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Beau Fleuve the Pretty River

The most recent origin story is that of the word “Buffalo” being a corruption of the French words “Beau Fleuve” meaning “beautiful river”. 

Jeff Klein of the Niagara Frontier Heritage Project mentions this theory in a movie called “St. Jack”.

The actor Ben Gazzara is playing a street hustler and says;

 

     I was born in Buffalo. That’s in New York, near Niagara Falls. … You know how Buffalo got its name? Nuttin’ to do with the animal. Here, lemme – you had a long trip. Well, the French were there first, see? And uh, there’s a river runnin’ through it and they called it beau fleuve – beautiful rivuh? So a coupla Texans musta gotten ahold of it. Beau Fleuve, Bo Fluh, Buffalo, y’know?

 

I did come across a map that shows Beau Fleuve on it. The pictorial map compiled by Josephine Wilhelm Wickser and drawn by Mildred C. Green was published in 1931 by the Whitney-Graham Co. Inc.  This work shows that this theory had some popularity close to 100 years ago. A picture of the area of the map is included below.

(Author's copy)

 

 

 

The Corruption of Beau Fleuve Theory is popular among Buffalonians.  This is so even though it is not mentioned by early historians. Ketchum, Severance, Marshall, Ball, nor Fillmore ever mention Beau Fleuve as a possibility.  It appears seemingly out of nowhere at the end of the 19th century.  

 I was intrigued however, when I noted the Buffalo History Museum had named both my Bois Blancs Theory and the Beau Fleuve Theory as corruptions of the French. 

My curiosity grew greater when I realized that the men who had proposed and supported this theory at the end of the 19th century, expressed that it was probably Native Americans hearing Father Louis Hennepin or other early French explorers to the region use the words “Beau Fleuve”.  These Native Americans then supposedly called it "Bo-flo"  or "Boo-flo" which is very similar to my argument that “Bois Blanc” pronounced “Boblo” or “Bob-low” is the origin of Buffalo.

I then found the newspaper articles the BHM had listed, and followed it up with some other readings as well.  Samuel Clarke the original proponent of the theory, had no evidence to support his view in favor of this “Beau Fleuve” theory nor did a subsequent supporter Father Henry Lautenbach.  I was hoping to see some evidence of a Native American or an explorer or visitor using “Bo-Flo in some context.  Unfortunately, they have provided no evidence of their theory.

I then looked at books by Hennepin and saw that he regularly used the words “Bois Blanc” but never used  the term “Beau Fleuve” in the writings that I searched.  It therefore seems more likely that the Native Americans around Hennepin would have heard Bois Blanc rather than Beau Fleuve.  Could the Native Americans have been saying “Bob-lo” instead of “Bo-flo”?  Well, we have actual evidence showing the use of Bois Blanc by the French in regard to the area, and none whatsoever showing the French using Beau Fleuve.  

 

8/26/2023-update-Just came across a newspaper clipping from The Buffalo Evening News dated August 24 1939 that notes a St. Bonaventure President Thomas Plassmann explaining that Buffalo probably got its name from Hennepin calling the Niagara Belle Fleuve- "beautiful River" and the Native Americans hearing Hennepin, pronouncing it as    Bouf-flo.  Hennepin does describe the Niagara in his Curious Voyages as the "Belle Riviere Niagara" but never as Belle Fleuve.  Often times the Belle Riviere is used to as a name for the Ohio River. 

Plassmann has no evidence other than this is what he thinks happened.  Like those above, these men were on the right path but it is Bois Blanc that the Native Americans heard as sounding like Boblo, that is the source of the name Buffalo.

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