The heart of the Rocky Mountains by the Detroit Photographic Co., 1901.
Louis Ambroise was a French trapper and fur trader who worked in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Ambroise was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1801. As he grew up, he headed southwest along the Santa Fe Trail, reaching Taos, New Mexico, around 1822. He married a Spanish woman in 1824, became a Mexican citizen, and worked as a trapper.
In 1827, he joined Sylvestre Pratte’s party to trap in the Colorado mountains. Years later, he was severely wounded by Southern Ute Indians, and while trying to recover with Cheyenne Indian friends, they ended his misery on August 15, 1842. Ambroise was also a companion of mountain man Old Bill Williams.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.
Also See:
Trappers, Traders & Pathfinders
See Sources.