Antoine Janis (March 26, 1824–1890) was a 19th-century French-American

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

r and the first white homesteader in Larimer County,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The first recorded permanent white settler in northern Colorado, he founded the town of Laporte in 1858.

Biography

Janis was born in Missouri to a French father and a

mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese ...

mother. As a young man, in his early years Antoine traveled with his father on trading caravans from

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

to the Green River. In 1836 he may have traveled with his father on a caravan along the

Cache la Poudre River The Cache la Poudre River ( ), also known as the Poudre River, is a river in the state of Colorado in the United States. Name The name of the river () is a corruption of the original Cache à la Poudre, or "cache of powder". It refers to an ...

valley in present-day Larimer County. It is possible but not established that the river obtained its name during this trip. In 1844 he journeyed west on his own, working with brother Nicholas as a scout and interpreter out of

Fort Laramie Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...

, where he married First Elk Woman of the

Oglala Sioux The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...

tribe. While returning from a trip to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, 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 The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

and

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

. 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 The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebrask ...

to homesteading allowed Janis to return to the area 1858 with his claim filed. He was accompanied by a party of other homesteaders from Fort Laramie, including John B. Provost, his brothers Francis and Nicholas Janis, Antoine LeBeau, Tood Randall, E.W. Raymond, B. Goodman, Laroque Bosquet (aka: Rock Bush) and Oliver Morrisette. His arrival to the area with his wife came one year before the flood of prospectors in the 1859

Colorado Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 185 ...

. Janis settled in the area with approximately 150 lodges of Arapaho, who accompanied him to the spot. With the other members of his party, he founded the town of Colona, which later became Laporte, the first white community in Larimer County. The following year he erected a small wooden house on the south side of Poudre River where he kept a grocery and saloon. He continued to live in the area until 1878, when a general order from the federal government forced his wife to move to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

. Janis sold his cabin and accompanied his wife to the reservation, where he died in 1890. In 1939, Janis' wooden homestead cabin was moved from Laporte to its present location adjacent to the

Fort Collins Museum and Discovery Science Center Fort Collins Museum of Discovery is an all-ages, science, history and cultural museum established in 2008 through a public-private partnership between the City of Fort Collins' Fort Collins Museum and nonprofit Discovery Science Center. The museu ...

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. The cabin is part of the museum grounds open to the public and has been partially restored for tours.

References

* '' History of Larimer County, Colorado'',

Ansel Watrous Ansel Watrous (November 1, 1835August 6, 1927) was an American newspaper editor and historian. A longtime resident of Fort Collins, Colorado, Watrous is noted for '' History of Larimer County, Colorado'' (1911), the first comprehensive published ...

(1911) {{DEFAULTSORT:Janis, Antoine 1824 births 1890 deaths History of Fort Collins, Colorado People from Larimer County, Colorado People from St. Charles County, Missouri