Benjamin Bonneville

Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville (1796–1878) was a French-born American Army officer and explorer whose expeditions mapped routes and regions in the American West.

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Bonneville Expedition: A series of expeditions led by Benjamin Bonneville in the American West from 1832 to 1836. This was the exploration project that made Bonneville known beyond his military career.
John McLoughlin: A chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department who directed operations at Fort Vancouver. Bonneville sought access to Hudson's Bay Company trade networks, bringing his expedition into contact with McLoughlin.
John Jacob Astor: An American merchant who founded the American Fur Company and established a major fur-trading network. Bonneville sought Astor's backing for his expedition, but the proposal did not secure the support he wanted.
Westward expansion: The movement of United States settlement, commerce, and political control westward across North America. Bonneville's expedition belongs to the period when American exploration and settlement advanced into the West.
Green River: A major tributary of the Colorado River that flows through Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Bonneville and his party explored the Green River country during their western journeys.
Washington Irving: An American author whose books include the 1837 account of Bonneville's western travels. Irving turned Bonneville's reports and journals into a widely read narrative of the West.
American Fur Company: A fur-trading company founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808 that operated across North America. Bonneville entered the West partly to compete with established fur-trading interests.
Oregon Country: A disputed region of the Pacific Northwest claimed by Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century. Bonneville explored a region whose routes and resources attracted American commercial and political interest.
Great Salt Lake: A large, shallow, saline lake in northern Utah, the remnant of prehistoric Lake Bonneville. His expedition reached the lake and helped bring its region into wider American awareness.
Nathaniel Wyeth: An American entrepreneur who led expeditions to the Pacific Northwest and founded Fort Hall. Wyeth's western ventures overlapped with Bonneville's exploration and fur-trade ambitions.