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37 <br /> Louisiana Purchase gave the new American government control of <br /> the central and northern Great Plains as Far West as the <br /> Continental Divide. Official exploration of the new lands began <br /> with the Lewis and Clark expeditions. During the first decade of <br /> American ownership fur trapper Baptiste LaLande reached the <br /> Colorado Front Range to hunt, followed by many others including <br /> Ezekiel Williams and James Purcell . In 1806 the first government <br /> exploration of the area was led by Zebulon Pike. Pike did not <br /> reach the Dowe Flats area, but his reports spurred further <br /> governmental activity (Goetzmann 1959: 36-39) . <br /> The next, and most famous, federal exploration of northeastern <br /> Colorado came in 1820 when Major Stephen Long led a patty of <br /> soldiers and scientists along the South Platte River to the Front <br /> Range and then south to the Arkansas River before returning to <br /> the Mississippi Valley. While it is very doubtful that Long <br /> actually crossed the Study Area, his reports had a lasting impact <br /> on it and much of the rest of the Great Plains. Long, in his <br /> official descriptions, labelled the lands from the central plains <br /> to the foothills of the Rockies as the Great American Desert, <br /> proclaiming the land to be fit only for grazing and homelands for <br /> nomadic Indians. The image of the desert lingered and influenced <br /> the ways that later settlers envisioned using the lands <br /> (Goetzmann 1966: 40-64) . <br /> Long's expedition ushered in a new, more intense use of the South <br /> Platte Valley region that witnessed an increased presence of <br /> Euro--americans, but not the development of permanent settlement. <br /> Between 1820 and approximately 1845 fur traders and trappers <br /> frequented the South Platte Valley. During this same period a <br /> number of fur forts appeared there as well, including the first <br /> Fort Vasquez or Fort Convenience, located at the confluence of <br /> the South Platte River and Clear Creek. The post, built in 1832 <br /> by Louis Vasquez, remained active only three years, when Vasquez <br /> moved his operations north to near modern Platteville, Colorado. <br /> At the same time Lancaster Lupton operated a post at Ft . Lupton <br /> (Carrillo and Mehls 1992) . Also, a number of trappers, including <br /> Ceran St. Vrain, who lent his name to the Study Area's primary <br />