Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye was born 17 November 1685 in Trois Rivières, the son of Lieutenant René Gaultier de Varenne, who came to Canada from France in 1665, and Marie-Ursule Boucher, the daughter of the governor of Trois Rivières.
He was educated early on by his mother before attending the Petit Séminaire of Québec in 1699. At the age of twelve, he joined the King's army as a cadet. He participated in campaigns against the English in Newfoundland and Anglo-Americans of Massachusetts, and was soon promoted to ensign.
However, his promotion was not good enough for him so he went to France in 1708 to fight in the Spanish War of Succession, where he was taken prisoner. He was released in 1710, and was promoted to Lieutenant. Yet two years later, instead of staying in France, he returned to Canada, where he found out he lost his rank of lieutenant.
He married Marie-Anne Dandonneau du Sablé and as dowry received land on which he settled to cultivate. They had six children. However by 1727 he was given command of a post at Nipigon (near Sault Sainte Marie).
His dream of exploration was able to take form from this point on. He later became commander-in-chief of the Fort du Nord, a title once held by his brother. La Vérandrye was convinced that the route to the Pacific was through the west, not by the Mississippi. In 1730, La Vérandrye went to Quebec to ask permission to build a fort on the Lac Ouinipigon (Lake Winnipeg). From Montreal, La Vérandrye set out with fifty men to seek out the western sea. Arriving at the end of Lake Superior, La Vérendrye's men would not continue to go west. The compromise resulted in the creation of Fort St-Pierre, the first post created by La Vérandrye. In 1732, he founded the Fort Saint-Charles, which became his headquarters.
In 1738, after years of hard luck, La Vérendrye continued his journey west, setting up Fort La Reine (Portage-la-Prairie) and Fort Rouge (Winnipeg). La Vérendrye's sons, Louis-Joseph and François, headed west and reached the Rockies, becoming the first explorers to see the mountain range.
He and his family returned to Montreal poor, but he was later given a seigneurie by the King and was awarded the honour of chevalier de Saint-Louis, in 1749. He planned to return to the west but before his dream could become reality he died in Montreal, 6 December 1749.
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