250 Years Ago* ... Chouteau Sets out from Fort Chartres with Thirty Men

After spending the winter in the little village outside Fort Chartres, Laclede and Chouteau were anxious to move on.  As Auguste Chouteau would later remember: 

 "On the tenth of February, A.D. 1764, Mr. Laclede sent Auguste Chouteau, this deponent, at the head of a party of mechanics of all trades, amounting to upwards of thirty in number to select a place suitable for an establishment such as he proposed."  1 Hunt's minutes, p. 107. (As cited in the Missouri History Museum Collections of 1911).

It would take about five days to get to their destination.   Let's hope that the weather in February 1764 was milder than the weather in February 2014.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.