Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont

Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont (April 1679 – 1734) was a French explorer who documented his travels on the Missouri and 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).

He was born in Cerisy-Belle-Étoile in central Normandy. At the age of 19, Bourgmont was found guilty in 1698 of poaching on the land of the Monastery of Belle-Etoile. He did not pay the 100-livres fine. He is believed to have left for New France settlements in North America that year to escape imprisonment for failing to pay the fine.

In 1702 Bourgmont was reported to be with Charles Juchereau de St. Denys and the Troupes de la marine, who were setting up a tannery for buffalo hides at the mouth of the Ouabache River (Wabash River) on the Ohio River. The tannery closed in 1703 and Bourgmont moved to Quebec.

In 1705 on orders from Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, Bourgmont moved to Fort Pontchartrain at present-day Detroit, Michigan, where he assumed command in 1706. In March 1706 a group of Ottawa attacked a group of Miami outside the fort. Soldiers fired from the fort and killed a French priest and sergeant who had been outside the walls, in addition to 30 Ottawa. Bourgmont was severely criticized for his handling of the incident. When Cadillac visited the fort in August, Bourgmont and other members of the garrison were reported as having deserted their post.

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