History and Education

One of the first to trap on the South Platte was a Kentuckian by the name of James Purcell. Following the South Platte River to its headwaters, Purcell probably found gold in the same area as Villemont. He also followed Villemont’s route to Santa Fe.

In 1804, on his way to the Rocky Mountains, Baptiste La Lande also trapped the South Platte River. During 1814-1818, Joseph Bijeau (Bijou) and Julius DeDunn trapped the South Platte with Auguste and Pierre Chouteau. Bijou and DeDunn returned in 1819-20, as guides for Major Stephen Harriman Long. Long was a U.S. Topographical Engineer, who led an expedition to the South Platte River and then into the mountains. (Long’s Peak is named in his honor.)

In November of 1824, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Colonel William Ashley, Jim Beckwourth and twenty-five men came to the forks of the Platte River. They had formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and were heading for the Colorado mountains. Luckily, the Pawnees took them in during the month of December or everyone would have perished. The Pawnee Indians gave them shelter and food, and sold them horses to replace those they had lost from exposure to sub-zero temperatures. Even with the Indians’ help, they lost some of their pack animals. Later the company became part of the American Fur Company, owned by John J. Astor.

On May 29, 1835, Colonel Henry Dodge and his Dragoons, guided by Captain John Gantt, left Ft. Leavenworth. His mission was to create peace and harmony among the different Indian tribes in the South Platte River Valley. Lieutenant Lancaster Lupton, a young officer accompanying Dodge who graduated from West Point, was highly impressed with the valley and saw the advantage of a fort being located in this area.

After returning to Ft. Leavenworth, Lieutenant Lupton was having a few drinks with his friends when he made several derogatory remarks about President Andrew Jackson. Faced with a possibility of a court martial, Lieutenant Lupton resigned his commission and returned to the South Platte Valley. Early in the spring of 1836, he came up the South Platte River to a particular site he had visited the year before. With a crew of Indians and Mexicans he built Ft. Lancaster, which was made of adobe. Later he changed the name to Ft. Lupton. (The South Platte Valley Historical Society is raising money to rebuild the fort on the original location, near the South Platte River.)

Lupton’s business thrived, and it didn't take long for word to get around. Within a year, there were three other forts built in the same area. Ft. Vasquez, which was made of wood, was built by Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette. Ft. St. Vrain was built at the mouth of St. Vrain River, west of present-day Gilcrest, and was made of adobe. This fort was owned by St. Vrain and the Bents.

Ft. Jackson was also made of wood. Sacajawea worked there for a time, while searching for her son, Baptiste Charbonneau. (In search of her son, Sacajawea traveled from Bent's Fort on the Arkansas to Ft. Jackson.) After being told that her son would be returning to the area, she took a job cleaning house and caring for a teacher's children at the fort. Subsequently hearing that Charbonneau was going to Ft. Bridger, she left for that fort before winter. She never did find her son. Sacajawea died of old age on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Baptiste Charbonneau had been sent to a private school by William Clark. During that time, the earthquake of 1812 hit the Missouri country and he thought his mother had been killed in St. Louis by the earthquake. He then extended his education by going to Europe. (For those days he was considered highly educated.) Ft. Jackson was later sold to the Bents.

All the forts were soon abandoned, because the bottom fell out of the fur trade. The decline began in 1840, and by 1843 the fur trade had totally collapsed. Of these forts, only Ft. Vasquez still exists. It has been rebuilt on Highway 85, outside of Platteville, Colorado; however, it is not on the original location. The town of Ft. Lupton still retains the name of Lancaster Lupton's fort.

In 1840, Andrew Sublett, part-owner of Ft. Vasquez, decided to float furs down the South Platte on a large flat-bottomed boat. Among the seven-man crew was Sacajawea's son, Baptiste Charbonneau. Some historians say the attempt was a failure; some say the group made it to St. Louis or at least to Independence, Missouri.

According to a story told by Rufus Sage, they completed the journey. Sage tells that in 1842, while traveling up the South Platte River, he came across a camp of trappers who worked for St. Vrain and Bent, led by Baptiste Charbonneau. Their boat was stranded on a sandbar, and they had unloaded the furs onto an island. This, then, would have been Charbonneau’s second trip down the river with a boat loaded with furs.

John C. Fremont (known as the "Pathfinder") of the Topographical Engineers, along with Lucien Maxwell and their guide Kit Carson, must have been following on Sage's heels. Fremont's report (1842) also tells of coming upon Charbonneau’s camp on the river. Fremont was making his first exploration tour of the Rocky Mountains.

Part of his expedition had turned off at the lower crossing of the Platte, following the North Platte to Ft. Laramie. This group was led by another famous guide, Thomas Fitzpatrick. Fremont’s party traveled the South Platte Trail to Ft. George (Ft. St. Vrain). From there, they went westward to the foothills of the Rockies. Following the mountains northward, they arrived at Ft. Laramie.

Lucien Maxwell later emigrated to New Mexico, where he married into the Miranda family, part-owners in the Beaubien and Miranda Land Grant. Later it became the Maxwell Grant, and today is known as the Maxwell Ranch. Kit Carson was made famous by this expedition with Fremont.

With the opening of the Oregon Trail, emigrants by the thousands headed to the "Promised Land." By the time they reached the Lower Crossing on the Platte River, many of the families had become disillusioned. Worrying about the long trip and what was ahead, some of them left the wagon trains, settling along the South Platte River.

The Gold Rush brought many more people to the Rocky Mountain region. Many of them gave up the search for riches and settled along the South Platte River and its tributaries. During this time, the buffalo herds were declining, causing more problems with the Indians.

Between 1845 and the 1860s, "White Man’s Cramps" (cholera) and Indian wars devastated the Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians, nearly wiping them out. "White Man’s Cramps" was brought westward by emigrants going to Oregon. Many of the emigrants died en route. Those that did reach Ft. Laramie spread the disease to the different tribes camped at the fort. Fearing the epidemic, the Cheyenne and Arapaho left the valley for a time. But they took the disease with them, killing other Plains Indians.

During the 1870s to 1900, many different emigrants came to the South Platte Valley, all of them looking for a new beginning, and with hopes of a brighter future. At first, most took farmland along the river. The introduction of irrigation made farming profitable and expanded the usable land. Today, the Platte River Valley is diversified, and a fine place to live.

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