Étienne Provost

Étienne Provost (December 21 1785 – 3 July 1850) was a Canadian fur trader whose trapping and trading activities in the American southwest preceded Mexican independence. He was also known as Proveau and Provot. Leading a company headquartered in Taos, in what is today New Mexico, he was active in the Green River drainage and the central portion of modern Utah. He was one of the first people of European descent to see the Great Salt Lake, purportedly reaching its shores around 1824–25. However, Jim Bridger also reached the lake at about the same time, in late 1824, and maps from the 1600s may show the Great Salt Lake, possibly indicating European explorers reached the area over a century before Provost or Bridger.