Background
Jacques La Ram�e was born on June 8, 1784, in Qu�bec, British Canada, to Joseph Fissiau dit Laram�e and Jeanne Mondou.
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Jacques Ramee
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Jacques La Ram�e , whose name appears in several spellings, including La Ramee, Laram�e, La Ramie, La Rami, La Remy, and Laramie, was a French-Canadian frontiersman, trapper, fur trader, hunter, explorer, and mountain man who lived in what is now the U.S. state of Wyoming, having moved there in 1815.
Career
La Ram�e is credited as the first European to explore the Laramie River of Wyoming and Colorado. The North West Company registry cites two Laram�e brothers, Jacques and Joseph. A variant of the name La Ram�e first appeared in the West in 1798, referring to a canoe man who worked until 1804.
This probable relative may have been Francois Laram�e, who is also listed in the registry of the company. This La Ram�e had several sons, who ventured west into Wyoming and Idaho. According to Joachim Fromhold, one of the sons was Jacques La Rami, for whom the Laramie River is named.
According to historian C. G. Coutant, Jacques La Ram�e worked as a voyageur and fur trader for the North West Company. Employees of the North West Company and its rival, the Hudson Bay Company, were in competition, and disputes at times turned violent. In 1821 the two feuding companies merged.
La Ram�e was known for his character and peaceful reputation. He organized a group of independent free trappers, who set out in 1815 for the headwaters of the North Platte River in the United States Unorganized Territory of present-day Wyoming. Coutant writes that La Ram�e and his band of peaceful trappers befriended many Native American tribes who would sell pelts to La Ram�e's operation.
This enterprise established the free trapper rendezvous in Wyoming, where trappers represented themselves without middle-man or umbrella company. In 1820, La Ram�e set off to trap along what is now known as the Laramie River and its tributaries. In the following year, 1821, he failed to arrive at the trappers' rendezvous, and a search party was organized.
He was never seen alive again. Speculation on his disappearance and death vary. It was said that he slipped on ice and fell into the Laramie River.
Or that his body was found in a small cabin. Or that he was found "stuffed under a beaver dam". Or that he was killed by rival trappers or traders and thrown into the Laramie River.
An alleged eyewitness account, from Pierre Lesperance, stated that LaRam�e's camp was attacked by Arapahos, which they vigorously denied. Several geographic sites in Wyoming were named for La Ram�e (anglicized to Laramie), including the Laramie River, the city of Laramie, Fort Laramie, Laramie Peak, and Laramie County.
