1738

Montreal merchant and explorer Pierre Verendrye makes the earliest recorded entrance by an explorer into what is now North Dakota while looking to find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean.

1742

Verendrye’s sons enter North Dakota on the same quest.

1797-1798

David Thompson does the first surveying in North Dakota. He created the first reliable maps of the state’s rivers and terrain. (David Thompson was originally from London, England, he came across the Atlantic at the young age of 14 to work for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1784.) (photo courtesy of the National Park Service)