| La Vérendrye's brigade by John Innes |
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye was born on November 17, 1685, in Trois-Rivières, New France—the youngest of nine children to René Gaultier de Varennes, a former officer in the Carignan Regiment, and Marie Boucher, granddaughter of the influential Pierre Boucher. From a prominent colonial family, young Pierre received a brief education at the Jesuit seminary in Quebec from 1696 to 1699, but his path veered toward the military. At just 11, he earned a cadet's commission in the colonial troops and saw his first action during the War of the Spanish Succession.
By his early twenties, La Vérendrye was a seasoned soldier, fighting in campaigns against English colonies and even in Europe. In 1708, during a battle in France, he was wounded and taken prisoner by the British, enduring captivity until his release in 1710. He returned to Canada in 1712, where he married Marie-Anne Testard de La Forest, daughter of a Montreal merchant. The couple settled on Île aux Vaches near Sorel, where La Vérendrye turned to farming to support his growing family of 12 children, including four sons—Jean-Baptiste, Pierre, Louis-Joseph, and François—who would later join his expeditions.
Farming proved unfulfilling amid mounting debts from the war, and whispers of untapped riches in the western fur trade drew him back to adventure. In 1726, he took command of Fort Pontchartrain at Michilimackinac (modern Mackinaw City, Michigan), blending military duties with trading. By 1730, with New France eager to challenge the Hudson's Bay Company's grip on the northwest and seek a route to the "Western Sea" (the Pacific), Governor Charles de Beauharnois commissioned La Vérendrye as commandant of the western posts. He formed a partnership with merchants, including his brother-in-law, to fund the venture.
La Vérendrye's grand exploration began in 1731. Departing Montreal with two canoes, he reached Lake Superior's Nipigon post, then pushed to the mouth of the Kaministiquia River (near modern Thunder Bay, Ontario), establishing his base. Over the next decade, he and his sons built a chain of forts: Fort St. Pierre on Rainy Lake (1733), Fort St. Charles on the Lake of the Woods (1734), Fort Maurepas on Lake Winnipeg (1734), and Fort La Reine near modern Portage la Prairie, Manitoba (1738). These outposts facilitated trade with Cree, Assiniboine, and other Indigenous nations, yielding furs while gathering intelligence on paths westward.
The journeys were perilous. Winters were brutal, supplies scarce, and alliances fragile. In 1736, tragedy struck when a Sioux ambush near Lake of the Woods killed his eldest son, Jean-Baptiste, and 20 men—part of a larger party accused of arming Sioux enemies. Undeterred, La Vérendrye pressed on, reaching the Mandan villages on the Missouri River in 1738–1740 with sons Louis-Joseph and François, erecting Fort Dauphin and glimpsing the Rockies' eastern slopes. Yet, French officials grew impatient with his slow progress toward the sea, suspecting he prioritized fur profits over exploration.
Financial woes mounted as his merchant partners defaulted, leaving him in debt. In 1743, amid accusations of neglecting his mandate, La Vérendrye resigned his command and returned east. Vindicated two years later, he was knighted in the Order of Saint Louis and reappointed in 1746, planning a Saskatchewan River expedition. But on December 5, 1749, at age 64, he died in Montreal, buried in Notre-Dame Church. His sons carried the torch, with Louis-Joseph reaching the Black Hills in 1743.
La Vérendrye's legacy endures as one of North America's boldest explorers. His posts shattered the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly, bolstered French claims to the interior, and opened the Canadian West to settlement—though his lifetime honors were few, overshadowed by debts and bureaucracy. Today, he is hailed as the "Pathfinder of the West."
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