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Fur
Trade Facts of the American and Canadian Fur Trade
by
O. Ned Eddins
Prime
beaver pelts were taken October thru November and from
late February into April.
Fur Trappers waded in the water to
set the
traps, so the beaver would not smell the Mountain Man's scent near the
trap. Surprisingly, many
mountain
men went to the mountains to regain their health.
Late Fall Trapping
A
question often asked is who was the first mountain man? My choice for the first person to be considered a mountain
man in the Rocky Mountains would be John Colter. Discharged early from the Lewis
and Clark Expedition, Colter spent the winter of 1806-07 trapping Clark's Fork
of the Yellowstone. If you consider Canadian trappers, Peter
Pond was earlier, the later part of the 1700s, and Radisson and Grosseilliers
were in the mid 1600's.
The
first trading post in the Rocky Mountains was on the left bank of the Bighorn
River where it entered the Yellowstone River. Built in 1807 by Manuel Lisa, the post was
called Fort Raymond (Fort Ramon, Manuel’s Fort).
A quote from Manuel Lisa:
I put into my operation great activity. I go great distance, while some are
considering whether they will start today or tomorrow.
Soon
after arriving at the mouth of the Bighorn River, Lisa sent John Colter to the Crow villages
on the Stinkingwater (Shoshone) River,
George Drouillard to Stinkingwater and Powder
river villages, and Edward Rose to the Tongue River villages. The three men
carried word a trading post was at the mouth of the Bighorn for the Crow
spring trade.
During
his travels, John Colter entered what would become Yellowstone National Park, but
mountain men did not refer to the Yellowstone area as Colter's Hell. The
mountain man's Colter's Hell was a thermal mud pot area at the junction of the
North and South Stinkingwater rivers near Cody, Wyoming...not Yellowstone
National Park.
The
first trappers to trap the Jackson Hole area were four
Astorians in 1811. At the
junction of the Hoback and Snake rivers, Hunt left Alexander Carson (Kit
Carson's brother), Louis St.
Michel, Pierre Detaye, and Pierre Delaunay to trap the Jackson Hole and upper
Snake River area, and then continue on to the mouth of the Columbia River.
The
trail Robert Stuart
and six Astorians pioneered from Cauldron Linn in Idaho,
over South Pass, and on to St. Louis was the basic route used by Americans to
reach the Oregon Territory. Called the
Oregon Trail, it was the route leading
to America’s Manifest Destiny for several hundred thousand Oregon and Mormon
pioneers and the California gold seekers.
South
Pass and the Oregon Trail were the only major route across the North American
Continent discovered by a west to east journey...The
vast majority of the time, mountain men and explorers traveled well-beaten
Indian trails they were guided over or told about by Indians. Native
Americans were
the true discovers of South Pass.
Within
in a two-year period, the Astorians established
trading posts on the Columbia,
Willamette, Okanogan, Spokane, and Snake rivers. These fur trading posts,
especially Okanogan, were a major factor in the State of Washington being part
of the United States.
David
Stuart and John Clarke returned to Astoria in June of 1813 with one hundred and
forty packs of furs. The furs were obtained from two-years of trading at the
Okanogan posts and one year at Spokane Post (Franchère). These two Astorian
posts produced forty more packs of furs than William Ashley took from the
1825
rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains. Ashley’s one hundred packs of furs came from two
years of trapping by his own men, furs from nineteen deserters from the Hudson’s
Bay Company, and over twenty Taos trappers under
Etienne Provost. In
addition to the furs from Okanogan and Spokane post, the Astorians were also
trading for beaver and sea otter skins at Fort Astoria, along the Pacific coast,
and for beaver at Fort Boise in Idaho and at Wallace House in the Willamette
Valley near Salem, Oregon. The 1826
Rendezvous produced one hundred and twenty-five packs. Based on these comparisons, the Astorians
were highly successful in their trapping ventures.
A dried beaver pelt was folded and pressed into a ninety pound pack. On average it took sixty pelts to make a pack.
Many historians claim Astor suppressed the discovery of South Pass. An article outlining the journey of Robert Stuart and an account of Wilson Price Hunt's journey appeared in the Missouri Gazette, in June 1813. Robert Stuart did not meet with Astor until the 23rd of July 1813.
...By information received from these gentlemen, it appears that a journey across the continent of North America might be performed with a waggon, there being no obstruction in the whole route that any person would dare to call a mountain, in addition to its being much the most direct and short one to go from this place to the mouth of the Columbia river....
The
Treaty of Ghent in 1814 restored all captured territories in the War of 1812 to
the previous owners, but the question with Fort Astoria become, was it sold or
was it captured.
The haggling and bickering over the fate of Astoria dragged on until October
8th, 1818. On that date, Fort George was returned to Astor, and
the American flag once again flew over Fort Astoria. From 1818 to 1846 the
British and Americans shared joint occupancy to the Oregon Country.
Astor's comment on the return
of Fort Astoria was:
If I was a young man,” he lamented, “I would again resume the trade—as it is
I am too old and I am withdrawing from all business as fast as I can.
Astor
sold his interest in the American Fur Company in 1834. Ramsey Cooks bought the
Missouri River-Great Lakes trade and kept the name American Fur Company. Pratte, Chouteau, and
Company of St. Louis
acquired the Western Department of the American Fur Company.
A
Northwest Company fur trade brigade led by Donald Mackenzie in 1818 to 1821 are
considered to be the first trappers into the Yellowstone Park Area and in the
Green River Valley.
Firehole Elk - Yellowstone National Park
William Ashley
was not a mountain man; he went to the Rocky Mountains twice.
Ashley had no interest in the mountains, or the fur trade, except as a way of making
money to further his political career. Ashley is credited
with the innovation of the Rendezvous System, and in terms of the Rocky
Mountains, this is true. However, Ashley was not the first to use a rendezvous
for the exchange of pelts and to re-supply the trappers. The North West Company had held an
annually rendezvous at Grand Portage and later at
Fort William from 1778 to
1821.
Ashley’s
rendezvous scheme enabled him to retire from the mountains after two years, but
he held a contract to supply his predecessors Smith Jackson and Sublette, which
Ashley did until l830. The rendezvous supplies were marked up, sometimes a
thousand percent; it was the lucrative part of the fur trade. Even though Ashley
had the supply contract, he hired people to take the supplies to the rendezvous. One of these men
was Hyrum
Scott.
Many
writer refer to the Ashley men as the more romanticized "free trapper", not
salaried employees like the French-Canadian “engages”. This is hard to
understand based on the add in
Missouri Gazette & Public Advertiser Feb. 13, 1822 and in the St. Louis
Enquirer two weeks later.
The subscriber wishes to engage ONE HUNDRED MEN, to ascend the river Missouri to its source, there to be "employed" [my quote marks] for one, two, or three years. For particulars enquire of Major Andrew Henry, near the Lead Mines, in the County of Washington, (who will ascend with, and command party) or to the subscriber at St. Louis.
Supplying
Indians with alcohol was not the only laws broken at the mountain man
rendezvous. Mountain men were trespassing on Indian Territory, which was
prohibited by the
Trade and Intercourse Acts, and the majority of
the mountain man rendezvous were held west of the Continental Divide and south of the forty-second parallel
which was Mexican territory.
Jackson
Hole was named for David Jackson. In 1826, Jackson joined with Jedediah Smith
and William Sublette to buy out William Ashley's interest in the fur trade.
While the partnership lasted, Jackson ran the field operations, Smith was the
explorer, and Sublette ran the supply trains from St. Louis. Smith Jackson and Sublette sold
out to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1830.
All
the rendezvous were held west of the Continental Divide with the exception of
the 1828 (Lander), 1830 (Riverton), and 1838 (Riverton) rendezvous. These three rendezvous were the only ones
held in United States territory. Except for one sites
in Utah, two sites on the Utah-Idaho border, and one in the Teton Valley of Idaho, all of the rendezvous were held in Wyoming; six of the
sixteen rendezvous were held on Horse Creek in the Green River Valley near
present-day Daniel, Wyoming.
The
largest tributary of the Colorado, Columbia, and Missouri rivers head within a
sixty-eight mile radius of the Grand Teton peak on the western Wyoming border.
Another circle with a radius of one hundred and ninety-one miles covers all of
the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous sites and the Three Forks area of Montana. With
the Grand Teton at its center, this area covers the richest beaver country in
the Rocky Mountains.
Grand Teton
The
Tetons have had various names. The Astorians referred to them as the Pilots
Knobs, Donald Mackenzie named them the Trois Tetons (Three Breasts), Indians referred
to them as the Teewinots, or the Hoary-Headed-Fathers.
The
first wheel tracks over South Pass were made by a small cannon pulled
to the 1826 rendezvous.
William
L. Sublette took the first wagons along the Oregon Trail to the Rocky Mountains
in 1830. Sublette left the future Oregon Train at South Pass and went to the
site of the 1830 rendezvous at the junction of the Popo Agie (Little Wind River, Popoasia) and the Wind River
near present day Riverton, Wyoming. The 1830 supply caravan, consisted of
eighty-one men on mules, ten wagons drawn by five mules each, two Deerborn
carriages, twelve head of cattle, and a milk cow.
Moses
"Black" Harris was a frequent companion of William Sublette on the journeys back
to St. Louis for the next year's rendezvous supplies. Harris has been described
on several internet sites as a
black man, but there is no evidence to support this other than his
nickname "Black".
At
the 1830 rendezvous, Smith Jackson and Sublette sold out to Thomas Fitzpatrick,
Jim Bridger, Milton Sublette, Henry Fraeb, and Jean Gervias. The new company was
named the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.
The
only time there was an actual company named the Rocky Mountain Fur Company
was between 1830 and 1833. Many writers erroneously substitute Rocky Mountain
Fur Company for Rocky Mountain Fur Trade.
Timeline of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade companies:
1822-1824 Ashley Henry
1825-1826 Ashley Smith
1826-1830 Smith Jackson and Sublette
1830-1833 Rocky Mountain Fur Company
1833-1834 Rocky Mountain Fur
Company and Christy
1834-1840
Fontenelle and
Fitzpatrick under a St. Louis company
In
July of 1832, Captain B. L. E. Bonneville and
Joseph R. Walker led one hundred
and ten men with twenty-wagon loads of provisions through South Pass into the
Green River Valley. These were the first wagons to cross the Continental Divide
at South Pass on what
would be the Oregon Trail.
After
the 1834 Rendezvous, the major supplier of the rendezvous was Pratte, Chouteau,
and Company of St. Louis.
In
1835, William
Sublette sold Fort William (Fort John, Fort Laramie) to the
Fontenelle and Fitzpatrick partnership and agreed to leave the mountains. Thus
ended the major influence of the "Ashley men” on the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade.
The
two greatest Rocky Mountain men-explorers were
Jedediah Smith and
Joseph Walker.
Walker's greatest achievement was the trail he blazed to
California in 1833.
Despite some claims, Bonneville was not with Walker. Hundreds of thousands of pioneers and the transcontinental railroad followed the
major portion of the trail Walker used to reach California.
Jedediah
Smith's party were the first Americans to cross East to West over the Continental Divide
at South Pass. He was the first to cross overland to California, the first
to traverse the Sierra Nevada; and the first to cross the Great Basin Desert. In
his travels, Jedediah Smith crossed Utah from East to West and North to South.
Jedediah Smith's
explorations gained the distinction of losing the most
men in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade years. Jedediah Smith was killed by Comanche
on the 27th of May 1831 on the Cimarron River .
The North American fur trader-explorers were
Joseph Walker,
Jedediah Smith,
David Thompson, and
Alexander Mackenzie of the Canadian North West Company.
The
two most overblown, overrated mountain men-fur trader-trappers in the Rocky
Mountains were Jim
Bridger, and
Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville. Except for bringing the first wagons over
South Pass and for the speculation he was a government agent, Bonneville was
a failure at everything he did in the fur trade. Jim Bridger was
employed by
Ashley in 1822, and there is nothing to indicate he was anymore than
an employee of a fur company until 1830...Bridger left Hugh Glass to die after
Glass was mauled by a bear...on a bet, he and a companion floated thirty, or so,
miles down Bear River, and upon returning to Cache Valley, Bridger claimed he
had discovered an arm of the Pacific Ocean [for this, he is given credit for
discovering Great Salt Lake]...from 1830 to 1834, he was a partner in the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company which never had a successful year in its four years of
operation...he had little to do with Fort Bridger after it was built in
1843...as a guide, Bridger told the Reynolds Expedition of 1859-60 you could not get from
the head of the Wind River to the Yellowstone River [After crossing Togwotee
Pass, you can lope a horse most of the way from
Turpin Meadows (on south fork of the Buffalo River) over Two Ocean Pass and on
to the Yellowstone]...the only
positive thing about Bridger is he was a teller of tall
tales, a successful fur trade brigade leader [unless he was being paid why was
he always leading brigades], survived the era of the
Rocky Mountain Fur Trade, and was used as an army guide.
Bridger and Bonneville did not contribute any more to western history
than a great many others, i.e.
George Drouillard,
Moses "Black" Harris,
Thomas
Fitzpatrick,
Manuel Lisa, and yet, these
men are
basically unknown to most people. You could not begin to count everything with Bridger and Bonneville's name on it in the western states, including a fenced off rock with
Bridger's name written
on it? [Bridger signed his name with an X]. Bridger is not mentioned in
any of the Battle of Pierre's Hole journals, and yet his is the first
name on the Pierre's Hole Monument Plaque and Kit Carson is second [Carson was trapping
on the Arkansas at the time]. The best thing to be said for Bridger and
Bonneville is they had good biographers.
Another
Astorian-Mountain Man with a great number of things named after him is John
Day. His only claim to fame is he became mentally ill and was sent back to Fort
Astoria by Robert Stuart.
The
first trappers to mention the Great Salt Lake were Edward Robinson, John Hoback,
Jacob Rezner, and Joseph Miller in 1812. whether they actually saw Great Salt
Lake is open to conjecture.
The
first probable fur trapper to see Great Salt Lake was Etienne Provost, a Taos
trapper, in 1824. Jim Bridger did not "discover" the Great Salt Lake until a
year later.
People
in St. Louis laughed at Jim Bridger for saying a fish could swim from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. One place this occurs in North America is
at the Parting of the Waters on Two Ocean Pass in the Teton Wilderness. Parting
of the Waters is on the National Registry of Natural Landmarks.
Parting of Waters - Two Ocean Pass, Teton Wilderness
Located
in the Teton Wilderness area, Two Ocean Pass separates the Atlantic Ocean and
the Pacific Ocean drainage. North Two Oceans Creek runs down the Continental
Divide a short distance then splits into two branches. Depending on the time of
year, each branch is three- to six-feet wide. Atlantic Creek flows 3,348 miles
to the Gulf of Mexico via. the Yellowstone, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers.
Pacific Creek flows 1,353 miles to the Pacific Ocean via. the Snake and Columbia
Rivers.
In
1534, Jacques Cartier set sail from France hoping to find the Northwest Passage.
At the Gulf of St. Lawrence River, he claimed the land for France.
Samuel
de Champlain made his first trip to North America in 1603. Champlain returned
several years later to establish a permanent settlement. The King of France had
given him permission to establish settlements and to develop a fur trade.
On
May 6, 1670, Hudson's Bay Company was formed, making it the oldest corporation in the world. It was given
all the land whose rivers drained into the Hudson Bay, which became known as
Rupert's Land. Traders competing against Hudson’s Bay claimed the initials
HBC stood for “Here Before Christ”. The Hudson’s Bay charter gave the company control
over what was at the time the tenth largest country in the world.
Hudson’s
Bay Company controlled most of the land in modern day Canada from the Atlantic
to the Pacific Ocean, and as far south as South Dakota. Not only was Hudson’s
Bay Company in charge of the land, they also made and enforced many of the laws.
This continued until 1870, when the Hudson's Bay Company gave up its control under the Deed of
Surrender.
Whenever
a ruling king or queen of Britain visited Rupert's Land, the Hudson's Bay
Company Charter required the Company pay them: two black beavers and one
elk. This tradition continued until 1970, when the Charter was moved from
Britain to Canada.
A
process for making beaver plews more suitable for felt was developed in England
between 1720 and 1740. The process used a chemical mixture including mercuric
oxide to make the hairs rougher so they would stick together. It was called
carroting because it turned the tips of the fur orange. The term “Mad as a
Hatter” comes from the effect of the mercuric acid fumes on the workers.
In
1793, accompanied by Alexander McKay, six French Canadians, two Indians, and a
Newfoundland dog, Alexander Mackenzie made the first successful crossing of
North America. At Dean’s Inlet on the Pacific Coast, Mackenzie wrote on rock:
…Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by Land, the twenty-fecond of July, one thoufand feven hundred and ninety-three.
The
Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company were bitter rivals, until the
British Government forced them to merge under the name of the Hudson's Bay
Company in 1821. However, the dominate members of the new Hudson's Bay Company
were from the North West Company.
The Fur Trade article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.
Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Mountainsofstone.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.
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Joseph R. Walker
Fort Bonneville
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