Who is manuel lisa

His father, a native of Murcia, Spain, worked for the Spanish government. Together the couple had two sons, Raymond and Manuel. Three years later, in , Lisa and his family settled permanently in St. Louis, then a small village. Its location near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers made it the center of the thriving fur trade. One of the oldest industries in North America, the fur trade began when Europeans traded goods such as tools and firearms with Native Americans in exchange for furs and pelts.

Beaver pelts were used to make felt hats and provide trim for clothing worn by wealthy and fashionable Americans and Europeans. Europeans and, later, Americans organized fur-trading companies that employed men to trap fur-bearing animals for their pelts and hides, though companies continued to trade goods with Indians for hides. Overtrapping led to the decline of fur-bearing animals in the eastern half of North America, forcing fur trappers to travel farther west to find new, unexploited animal populations.

The prominent and powerful Chouteau family of St. Louis held a firm grip on much of the western fur trade, but Lisa was determined to enter the lucrative business. Using information gathered from Lewis and Clark upon their return to St. Louis in , Lisa and his men traveled to the headwaters of the Missouri River in what is now Montana in search of new fur trapping opportunities.

At the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers he established Fort Raymond, the first trading post in the region. Bodmer painted and sketched the natural landscape and the animals that inhabited it. Bodmer was one of the first artists to bring accurate, colorful images of the American West to American and European audiences. Beavers were the lifeblood of the fur trade until the s when silk hats became more popular than felt hats made from beaver pelts.

When Manuel Lisa traveled up the Missouri River in search of new trapping opportunities, he found more than just beavers, otters, foxes, and minks. Vast herds of elk, buffalo, and pronghorn roamed the Great Plains. These herds still existed two decades later when Karl Bodmer recorded his own observations of western wildlife, but by the end of the century, many species were dwindling in numbers due to overexploitation.

In one illustration, Bodmer depicted a Blackfoot warrior on horseback. Emboldened by the promise of the upper Missouri River region, Lisa returned to St.

Lisa promptly forming a new organization. William Clark appointed him sub Indian agent for tribes above the Kansas River as best fitted to keep important bands at peace, and he again went up-stream, wintering with the Omahas where he found a wife. The next season Lisa continued his important politcial moves which effectively kept the western tribes out of the War of In he brought to St. Lisa entered a new company and went north late in His wife had died and he married Mary Hempstead Keeney; the new company was dissolved after only a year, and in Lisa organized a fresh Missouri Fur Company.

He went upriver one mor time, but returned in the spring, suffering from the ailment which proved fatal. He was buried at what is now Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Lisa had not only devised the form and method of operations that would guide the fur trade in future years, but his men had conducted important explorations and he had been instrumental in preventing the western fromtier from becoming disastrously involved in the War of His contributions to the development of the west had been monumental.

New Orleans, as well as all of the country which would become the Louisiana Purchase, were at this time part of New Spain. France had ceded all of its territory west of the Mississippi to Spain in November, Lisa became involved in the fur trade during his teens, and by he was operating a fur trading vessel along the Mississippi River.

By this time he was also married to a widow, Polly Charles Chew. Being a Spanish citizen, he obtained a land grant from the Spanish government in , and relocated to St. By he was a leading businessman in the fur trade, and in was granted a monopoly for fur trade with the Osage Indians. As a knowledgeable businessman in St. Louis, Lisa was involved in outfitting the Lewis and Clark Expedition in In addition to supplies, it is reported that the expedition obtained a keelboat and crew through Lisa.

Lisa's relationship with Lewis and Clark was not always cordial, and they may have had a falling out with Lisa before they left upriver. In when Lewis and Clark returned from their journey across the continent, they confirmed the rumors of country teeming with beaver near the headwaters of the Missouri River. Manuel Lisa quickly formed a company to take advantage of this potential source of wealth. In he left St Louis with two keelboats and a brigade of more than 50 men, ascending the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers to the mouth of the Bighorn where he established a trading post.

Part of his brigade engaged in trade with the neighboring Indian tribes, while the remainder of his men were employed hunting and trapping fur-bearing animals. The following year he constructed a fort at the mouth of the Bighorn River, the first such outpost in the upper Missouri region.