Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont: Difference between revisions

[[File:Coureur de bois.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Bourgmont, a fugitive from justice, became a ''[[coureur des bois]]'' for several years during his early career.]]

'''Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont''' (April 1679 – 1734) was a French explorer who documented his travels on the [[Missouri River|Missouri]] and [[Platte River|Platte]] rivers in [[North America]] and made the first European maps of these areas in the early 18th century. He wrote two accounts of his travels, which included descriptions of the Native American tribes he encountered. In 1723, he established [[Fort Orleans]], the first European fort on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Grand River, and present-day [[Brunswick, Missouri]]. In 1724, he led an expedition to the [[Great Plains]] of [[Kansas]] to establish trading relations with the Padouca ([[Apache]] Indians).

{{cite journal |journal= Kansas History |location= [[Topeka, Kansas]] |publisher= [[Kansas Historical Society|Kansas State Historical Society]] |title= Bourgmont's Route to Central Kansas: A Reexamination |volume= 2 |issue= 2 |pages= 96–120 |author= Milton Reichart

|url= https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1979summer_reichart.pdf |quote= In order to bypass the [[Wichita people|Wichita]], the French turned their attention toward the [[Missouria|Misouri country]] in their resolve to reach the Spanish, for Bourgmont had advised in his ''Exact Description of Louisiana'' that one could find his way to the [[Missouri River|Missouri]] to trade with the Spanish. }}</ref>

The primary source of this expedition is the travel journal kept of the mission;<ref>Reichart, p. 97. "To this end a daily log known as the "Bourgmont Journal" was kept for the official report to the French government.</ref>

the writer was likely the party's mining engineer Philippe de La Renaudière.<ref>