Gabriel Franchère
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Gabriel Franchère ( 3 November 1786 –12 April 1863) was a
French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...
author and explorer of the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Thou ...
. Franchère was born in
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
to Gabriel Franchère (4 March 1752 - 16 May 1832) and Marie-Félicité Morin (20 August 1760 - 28 September 1807). He later joined the
Pacific Fur Company The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades between the United Kingdom o ...
as a merchant apprentice, arriving at
Fort Astoria Fort Astoria (also named Fort George) was the primary fur trading post of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company (PFC). A maritime contingent of PFC staff was sent on board the ''Tonquin (1807 ship), Tonquin'', while another party traveled overl ...
on the '' Tonquin''. After Astoria was sold to the
North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...
, Franchère returned to Montreal overland in 1814. He was employed for a time by John Jacob Astor in Montreal. He wrote ''Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America'', which was published in 1819. This work was translated into English and edited in 1851, and later rereleased as part of the General Series of the Champlain Society in 1969. The untranslated version was one of
Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
's sources for his book ''Astoria''. The mountain Franchère Peak in the Canadian Rockies was named in his honor in 1917.


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Gabriel Franchère
from the
Dictionary of Canadian Biography The ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' (''DCB''; french: Dictionnaire biographique du Canada) is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The ''DCB'', which was initiated in 1959, is ...

The Quebec History Encyclopedia: Gabriel Franchère
from Marianopolis College *
''Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific''
* * French Quebecers Canadian explorers Explorers of Oregon Oregon Country Canadian non-fiction writers in French Canadian male non-fiction writers 1786 births 1863 deaths {{Oregon-bio-stub