Died in 1668

Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov was born in the Russian town of Kashin, north of Moscow. His parents were serfs, members of Russia’s servant class. Poyarkov become a cossack, a soldier who served the czar (Russian emperor) in territories on the Russian frontier. He traveled to eastern Siberia, and in 1638 was a member of a team that helped build a fort on the Lena River, a place that would later become the large city of Yakutsk, a center of Russian activity in the Far East.

Expedition searches for valley of riches

In 1643 the fort commander chose Poyarkov to lead an expedition to find the Shilka, or “Black Dragon,” a river thought to extend south into China, through a valley rich with precious metals. Poyarkov and a military party of 133 men set out from Yakutsk, traveling south along the Lena River...