Francois Payette - Voyageur

Fort Boise, where Payette was in charge from 1835 to 1811, as it appeared in 1849.

Francois Payette

In the state of Idaho you will find many places are named "Payette" including a city, county, National Park and even a brewery in honor of Francois Payette, a Canadian voyageur who lived and worked in the area of the Columbia and Snake rivers between 1812 and 1844. The folklore says that Francois's son-in-law Goodhart claims he had assisted in Payette's burial on a bluff overlooking the Snake River in the Washoe Bench area (http://payettecounty.info/marlow/francois.html ). However, research by Denis Garand refutes this. In his article that appeared in the Winter 1999 edition of Idaho Yesterdays he was able to show exactly what happened to Francois after he retired in 1844; he retired in the town of St. Cuthbert, Quebec. Unfortunately there are no online links to Idaho Yesterday publications so I have made a copy available below: