Pierre Bottineau

Hunter and fur trader Charles Bottineau ventured to the Red River Valley in 1787. His oldest child, Pierre, was born in 1817. Pierre was described as being well over six feet tall, “of manly instincts and gentlemanly deportment, polite, agreeable and of a kindly disposition, and always true to his word."

On a hot July morning in 1853, a group of hungry men were navigating the plains of North Dakota. As members of the Pacific Railway Survey, they were…