2018 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 12

The Bones of More and Foy
by Michael J. Evetts
Searching for the Stephens Party ambush site. A forgotten story in the aftermath of the 1832 Battle of Pierre’s Hole.

A Keelboat Petroglyph: A New Discovery in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming
by Michael T. Bies
One of the earliest known representations of fur trade era watercraft by indigenous people.

A Warrior’s Pride: Native Illustration and the Written Record
by Journal Staff
A remarkable war shirt likely illustrating the opening battle of the Arikara War of 1823.

“Now We Go”: Snake Country Freemen and the Desertions of May 1825
by Thomas H. Holloway
New perspective of the men involved and causes of this now famous international incident.

The Spark in the Powder: Iroquois Freemen Trappers in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
by Dr. Jay H. Buckley and Lyn S. Clayton
Comparing the success of Iroquois trappers with British verses American Fur companies.

“The Hunters of Kentucky” Reach Rendezvous
by Scott Walker
Music that can clearly be placed in the mountains and the Nez Perce man who made it his own.

The Journal was released during this year’s 2018 Green River Rendezvous Days at the Museum.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2018

2017 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 11

Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 11

The Henry & Ashley Fur Company Keelboat Enterprize
by Clay Landry and Jim Hardee

Navigation of the dangerous and unpredictable Missouri River claimed many lives and thousands of dollars in trade goods in the early 1800s, including the HAC’s Enterprize.
Two well-known fur trade historians detail the keelboat’s misfortune, Ashley’s resourceful response, and a possible location of the wreck.

More than Just a Rock: the Manufacture of Gunflints
by Michael P. Shaubs

For centuries, trappers and traders relied on dependable gunflints for defense, hunting, and commerce. This article describes the qualities of a superior gunflint and chronicles the revolution of a stone-age craft into an important industry.

The Hudson’s Bay Company and the “Youtah” Country, 1825-41
by Dale Topham

The vast reach of the Hudson’s Bay Company extended to the Ute Indian territory in the latter years of the Rocky Mountain rendezvous period, as pressure increased from American trappers crossing the Continental Divide.

Otholoho and Grohean: Two Fast horses, One Set of Tracks
By Jerry Enzler

A story of two race horses whose tracks might have merged – one stead the pride of William Drummond Stewart, the other the favorite of Jim Bridger.

Traps: the Common Denominator
by James A. Hanson, PhD.

The portable steel trap, an exponential improvement over snares, spears, nets, and earlier steel traps, revolutionized trapping in North America. Eminent scholar James A. Hanson tracks the evolution of the technology and its deployment by Euro-Americans and Indians.

Bad Pass Trail: Gateway between the Wind and Yellowstone Rivers
by Mike Bryant

This 30-mile corridor, in use since prehistoric times, connects two important watersheds and provides a detour around the 1,000-foot-deep Big Horn Canyon. Use of the trail by mountain men is documented from 1805 through the end of the rendezvous era.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2017

2016 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 10

Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 10

Hugh Glass: The Rest of the Story
by Clay Landry
This article investigates new and rarely-considered data to build a more complete, and no less remarkable, picture of the man and his circumstances, especially in his later life.

“This Outrageous Desease”: Charles Larpenteur’s Observations of the 1837 Smallpox Epidemic
by Michael M. Casler
With the use of Larpenteur’s first-hand account, along with other primary sources and modern understanding of the pathogen to advance a nuanced picture of how fur traders dealt with the scourge that annihilated so many Native Americans and devastated families in the fur trade.

The Rats at Fort Clark
by Don Arp, Jr.
Francis Chardon, bourgeois of Fort Clark, waged a war on rats from 1834-1839. Learn what made these vermin such a formidable adversary on the frontier. This article compiles statistics that reveal how these pests affected daily life at an American Fur Company post on the Missouri River.

The Influence of the Fur Trade on John Sutter
by Jim Hardee
Everyone knows that the 1849 Gold Rush started at Sutter’s Mill in California. But did you know that John Sutter learned from mountain men on every step of his journey west?

Naturalists in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Era: “They are a Perfect Nuisance”
by Carol Kuhn
The discovery of flora and fauna was also a business – not so different from piling up pelts. The new perspective examines in detail not just how, but why these men ventures into the Rocky Mountains.

Mountain Men and the Taking of California, 1845-47
by Larry E. Morris
As the fur trade waned, many trappers got involved with American military ventures. This article explains the integral roles the mountaineers played in the Mexican-American War.

2015 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 9

Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 9

The Mystery of Alfred Jacob Miller’s Portrait of Captain Joseph Reddeford Walker
by Vic Nathan Bender
Questioning the identity of the person whose portrait Miller painted, the image of Joe Walker may not be him at all.

Wolverines in the Fur Trade
by Fred Poyner IV
Though the beaver was the most sought after animal during the fur trade era, many other creatures were sporting fine fur were trapped and harvested.

The 1808 Murder Trial of George Drouillard
by Melissa Tiffie
An in-depth look at an early St. Louis legal case, examining frontier justice using actual court documents.

Exploring Rocky Mountain Trapper Productivity
by Jim Hardee
Attempts to quantify beaver trapping, searching to discover how many pelts a mountaineer might reasonably expect to harvest in a twelve month period.

Blackfeet Peacemaker: The Search for Nicholas Small Robe
by George Capps
The search for the Piegan man who urged his people to work together for peaceful trade with neighboring tribes as well as with trappers.

Jim Bridger Challenges the HBC in the post-Rendezvous Era
by Jerry Enzler
A study of fur trade competition in the 1840s, utilizing important documents recently discovered in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. Trappers continued to find relatively untrapped regions in the Southwest, and forts Hall and Bridger maneuvered to vie for furs in a less-profitable industry.

Archibald Pelton, Mad Man on the Mountains
by Larry E. Morris
In Chinook Jargon, a language of mixed Native American and English vocabulary, the word for “crazy” stems from the forlorn tale of an early trapper, Archibald Pelton. The tragic tale of a young mountaineer and contemporary of Andrew Henry, Manuel Lisa, and Wilson Price Hunt. Local Native Americans treated Pelton with care and attention. Pelton’s case is the first mention of mental illness among Euro-Americans entering the Pacific Northwest.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2015

2014 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 8

William H. Ashley’s Newly Discovered 1826 Fur Trade Journal
by Dr. Jay H. Buckley
Describes how the diary was found and eventually made its way into the archives of the Campbell House Museum in St. Louis Museum. Includes the complete diary with transcriptions.

1836 and 1838: When White Girls Crashed the Party
by Jill R. Ottman
Conveys thought-provoking observations about the impact the presence of these women had on the rendezvous they attended. Their detailed descriptions in letters and diaries allow historians a female perspective on a culturally mixed but male-dominated event.

Smith, Jackson & Sublette: A Difficult Partnership
by John C. Jackson
A challenge to the accepted viewpoints regarding the business dealings of the three men, providing a particularly critical assessment of Jedediah Smith’s contribution to the enterprise. Drawing from many sources, including some seen here for the first time, Jackson questions whether this early trapper was an asset or a liability to the partnership.

The Blackfoot Road to Plunder
by Paul M. Raczka
An explanation of the Blackfoot tribe’s migration and trade routes that took them north and south along the Rocky Mountain Range from Alberta, Canada to Santa Fe, New Mexico. An interpretation of an 1801 map drawn by Blackfoot chief Old Swan for HBC fur trader Peter Fidler, showing many landmarks that are still observable in modern times.

Jedediah Smith’s Disaster at Defeat River
by James C. Auld
Auld examines the exploits of Jedediah Smith, setting out to identify the location of a fatal encounter between Smith’s party and local Native Americans on the banks of the Umpqua River in 1828. He looks at clues found in first-hand reports as well as an on-the-ground search for further hints that help pinpoint the site of Smith’s camp that was overrun by Kelawatset Indians leaving few survivors.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2014

2013 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 7

Arikara Niitunisu Beliefs and the Fur Trade
by Dr. Mark van de Logt
The article shows foreign traders gradually losing their status as supernatural spirits and becoming something more darkly human in the eyes of the Arikara. The perception of the Arikara were that of the Euro-Americans bringing recurring epidemics that devastated the tribes.

Fact and Fancy in Alfred Jacob Miller’s Early Watercolors, 1837-39
by Dr. Lisa Strong
Many readers are familiar with the artwork of Alfred Jacob Miller the only artist who attended a Rocky Mountain rendezvous. Many historians use Miller’s images as historical evidence of fur trade material culture. The article shows the insightful comparisons of various phases of the artist’s career and illuminations of the pitfalls of assuming that Miller’s artwork can be considered historical data.

Where was Fort William?
by Scott Walker
An examination of Miller’s paintings of Fort William (later known as Fort Laramie) for evidence of that structure’s historical location. Though the original site is yet to be determined by archaeologists, Scott Walker shows that careful attention to detail – in both the artwork and Miller’s commentary – can yield interesting results.

Commerce in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade: Two 1830 Promissory Notes
by Clay J. Landry
An explanation of the financial system of the fur trade and the significance of these drafts for the two illiterate men who held them.

Bartolome Baca and the Opening of the Mexican Southwest
by J. Ryan Badger
Baca, governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico from 1823-25, helped initiate commerce by sidestepping Mexican statutes to encourage beaver trapping. J. Ryan Badger demonstrates how Baca’s independent streak affected the American fur trade.

Trappers’ Brides: Intercultural Marriages in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
by Dr. Kathleen Barlow
Parsing the fantasy and the reality in Miller’s artwork to separate Euro-American assumptions about Native American women from the actual roles those women fulfilled in their societies. Ultimately Dr. Kathleen Barlow offers a way to reframe Miller’s images and writing to better appreciate Indian women’s place in the Rocky Mountain fur trade.

Murthly: Castle of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
by James C. Auld
A glimpse into the personal life of Sir William Drummond Stewart that is anchored in the history of his ancestral home, Murthly Castle.
Stewart came to the Rockies in 1833 and spent nearly a decade attending rendezvous, adventuring with fur trappers, and collecting artifacts. When he returned to Scotland, he renovated his ancestral home as a memento of his American experiences.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2013

2012 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 6

Zackary Perch Claims the Northwest
by John C. Jackson
An intriguing investigation of enigmatic letters written by a shadowy American in 1807. What began for former army captain John McClallen as a commercial trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, ended as a territorial challenge on the waters of the Columbia river. McClallen’s lone voice from the west side of the Continental Divide spoke on behalf of the young United States, defending it against British encroachment on the Pacific Coast.

Who was Roy?
by John Eldredge
Graffiti invariably makes one wonder who wrote it and why. John Eldredge was sufficiently curious to research an inscription he found on a rock in a remote southwestern Wyoming location. This article shows John Eldredge’s process of probing into the fur trade history to find out about the person named in the 1814 granite epitaph. Sleuthing into early records, Eldredge ferrets out a plausible identity for Roy, as well as evidence of one of the earliest American trading ventures west of South Pass.

The Mexican Connection
by Dr. James A. Hanson
The fur trade was pursued throughout the entire region of The Rocky Mountains, not confined to the frequently-examined Intermountain West and its rendezvous sites. Dr. James A. Hanson reminds the readers of the significance of the southern Rockies within this article. He presents the history of trade relations in Spanish/Mexican territories and demonstrates how that business intersected with beaver trapping throughout the continent.

Jedediah Smith’s Journeys of “Secondary Consideration”: New York to St. Louis
by James C. Auld
This article brings to light obscure and formerly unknown details about Smith’s early life. Jedediah Smith’s career has been frequently dissected but little attention has been paid to his upbringing and the circumstances that pushed him towards the western frontier.

India Rubber in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
by Clay J. Landry
This article examines the early development and use of this novel and worthy substance as it became a fixture of American life, aided in part by the fur trade. It looks at how India rubber products changed the way trappers in the Rockies protected themselves from the wet, cold conditions that defined their trade.

Eavesdropping on Fur Trade Mail
by Jim Hardee
With the opportunity to examine the Sublette County Fur Trade Papers, Jim Hardee was able to read many interesting letters between fur trade personalities. The article focuses on his investigation of one such piece of correspondence. A letter pertaining to Nathaniel J. Wyeth and his well known misfortune at the 1834 rendezvous on Ham’s Fork provides an alternate perspective on Wyeth’s enterprise.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2012

2011 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 5

Tracking Jim Bridger: Finding the Trail of Old Gabe
by Jerry Enzler
Jim Bridger is a fascinating fur trade icon about whom numerous books and articles have been written. Yet, new information continues to surface that adds to or corrects the body of knowledge available about this famous mountaineer. Within this article Jerry Enzler thoroughly examines the legend decrying Bridger as one of the men who abandoned grizzly-mauled Hugh Glass, among other anecdotes of Bridger’s career.

Was Fort Bonneville Simply Nonsense?
by O. Ned Eddins
Did a Fort Bonneville exist on Wyoming’s Green River during the Rocky Mountain fur trade era? Warren Angus Ferris was the only Green River rendezvous participant to leave a physical description of a Fort Bonneville, or use the term Fort Nonsense. Contemporary fur trade journals, lack of physical evidence, and no verifiable artifacts suggest a bastioned Fort Bonneville did not exist.

St. George and the Dragon Sideplate: An Art History for North American Trade Guns
by Nathan E. Bender
This article talks about one of the trademarks of these fur trade era weapons is a serpent-shaped sideplate. Nathan Bender ventures into a strongly debated realm by presenting his theory on how and why the shape of this significant ornament evolved. Accompanied by remarkable illustrations of sideplate patterns as they developed over time, Bender’s research supports a plausible hypothesis regarding the history behind the imagery of the decorative yet functional firearm component.

“A Life Wild and Perilous”: Death in the Far West among Trappers and Traders
by James Hannon, Jr.
There have been many attempts to reconstruct the trapper lifestyle during the Rocky Mountain fur trade era that ignore the risks involved in the occupation. Frequency and causes of trapper deaths are investigated within this article. With statistical data from mostly primary sources, Hannon’s study affords an innovative analysis of dangers faced by mountaineers chasing their fortunes in the icy streams of the Rockies. Informative charts and graphs clarify Hannon’s conclusions.

Lock, Stock and Barrel: Arming the Far Western Mountaineers
by Doyle Reid
Author Doyle Reid goes far beyond the typical survey of weaponry and firearm-related accoutrements used by intrepid beaver hunters. Reid conducts experiments under lifelike conditions to better understand the functionality of these tools. Accuracy and penetration qualities of a variety of firearms are field tested and the results revealed.

Myth and Mountain Men Analyzed: Heroes and Heroines
by Ken Zontek, PhD
This article uses the model developed by mythologist Joseph Campbell to explain the allure of mountaineer legends. The mountain man/hero adventure story is powerful both collectively and personally. Zontek shows how Campbell’s monomyth template easily fits the lore of the fur trade, just as legendary mountain men’s stories can inspire and mirror the lives of individuals today.

An 1824-1825 Columbia Fur Company Ledger
by Jim Hardee
A recently discovered ledger adds new light to the business of CFC and some of the men employed in the fur trade of the upper Missouri River. The ledger is dating to 1824 – 1825 and was found largely by accident in the Missouri History Museum archives, The Columbia Fur Company ledger includes familiar names like James Kipp and Toussaint Charboneau.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2011

2010 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Volume 4

Was Meriwether Lewis the Godfather of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade?
by Thomas C. Danisi and John C. Jackson
The article investigates the impact Meriwether Lewis had on the early foundation of the fur trade. It examines the role Lewis played in the initial years following the return of the Corps of Discovery from its epic exploration of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. It is said that Lewis’s outspoken viewpoints on commerce were instrumental in birthing the hunt for beaver pelts in the West.

Going Indian! The Use of Leggings and Breech Clout by the Euro-American Trapper of the Rocky Mountains
by Clay Landry
The examination of fur trade material culture is the topic of this article. Clay Landry makes extensive use of primary sources to describe types of legwear worn by men of the fur trade. Whether trappers wore breech clout and leggings has long been debated among material culturists. Landry’s in-depth consideration of the matter provides a critical assessment and a well-defended conclusion that should lay this question to rest, once and for all.

Union Pass: A ‘Mountain of Many Waters’
by Stephen V. Banks
Just how well Union Pass was known to Rocky Mountain trappers is the subject of this article by Stephen V. Banks, long known for familiarity with that particular geographical area. Bank’s knowledge of local Indian lore, supplemented by period journals and diaries, documents repeated use of this pass and what made it beneficial to travelers.

Painting the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade: An Artist Creates On the Headwaters of Spanish River
by Tim V. Tanner
Professional artist Tim V. Tanner explains in this article the process he used to create a historically accurate work of art. Tanner painted the work specifically for this article and readers will undoubtedly appreciate how much research went into its details. Tanner, who makes his living instructing as well as producing art in a variety of media, provides a unique opportunity for artist and non-artist alike to grasp the effort that goes into a period piece.

Warren Ferris, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the Rendezvous of 1834
by Scott Walker
Scott Walker investigates Ferris’s role as a trader, rather than trapper, during the Joint Occupancy of the Oregon Territory, and how an American selling HBC goods affected the HBC’s own interest in the rendezvous system. Research in the HBC archives led Walker to the invoice of goods Ferris took to rendezvous, providing unique insight into fur trade material culture.

Wheels to Rendezvous
by E. Rick Williams
Caravans of pack mules brought many goods to the Rockies but wheeled vehicles played a greater role in opening the West. The fur trade brought the first wagons over the Continental Divide and proved that rolling to the Pacific was a possibility, a fact explored by E. Rick Williams the author of this article. Discussing wagons as transportation for people as well as freight, Williams spins an interesting tale that concludes with rendezvous supply routes opening the road for emigrants, and setting in motion the great migration of the 1840s-1850s.

Goggles in the Rocky Mountain West
by Alida Boorn
This article explores the early use of sunglasses. From fur trade records dating as far back as 1733, Alida Boorn shows how goggles shielded eyes for trappers, Native Americans, and overland travelers. A variety of primary documents from journals to newspaper advertisements bolsters this paper’s focus without shading how the function of sunglasses remains virtually unchanged today.

Sublette County Historical Society, 2010

Museum of the Mountain Man

Pinedale, Wyoming

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