Denis Julien

Who is Denis Julien?

Denis Julien was an American fur trapper of French Huguenot origin who was active in the southwestern United States in the 1830s and 1840s, one of the few Europeans in the area at the time. He is principally known for his habit of leaving carved inscriptions in rock faces in Utah and Colorado on his travels, with at least eight such locations attributed to him, four of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Julien apparently lived in St. Louis in the 1790s. A child was born in 1793 to Julien and his native American wife Catherine in 1793, and three children were christened and one was buried between 1798 and 1809. Julien was mentioned in an 1808 letter by then-governor Meriwether Lewis to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn as an "old and rispected [sic] trader among the Ioways." Julien and his brother were in the military in northern Louisiana in 1809. Denis witnessed the 1815 Iowa Treaty and traded on the upper Missouri River in 1816 and 1817. In this time he was connected to the Chouteau and Robidoux families of St. Louis.

In 1827 Julien made his first trip to the far West with Francisco Robidoux.