Manuel Lisa – 1772-1820

Born in New Orleans of Spanish parents, Lisa became a U.S. citizen following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1807, he built a trading post fort at the mouth of the Bighorn River (in modern Montana), which developed into a center of the great American fur trade—the first important industry of the American West, which opened up commerce with the Indians of the region and generally spurred exploration and settlement of the Far West. Lisa’s establishment became the headquarters from which a generation of “mountain men”—fur traders and trappers— explored the remotest reaches of the North American continent.