Louis Vasquez

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Pierre Louis Vasquez (October 3, 1798 – September 5, 1868) was a mountain man and trader. He was born and raised at St. Louis, Missouri. In 1823, he became a fur man, receiving his first license to trade with the Pawnee. By the early 1830s he had shifted his operations to the mountains, a popular and active mountain man and trader. Vasquez became a partner of Andrew Sublette, perhaps in 1834, returned to St. Louis in 1835, and went back to trade on the South Platte that winter. He traveled back and forth between the mountains and St. Louis almost yearly, his reputation growing. He sold out about 1841 and became associated with Jim Bridger. By 1843 they had built Fort Bridger on Black Fork of the Green River, which became as much an emigrant station as trading post. At St. Louis in 1846 Vasquez married a widow, Mrs. Narcissa Land Ashcraft and took his new family to Fort Bridger. Vasquez opened a store at Salt Lake City in 1855. He and Bridger sold their fort in 1858, but Vasquez already had retired to Missouri. He died at his Westport home, and was buried at St. Mary's Church cemetery.