Denis Julien (trapper)

Denis Julien (born c. 1772) was an American fur trapper of French-Canadian Huguenot origin best known for his activity in the southwestern United States in the 1830s and 1840s, at a time when he was one of the few people of European descent in the area. He is principally remembered for his habit of leaving carved inscriptions on rock faces in Utah and Colorado during his travels, with at least eight such markings positively attributed to him, four of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Julien's exact date and place of birth are unknown. He apparently lived in Saint Louis in the 1790s. The first written documents mentioning him are baptismal records from the Saint Louis Cathedral for three children born to Julien and his Native American wife Catherine in 1793, 1798, and 1801. Three children were christened and one was buried between 1798 and 1809. Julien soon began a working relationship with Saint Louis fur baron Jean-Pierre Chouteau, a connection which would provide him with employment as a trader and trapper throughout the Midwest; his name appears in Chouteau's ledgers as early as 1803. From 1805 to 1819 he owned land near Fort Madison in present-day Iowa, and in 1821 in the village of Prairie du Chien in what is now Wisconsin.

Julien was mentioned in an 1808 letter by then-Governor of the Louisiana Territory Meriwether Lewis to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn as an "old and rispected [sic] trader among the Ioways." Julien and his brother were in the military in northern Louisiana in 1809. Denis witnessed the 1815 Iowa Treaty and received licenses to trade on the upper Missouri River in 1816 and 1817. During this time he remained connected to the Chouteau and Robidoux families of Saint Louis. An entry dated December 26, 1825 in the sutler's journal at Fort Atkinson suggests that Julien shot and wounded another man. Records of him in the Midwest cease after this point.

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