famous explorers library

North America was a contested battleground, as explorers came to the New World. Here are the major North American explorers and their stories.

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Articles 21-40 of 52

Jean Nicolet

Nicolet Jean (1598–1642), a French explorer of North America. He was the first European known to have reached Lake Michigan and Wisconsin.

Jedediah Smith

Smith, Jedediah (Strong) (1798?–1831), a United States explorer and trader. He was the first American known to reach California overland from the east.

John Muir

Muir, John (1838–1914), a United States naturalist and conservationist. He discovered and explored the glacier in Alaska now known as Muir Glacier, and was an early authority on glacial geology.

John Wesley Powell

Powell, John Wesley (1834–1902), a United States geologist, explorer, and ethnologist.

Carver, Jonathan (1710–1780), a North American explorer. In 1766, following the French and Indian War, he was sent by Major Robert Rogers, commandant at Mackinac, to explore the Lake Superior region and parts of Minnesota.

Juan Bautista De Anza

Anza, Juan Bautista de (1735–1788?), a Spanish explorer and founder of San Francisco.

Juan de Onate

Oñate, Juan de (1549?–1624?), a Spanish explorer of the southwestern United States.

Juan Ponce De Leon

Ponce de León, Juan (1460?–1521), a Spanish explorer. He was the conqueror of Puerto Rico and the discoverer of Florida.

La Salle, Sieur de

La Salle, Ren Robert Cavelier, Sieur de (1643–1687), a French explorer of North America.

Louis Hennepin

Hennepin, Louis (1640–1701?), a Roman Catholic friar and explorer of North America.

Louis Joliet

Joliet, Jolliet, Louis (1645–1700), a French-Canadian explorer. In 1673 Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette explored the Mississippi River, traveling 2,500 miles (4,000 km) by canoe.

Lucas Vazquez De Ayllon

Ayllón, Lucas Vázquez de (1475?-1526), a Spanish explorer in North America. He settled in Hispaniola in 1502 and became a judge on the supreme court of this Spanish island colony.

Meriwether Lewis

Lewis, Meriwether (1774–1809), a United States explorer and administrator. During 1804–06 Lewis and William Clark led an expedition to explore the uncharted lands of the American Northwest.

Monts, Sieur de

Monts, Pierre du Guast, Sieur de (1560?–1630?), a French explorer and colonizer of Canada.

North America

The earliest people in the Americas probably were Asians who crossed the prehistoric land bridge across the Bering Strait.

Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage, a long-sought water route through or around the northern part of North America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Panfilo De Narvaez

Narváez, (1480?-1528), a Spanish soldier and explorer. Narváez came to America in 1498 and served in the conquest of Cuba in 1511.

Pierre Le Sueur

Le Sueur Pierre (1657?–1705?), a French explorer of North America. Le Sueur came to Canada in 1679.

Robert Gray

Gray, Robert (17551806), a United States sea captain and fur trader. In 1792. while sailing along the Pacific coast, he discovered the Columbia River and named it for his ship.