Thomas Fitzpatrick (trapper)

Thomas Fitzpatrick (1799 – February 7, 1854) was an Irish fur trader in America Indian agent, and mountain man. He trapped for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and the American Fur Company. He was among the first white men to discover South Pass, Wyoming. In 1831, he found and took in a lost Arapaho boy, Friday, who he had schooled in St. Louis, Missouri; Friday became a noted interpreter and peacemaker and leader of a band of Northern Arapaho.

Fitzpatrick was a government guide and also led a wagon train of pioneers to Oregon. He helped negotiate the Fort Laramie treaty of 1851. In the winter of 1853–54, Fitzpatrick went to Washington, D.C., to see after treaties that needed to be approved, but while there he contracted pneumonia and died on February 7, 1854.

He was known as "Broken Hand" after his left hand had been crippled in a firearms accident.

Thomas Fitzpatrick was born in County Cavan, Ireland in about 1799 to Mary Kieran and Mr. Fitzpatrick. They were a moderately wealthy Catholic family with three boys and four girls. Fitzpatrick received a good education and he left home before the age of 17. He became a sailor and left a ship at New Orleans. From there, he traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri by the winter of 1822–1823.

Andrew Henry and William Henry Ashley announced that they were searching for fur trappers for their company, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company by placing an ad in the Missouri Republican in 1822:

To Enterprising young men: the subscriber wishes to engage one hundred men, to ascend the river Missouri to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years.

An experienced fur trapper and trader, Andrew Henry had built Fort Henry a trading post at Yellowstone in 1822. Fitzpatrick went to work for the fur traders, joining the likes of Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, Louis Vasquez, Étienne Provost, and William Lewis Sublette. He survived an attack on the Rocky Mountain Fur Company during the Arikara War of 1823. The Arikara were successful in preventing the trappers from traveling the Missouri River. Needing another route, Fitzpatrick and Jedediah Smith led 15 men to find an overland route over the Rocky Mountains. He re-discovered South Pass, Wyoming in 1824; John Jacob Astor's fur trading expedition of 1811–1812 (led by Robert Stuart) were the first known white party through the South Pass. It became a route through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

From South Pass, their journey took them into the Green River basin, which was a good source of beaver. Fitzpatrick made a return trip with a large stock of pelts. Fitzpatrick led two horse trains with goods and supplies over South Pass to trade for furs in the Green River area and he managed placement of bands of trappers. The first Rocky Mountain Rendezvous was held on the frontier, which provided entertainment and a means for trappers to trade furs for supplies without traveling to a trading post. In 1830, he became a senior partner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company with Jim Bridger and others.