Antoine Janis was a 19th-century French-American fur trader and an early white homesteader in Larimer County, Colorado, in the United States.
Background
Janis was born in Missouri to a French father and a mulatto mother. As a young man, in his early years Antoine traveled with his father on trading caravans from Missouri to the Green River. In 1836 he may have traveled with his father on a caravan along the Cache la Poudre River valley in present-day Larimer County.
Career
The first recorded permanent white settler in northern Colorado, he founded the town of Laporte in 1858. lieutenant is possible but not established that the river obtained its name during this trip. While returning from a trip to Mexico, he passed through present-day Colorado along the Poudre Valley, arriving at the spot where the Poudre emerges from the foothills.
He was particularly taken by the valley, calling it "the loveliest spot on earth." At the time, the area was not open to settlement but was part of the hunting territory of the Arapaho and Cheyenne.
Janis staked out a squatter"s claim on the river bottom just west of present-day Laporte, in June 1844. With the expectation of returning to homestead there once it was possible to legally file the claim.
The opening up of the western Nebraska Territory to homesteading allowed Janis to return to the area 1858 with his claim filed. Janis settled in the area with approximately 150 lodges of Arapaho, who accompanied him to the spot.
The following year he erected a small wooden house on the south side of Poudre River where he kept a grocery and saloon.
In 1939, Janis" wooden homestead cabin was moved from Laporte to its present location adjacent to the Fort Collins Museum and Discovery Science Center in Fort Collins. The cabin is part of the museum grounds open to the public and has been partially restored for tours.
Membership
With the other members of his party, he founded the town of Colona, which later became Laporte, the first white community in Larimer County.