The Vérendrye brothers were the first Europeans to cross the northern Great Plains and see the Rocky Mountains (1742–1743). We know very little about their journey. All we know comes from a journal found in the French archives in 1851 and a lead plate commemorating the journey which was found in 1913 buried near Pierre, South Dakota. The journal and lead plate are difficult to interpret. The journal states the trip may have been made by the "Chevalier Vérendrye and one of his brothers" who are otherwise unidentified. Most likely the Chevalier was Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye and the brother was François de La Vérendrye but we cannot be sure. The mountains they saw during their expeditions may have been the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, but could also have been the Black Hills or