Denis Julien

Denis Julien carved his name into the Colorado Plateau long before the region was settled. Born around 1772, probably in Saint Louis, he worked as a fur trader and trapper for the powerful Chouteau family, establishing himself as a respected trader on the upper Missouri River by the 1820s. In 1827 he headed west with a fur-trading expedition, and by 1828 had helped establish the Reed trading post in present-day Utah. Julien remained in the remote canyonlands until at least 1844, traveling the Colorado and Green rivers by boat.