Thomas Fitzpatrick (trapper)

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Thomas Fitzpatrick, known as Broken Hand, was a trapper and a trailblazer who became the head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. With Jedediah Smith, he led a trapper band that discovered South Pass, Wyoming.

He also was responsible for shepherding the first two emigrant wagon trains, including the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, to Oregon, was official guide to John C. Fremont on his longest expedition, and guided Col. Philip Kearny and his Dragoons along the westward trails to impress the Native Americans with their howitzers and swords.

Fitzpatrick negotiated the Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 at the largest council of Native Americans of the Plains ever assembled.

Among the most colorful of mountain men, Fitzpatrick was also party to many of the most important events in the opening of the West.

[edit] References

Hafen, LeRoy R. and Ghent, W.J., Broken Hand. The Life Story of Thomas Fitzpatrick, Chief of the Mountain Men. Denver: Old West Publishing Co., 1931. Reprinted by University of Nebraska Press, 1973.

Pedersen, Lyman C., Warrren Angus Ferris, featured in Trappers of the Far West, Leroy R. Hafen, editor. 1972, Arthur H. Clark Company, reprint University of Nebraska Press, October 1983. ISBN 0-8032-7218-9