American Fur Trade:

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 that the beaver would not smell the Mountain Man’s scent along the bank near the trap. Surprisingly, many mountain men went to the mountains to regain their health.

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 Groseilliers were in the mid 1600’s.

The first trading post in the Rocky Mountains below the 49th parallel 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.

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.

The first trappers to trap the Jackson Hole area were four Astorians in 1811. At the junction of the Hoback and Snake rivers, Wilson Price Hunt left Alexander Carson, Louis St. Michel, Pierre Detaye, and Pierre Delaunay to trap the Jackson Hole and upper Snake River area then continue on to the mouth of the Columbia River.

The trail, except for one detour, 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.

The discovery of South Pass by Stuart was basically ignored until the Jedediah Smith party travelled over it in 1824. Jedediah Smith is considered as making the effective discovery of South Pass.

South Pass and the Oregon Trail was the only major route across the North American Continent discovered by a west to east journey.

Called the Oregon-California Trail, it was the route that led to America’s Manifest Destiny for several hundred thousand Oregon and Mormon pioneers and the California gold seekers.

An 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 vast majority of time, mountain men and explorers traveled over well-beaten Indian trails that 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.

Many historians claim Astor suppressed the discovery of South Pass. This article appeared in the Missouri Gazette, in June 1813, outlining the journey of Robert Stuart and an account of Wilson Price Hunt’s journey from an interview with Ramsey Crooks.

…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….

Robert Stuart did not meet with Astor until the 23rd of June 1813.

Despite what some historians write, the Astorians were highly successful in their trapping ventures.

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.

A dried beaver pelt ready to be bundled was a “made” beaver. Beaver pelts were folded and pressed into a ninety pound packs. On average it took sixty pelts to make a ninety pound pack.

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.

In comparison with the Astorians, William Ashley acquired one hundred packs of furs at the 1825 Rendezvous. Ashley’s beaver pelts 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.  Ashley’s 1826 Sweet Water Rendezvous produced one hundred and twenty-five packs.

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 this date, Fort George (Fort Astoria) was returned to Astor.

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.”

From 1818 to 1846, the Oregon Country was under joint occupancy by the British and Americans.

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 North West Company fur trade brigade led by Donald Mackenzie in 1818 to 1821 is considered to be the first trappers into the Yellowstone Park Area and in the Green River Valley.

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.

Ashley was not the first to use a rendezvous for the exchange of pelts and to re-supply the trappers. Starting in 1783, the North West Company held an annually rendezvous at Grand Portage and later at Fort William in Canada.

Several Congressional Trade and Intercourse Acts starting in 1790 made it illegal to trap on Indian lands or sell alcohol to Indians. The Ashley rendezvous were held on Mexican soil, but these minor legalities did not bother General William H. Ashley, the Lieutenant Governor and future Missouri Congressman, one bit…one constant in history is politicians change little with time.

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 mountain man rendezvous held west of the Continental Divide and south of the forty-second parallel were in Mexican territory.

Ashley’s rendezvous scheme enabled him to retire from the mountains after two years. He supplied the trade goods for Smith Jackson and Sublette for only the 1827 rendezvous.

Rendezvous supplies were marked up, sometimes a thousand percent; it was the lucrative part of the fur trade. Even though Ashley furnished the supplies for the 1827 Rendezvous, 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.

TO: Enterprising Young Men

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.

All the rendezvous were held west of the Continental Divide with the exception of the 1829 (Lander), 1830 (Riverton), and 1838 (Riverton) rendezvous. Except for one sites in Utah, two on the Utah-Idaho border, and one in Pierre’s Hole, 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.

All of the Mountain Man rendezvous were held in the territory of the Shoshone (Snake) Indians.

The largest tributary of the Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado river systems heads within a sixty-eight mile radius of the Grand Teton peak in western Wyoming. 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.

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.

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.

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 prior to 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”. Alfred Jacob Miller described Harris has having a bluish-hue on his face like a powder burn.

At the 1830 rendezvous, Smith Jackson and Sublette sold out Thomas Fitzpatrick, Jim Bridger, Milton Sublette, Henry Fraeb, and Jean Gervais. The new company was called 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

1833-1834 Rocky Mountain Fur Company and Christy

1834-1840 Fontenelle and Fitzpatrick under the St. Louis company bought the Western Division of the American Fur 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.

Bonneville and his men stayed in the Green River Valley for a few weeks, but did not build a Fort Bonneville.

Captain Bonneville spent the winter of 1833-34 in the Lemhi Valley of Idaho.

The two greatest Rocky Mountain men-explorers were Joseph Walker and Jedediah Smith.

In 1824, Jedediah Smith’s party was 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.

Despite his accomplishments, Jedediah Smith gained the distinction of being the fur trade brigade leader to lose the most men (25) in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade years.

Comanche killed Jedediah Smith the 27th of May 1831 on the Cimarron River.

Joseph Walker accomplished more than any other mountains man during the fur trade era and western expansion into California. In thirty-four years of leading countless trapping and exploring parties, Walker lost one man to Indians.

Walker’s greatest achievement was the trail he blazed to and from California in 1833-1834. 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 and return from California.

Walker’s clerk, Zenas Leonard was the first to give a description on the lack of drainage from the Great Basin in his book Adventures of a Mountain Man...not John C. Fremont.

Daniel Conner who traveled with Walker for two years wrote a fitting epitaph for Joseph Walker.

After the 1834 rendezvous, a disgruntled Wyeth took his supplies to the Portneuf River near its junction with Snake River and built Fort Hall. Wyeth sold Fort Hall to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1837.

In 1835, William Sublette sold Fort William (Fort John, Fort Laramie) to the Fontenelle and Fitzpatrick partnership of the Pierre Chouteau and Company and agreed to leave the mountains. Thus ended the major influence of the “Ashley men” on the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade.

The two most overblown, overrated mountain men-fur trader-trappers were Capt. Benjamin L. E. Bonneville and Jim Bridger.

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? [There is a receipt with supposedly Bridger name on it, but all other indications are Bridger signed his name with an X].

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.

The best thing to be said for Bridger and Bonneville is they had good biographers.

Bonneville accomplished nothing in the fur trade, except bringing the first wagons over South Pass and speculation he was a government agent.

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 is thought to be one of the two men that left Hugh Glass to die after Glass was mauled by a bear.

On a bet, Bridger floated thirty, or so, miles down Bear River and, upon returning to Cache Valley, claimed to have discovered an arm of the Pacific Ocean [for this, he is given credit in most history books for discovering Great Salt Lake].

From 1830 to 1834, Bridger was a partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company which never had a successful year in its four years of operation.

In 1843, Bridger and Louis Vasquez built Fort Bridger for the Oregon-California immigrant trail trade.

The Mormon Church took over Fort Bridger in 1855. The church reportedly bought Fort Bridger for $8,000 in gold coins. The Mormons claimed, over Bridger’s denials, they had purchased the fort from Louis Vasquez.

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 over Two Ocean Pass to the Yellowstone meadows].

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 only positive thing to be said for 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], he survived the era of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade, built Fort Bridger, and served as an army guide.

My observations on Bonneville and Bridger are very critical. If anyone can supply substantiated facts on either Bridger or Bonneville, I will gladly make the corrections.

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.

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.

Canadian Fur Trade:

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 gave 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. This area became known as Rupert’s Land.

The Hudson’s Bay charter gave them control over what was at the time the tenth largest country in the world.

Trappers competing against Hudson’s Bay claimed the initials HBC stood for “Here Before Christ”.

Hudson’s Bay Company controlled most of the land in modern day Canada between the Continental Divide and the St. Lawrence River drainage, 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.

The two greatest North American fur trader-explorers were David Thompson and Alexander Mackenzie of the Canadian North West Company.

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.

Alexander Mackenzie was the first to travel from the St. Lawrence River to the Arctic Ocean and to the Pacific Ocean.

The Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company were bitter rivals. 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 traders from the North West Company.