Complete List to Explorers, Trappers, Traders, and Mountain Men of the American West

Explorers, Trappers, Traders & Mountain Men - L

Index 1 2 3 Summaries A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

William Laidlaw (1798?-1851) – Born in Scotland, Laidlaw, he was trained in the service of the British Fur Companies, before immigrating to America. First arriving in Canada, he made his way to St. Louis, Missouri in 1822, where he joined the Columbia Fur Company. He was soon assigned the post of Fort Tecumseh, which later became Fort Pierre in present-day South Dakota, the largest and most important post next to Fort Union, North Dakota. When the firm merged with the American Fur Company in 1827, he stayed on and in about 1834 became a partner in the Upper Missouri Outfit. Sometimes in charge of Fort Union, he was said to have been a severe task master, and his tyrannical temper often made him unpopular. A great lover of hunting he spent much time in the buffalo chase. Like Kenneth McKenzie, he was a good letter writer and evidently was considered a be one of the most able fur trappers in the business. Somewhere along the line, he married a Sioux woman and the two would have five daughters. Remaining always faithful to her, they retired to Liberty, Missouri, where he built a house. He kept an open door to his friends as long as his money lasted, but when he died in October, 1851, he was a poor man.

Daniel Lamont - One of three partners of the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Fur Company and one of the original company men of the Columbia Fur Company. Very little is known of his life, but it is thought that he originated from Scotland. In 1834 when John Jacob Astor sold the Western Department of the American Fur Company to Pratte, Chouteau & Co. and reorganized the Upper Missouri Outfit, several men quit including Lamont and Laidlaw. Lamont became a partner in Powell Lamont & Co., which bought and sold to the Arkansas Valley and Santa Fe market. Lamont had a long career in the fur trade, but, what became of him, we were unable to determine.

Charles Larpenteur (1807-1872) – A fur trader, Larpenteur was born in Fontainebleau, France, but while just a boy came to the United States where his family settled in Maryland. At the age of 21 he traveled west to St. Louis, Missouri where, in 1833, he went to work for William Sublette and Robert Campbell and accompanied them on an expedition of the Rocky Mountains. They arrived at the Green River Rendezvous in Wyoming in July. The men then built Fort William (later Fort Laramie) at the mouth of the Yellowstone River to compete with the American Fur Company. Sublette sold out to the American Fur Company that winter and Larpenteur then went to work for them. He left the company in the spring of 1848 and became a free trader to the Flathead tribe near Fort Benton, Montana. In about 1850, he settled down on a farm near Little Sioux, Iowa. However, he would continue to venture back out in the fur trading business for several years until 1871, when he returned to his farm for good. He died on November 15, 1872 in Little Sioux. Over the years he kept numerous journals and memoirs that documented his years in the fur trade business.

Meriwether Lewis Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) - The official leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Meriwether Lewis has been called "undoubtedly the greatest pathfinder this country has ever known." Born near Charlottesville, Virginia to William and Lucy (née Meriwether) Lewis, his family moved to Georgia when he was ten. At thirteen, he was sent back to Virginia for education by private tutors. Later, he joined the Virginia militia and in 1794, participated in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. The next year he joined the regular army, in which he continued to serve until 1801, reaching the rank of captain. That same year, he was appointed private secretary to President Thomas Jefferson and became immediately involved in the planning of the Corps of Discovery Expedition.

For the next two years, Jefferson prepared Lewis to lead the group of explorers by having him study navigation, cartography, plants, and animals at the University of Pennsylvania. After leading the expedition, along with William Clark, the pair returned after three years. Jefferson then appointed Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory. In September 1809 Lewis set out for the nation's capital to answer complaints about his actions as governor, and on this trip died a violent but mysterious death in a tavern about 70 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee. Whether he committed suicide, as Jefferson believed, or was murdered, as his family maintained, remains uncertain even today. More ...

Benjamin "Ben" Vernon Lilly (1856-1936) - Often called the "last of the mountain men,” Ben Lilly was known as the greatest lion and bear hunter in the southwest. Born in Wilcox County, Alabama, in 1856, Lilly grew up in Mississippi, learning to be an expert hunter. He attended a military academy, but the boy wanted freedom, rather than discipline, and soon ran away to Tennessee where he worked for a time as a blacksmith. But, Lilly's passion was always hunting and where the panthers and bears were, Lilly would soon find them.

Though he was married twice and had several children, this didn’t stop his wandering. By 1906, he could no longer be confined, and turning all his property over to his wife, he left home for good. However, though he was gone, he continued to support his family.

Over the years, Lilly acted as a hunting guide for Teddy Roosevelt in Louisiana, and hunted bears and panthers in the Big Thicket of east Texas before making his way across the Lone Star state to Mexico, where he hunted for many years. In 1911, at the age of 55, he moved on to the Gila Wilderness of southwest New Mexico where he spent the rest of his life hunting mountain lions, wolves, and bears. He died at the age of 80 on December 17, 1836 near Silver City, New Mexico. Lilly is credited with killing the last Grizzly Bear in the Gila Forest, and in total some 500 bears and 600 mountain lions during his lifetime. More ...

Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864) - An engineer, explorer, and military officer, Long led what's known as Long's Expedition through the great plains. He was born at Hopkinton, New Hampshire on December 30, 1784, a son of Moses and Lucy (Harriman) Long. When he grew up he graduated at Dartmouth College, receiving a bachelors degree in 1809, before continuing his education at the same institution and gaining a masters degree in 1812. Two years later he was commissioned as a lieutenant of engineers in the United States Army, and from 1815 to 1818 was a math professor in the military academy at West Point.

In April, 1819, he was became a brevetted major and was appointed to lead an expedition to explore the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. (See: Long's Expedition) Just a month before receiving this appointment, he married Martha Hodgkins of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 3, 1819. After returning from the expedition he spent several years surveying and building the Baltimore & Ohio and other railroads. He also became an inventor, receiving a number of patents for steam locomotives. When the United States Topographical Engineers' Corps was organized in 1838, Major Long was given an important position in connection with it. After several years of service in this corps he retired from the army and died at Alton, Illinois on September 4, 1864.

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Index 1 2 3 Summaries A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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