James Purcell

James Purcell, also known by Zebulon Pike as James Pursley, was a hunter, trapper, and trader in the Louisiana Territory beginning in 1802. He traded with Native Americans in what is now Colorado and New Mexico until 1805 when he went to Santa Fe. Purcell was then a carpenter there until 1824.

Early life Purcell was raised in Kentucky. He left Bardstown, Kentucky (Bairdstown) in 1799, heading west.

Hunter and trapper

Purcell was in St. Louis in 1802 when he headed west along the Missouri River and then south in the wilderness of the western Louisiana Territory. He traveled with two other men to hunt with the Osage Nation. In 1802, they were near the Osage River when they got into a skirmish with a Native American tribe in present-day Kansas. The three men trapped on the headwaters of the Osage River had several incidents with Native Americans, including Kanza and other people, they lost their horses. Some Kanza people stole their furs. Another time they lost their furs while paddling an improvised canoe on the Osage

Purcell lived in the plains and the mountains of Colorado for three years. like the Kiowa and Comanche. Purcell, one of the early trappers in Colorado, generally trapped beaver.

Purcell met Jean Baptiste LeLande in South Park when he was traveling with 2,000 Native Americans. LeLande was hired by William Morrison of Kaskaskia to trade with Native Americans in the west and Santa Fe. LeLande made it into Colorado and to Santa Fe about 1803.

According to historian Hiram M. Chittenden in his book American Fur Trade of the Far West, Purcell was the first recorded American in Colorado.