La Charrette: Village Gateway to the American West Paperback - 2003

From the publisher

This first ever book on La Charrette Village illuminates its origin, its citizens and their culture when notables like Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike and Stephen Long visited. Schake reveals how seven French Canadian-Native American families settled a "miserable, " "poverty-stricken" village as America's gateway to the Louisiana Purchase. These vibrant Missouri River fur trappers were the first granted Indian trade rights and map the Santa Fe Trail. Denied their land grants they departed upriver to initiate Cote sans Dessein, another westernmost frontier village. Living among them were the likes of Daniel Boone, "Mountain Man" John Colter, "Indian" Phillips, nine unspecified orphans and Black and Indian slaves. Charrette Landing, Callaways's Fort and School Number 1 served their community. Discover how some endured Indian attacks and trafficked in liquor before removed to the Ioway Indian Reservation. Boone family members next acquired their farms; soon German immigrants supplanted them forming the heart of "Missouri's German Belt." Steamboats docking there brought more settlers, guests and trade goods propelling the community into the 1900s. This unparalleled village history unfolds amid events of national prominence: Louisiana Purchase, Santa Fe Trail, War of 1812, Trail of Tears, Civil War and western migration overlaid by multiculturalism and exploration.