# Louis Vasquez

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American explorer and trader (1798–1868)

This article is about the trader. For the American football player, see [Louis Vasquez (American football)](/source/Louis_Vasquez_(American_football)).

**Pierre Louis Vasquez** also known as **Luis Vázquez** (October 3, 1798 – September 5, 1868) was a [mountain man](/source/Mountain_man) and [trader](/source/Merchant). He was a contemporary of many famous European-American explorers of the early west and would come to know many of them, including [Jim Bridger](/source/Jim_Bridger), [Manuel Lisa](/source/Manuel_Lisa), [Kit Carson](/source/Kit_Carson) and [Andrew Sublette](/source/Andrew_Sublette), besides his own father [Benito Vázquez](/source/Benito_V%C3%A1zquez).

## Family and early life

Louis was born and raised at [St. Louis, Missouri](/source/St._Louis%2C_Missouri). He was the son of the Spanish fur trader [Benito Vázquez](/source/Benito_V%C3%A1zquez) and Marie-Julie Papin (daughter of Pierre Papin & Catherine Guichard), so was of Spanish and French Canadian (European) descent. In 1823, he became a fur trader, receiving his first license to trade with the [Pawnee](/source/Pawnee_people). By the early 1830s he had shifted his operations to the mountains, becoming a popular and active mountain man and trader. Having been educated by the priests at the [St. Louis Cathedral](/source/St._Louis_Cathedral_(New_Orleans)), he was one of the few mountain men that was literate. Although he signed all of his letters, as "Louis", Pierre Louis was nicknamed "Old Vaskiss" by other Mountain men. Louis was the youngest of eleven brothers. [1]

## Noted activities

Louis Vasquez joined the Ashley-Henry fur trade expeditions in 1822 or 23, and became one of the foremost mountain men. In 1834, He became a partner of Andrew Sublette and went back to trade on the [South Platte](/source/South_Platte) after obtaining a trading license in St. Louis, Missouri, from [William Clark](/source/William_Clark), the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. In 1835 he built [Fort Vasquez](/source/Fort_Vasquez). He traveled back and forth between the mountains and St. Louis almost yearly, his reputation growing. Unable to turn a profit, they sold Fort Vasquez to Lock and Randolph in 1840, who subsequently went bankrupt and abandoned the structure in 1842. Due to the bankruptcy, Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette could not collect the sum owed to them for the sale. Vasquez then became associated with Jim Bridger. By 1843 they had built [Fort Bridger](/source/Fort_Bridger) on [Blacks Fork](/source/Blacks_Fork) of the [Green River](/source/Green_River_(Colorado_River)), which became as much an emigrant station as trading post. [2][3]

At Fort Laramie in 1846 Vasquez hired Narcissa Land Ashcraft to be his cook at Fort Bridger. They may have eventually been married in St. Louis or had a common law marriage, which was ratified by Father Pierre DeSmet near Fort Laramie in September, 1851. Narcissus had a son, Hiram and a daughter, Armilda who came with her to Fort Bridger in [Wyoming](/source/Wyoming). There they had four more children; Louis, Mary Ann, Sarah Ellen and Narcissa Burdette. [4] Vasquez opened a store at [Salt Lake City](/source/Salt_Lake_City%2C_Utah) in 1855. He and Bridger sold their fort in 1858, but Vasquez already had retired to [Missouri](/source/Missouri). In 1868 he died at his [Westport](/source/Westport%2C_Missouri) home, and was buried at St. Mary's Church cemetery. Years before, in 1853, Louis Vasquez gave to his good friend Jim Bridger his own rifle as a gift. From 1998 the rifle is shown at the [Museum of the Mountain Man](/source/Museum_of_the_Mountain_Man) at [Pinedale, Wyoming](/source/Pinedale%2C_Wyoming). [5]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** St Louis Cathedral Records; Vasquez papers file, Missouri Historical Society Library: Pierre Louis Vasquez Bible in possession of Douglas Whitney.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Cecil Alter, J. (2013). *Jim Bridger*. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-sv_3-0)** Vestal, Stanley (1970). *Jim Bridger; Mountain Man*. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 153. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780803257207](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780803257207).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** M. Lewis, Hugh (2014). *Robidoux Chronicles: Ethnohistory of the French-American Fur Trade*. Canada: Trafford.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** W. Maynard, Charles (2003). *Jim Bridger: Frontiersman and Mountain Guide*. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.

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