Saint Lawrence basin.
He was the first known European to reach present-day North Dakota and the upper Missouri River in the United States. In the 1740s, two of his sons crossed the prairie as far as present-day Wyoming, United States, and were the first Europeans to see the Rocky Mountains north of New Mexico.
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Early life
Born in Trois-Rivières, New France, Pierre was the eldest son of René Gaultier de Varennes, who came to Canada as a soldier in 1665, and Marie, the daughter of Pierre Boucher, the first Governor of Trois-Rivières. The Gaultier family were minor nobility or landowners who came from the Anjou area of France. Varennes and La Vérendrye were 2 of their estates.
Pierre's father died when he was 3, and he was educated at the Jesuit seminary in Quebec. At the age of twelve he received a cadet's commission in the French Marines in Canada. In 1704 and 1705 La Vérendrye took part in the raids of Queen Anne's War, which was waged by colonists in the English and French areas of North America. He was present at the Raid on Deerfield in present-day Massachusetts. The French and their Abenaki allies took more than a hundred captives from the village, forcing them on the 300-mile journey through the wilderness to return to Montreal. During those years, both sides often took captives for ransom. The next year La Vérendrye participated in an unsuccessful attack on the English settlement of St. John's, Newfoundland.
At age 22, he enlisted in the French Army, and fought in Flanders during the War of the Spanish Succession; he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Malplaquet. After recovering from his injuries and being given parole as a prisoner of war, Gaultier returned to Canada and married Marie-Anne, daughter of Louis Dandonneau, Sieur Du Sablé, in 1712. For the next 15 years, he supported his family by farming and fur trading along the Saint Lawrence.
Explorations
In 1726 his fortunes changed when his brother Jacques-René was appointed the commander of the poste du Nord. This was the north shore of Lake Superior with three main posts: Fort Kaministiquia, which was a terminus for the main route west; a post at the mouth of the Nipigon River; and one near the future site of Wawa, Ontario, which had river connections to James Bay. La Vérendrye began trading in the area and in 1728 was appointed as commandant when his brother left to fight the Meskwaki.
He became involved with the quest to find a route to the Pacific, what was known as the Northwest Passage. Under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Great Britain had taken control of Hudson Bay and thereby blocked the French from using that area. At this time people thought that not far to the west was an inlet from the Pacific called the mer du couchant, similar to the equally mythical Strait of Annian. They thought also that travelers could cross the height of land and find a River of the West that flowed all the way to the Pacific. (For the area to be explored see Early Canadian canoe routes, Nelson River Basin.)
In 1688 Jacques de Noyon had reached Rainy Lake. In 1717 Zacharie Robutel de La Noue tried to reach Rainy Lake but succeeded only in establishing Fort Kaministiquia. The British on Hudson Bay heard reports of coureurs des bois west of Lake Superior, but they left no records in the French archives. Morton thinks they may have gotten as far as Lake Winnipeg. In 1716 a memoir drawn up by Governor Vaudreuil showed lakes and portages as far as Lake of the Woods, from which flowed a river to the "Sea of the West". This implies that Frenchmen had explored west of Lake Superior before Vérendrye did so.
La Vérendrye questioned the Natives who came to trade. He learned of the Mandan country on the upper Missouri River. These people were described as white men who lived in big houses. Auchagah, a Cree guide, made a map of the canoe routes between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg based on his and other Cree experience. La Vérendrye judged correctly that Lake Winnipeg was the geographic key which had to be reached to allow further exploration.
In 1730 he met Governor Beauharnois at Quebec and worked out a plan. La Vérendrye would build a post on Lake Winnipeg. The expedition would be paid for by Quebec merchants who hoped to profit from the resulting fur trade. This financing was fragile because the merchants lacked the capital and organization to efficiently move supplies so far to the west. An additional goal was to divert furs from being traded to the British on Hudson Bay. In the absence of government funds, exploration was dependent on financing from the fur trade. It is not clear whether La Vérendrye was genuinely interested in exploration or whether exploration was a pretext for expansion of the fur trade. Maurepas, the French Minister of Marine, was very interested in exploration, but would not provide funds. According to Pehr Kalm, La Vérendrye was acting upon orders given by de Beauharnois to explore until he could reach the ocean.
Afterwards
From 1744 to 1746 Nicolas-Joseph de Noyelles de Fleurimont held the command of poste du Nord, but accomplished little. After the elder La Vérendrye's death, the new governor Jonquière forced his sons out of their father's patrimony.
Control of the west was given to Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre (1750–53). He built Fort La Jonquière somewhere on the Saskatchewan, but failed in an attempt to ascend that river. He was followed by Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne (1753-1756). He built Fort de la Corne on the Saskatchewan. In 1756 the western command was given to Pierre's son Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye, but he was unable to travel to the west. During the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the North American front of the Seven Years' War, the French gradually abandoned the western posts. With France's defeat, the British took control of New France territory east of the Mississippi River.
Legacy and honours
Joseph-Émile Brunette's statue of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, is located in Saint Boniface, Manitoba.
Numerous places were named in his honour:
La Verendrye Provincial Park in Ontario
La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve in Quebec
Boulevard de La Vérendrye in Montreal
Boulevard La Vérendrye in Gatineau, Quebec
The neighbourhood of Varennes in the St. Vital district of Winnipeg, rue La Vérendrye and Parc La Vérendrye in the Saint Boniface district in Winnipeg, and École LaVérendrye in the Earl Grey neighbourhood of Winnipeg
La Vérendrye Hospital in Fort Frances, Ontario
École Secondaire Catholique de LaVérendrye, Thunder Bay, Ontario
Fort la Reine Museum, Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
La Verendrye School, Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
Verendrye, North Dakota - unofficial ghost town
La Vérendrye Trail, Manitoba
Mount Verendrye in British Columbia