Description

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