MOUNTAIN MEN AND THE FUR TRADE

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MOUNTAIN MENANDTHE FUR TRADE
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SIGNIFICANCE OF 1821

• Mexico won its independence from Spain
• Hugh Glenn and Jacob Fowler
• Taos Trail Pueblo to Taos via Sangre de Cristo
  Pass
• Taos becomes southern trapping center
• William Becknell
• Opens the Santa Fe Trail to American trade

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SANTA FE TRADE

• Profitable
• Mexicans paid hard cash for American goods
• Mexicans traded furs for American goods
• Beaver pelts traded for 1 worth of merchandise
• Pelts brought 6 - 8 dollars apiece in St. Louis
• Romantic
• Exotic location for descendants of Puritans
• Fandangos, Flirting, and Fumar

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• 1807
• Manuel Lisa begins American fur trade with
  Missouri Trading Company.
• 1810 Sends some trappers into Colorado as far
  south as the Arkansas Valley.

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• Diversity among the trappers
• French-Canadians
• Mexicans
• Americans from the East
• Characteristics of the early fur trade
• Most early fur traders did not gather furs
• Fur trade ultimately cannibalistic
• - Not much needed to start

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• Romantic images

NOT TRUE
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EARLY FUR TRADE

• Realities of the Early Fur Trade
• West was a dangerous place
• Trappers/Traders traveled in Brigades
• Usually 50 60 men
• Established a base camp for protection
• Fanned out in groups from base camp
• THE FUR TRADE WAS AN ORGANIZED BUSINESS

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• Two large companies dominated early
• AMERICAN FUR COMPANY
• John Jacob Astor founded in 1810

• Headquarters in St. Louis and on the
• Yellowstone River.
• DID NOT MOVE SOUTH INTO COLORADO

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• Rocky Mountain Fur Company
• Founded by William Ashley
• Brought west the famous Mountain Men
• Jim Bridger

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• Thomas Fitzpatrick

Jim Beckwourth
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EARLY FUR TRADE

• ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY
• 1824 Into Colorado
• South Platte and South Park
• Established base on the Green River
• MOST INNOVATIVE FEATURE
• THE
• RENDEZVOUS

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• THE RENDEZVOUS
• Fair of the Wilderness
• Ashley sent caravans of supplies from the East
• Trappers gathered at Henrys Fork
• Indians from both mountains and plains
• Trading, gaming, drinking, dancing

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• 1827 WILLIAM ASHLEY RETIRED
• - Rocky Mountain Fur Company sold to its
  employees
• 1834 COMPANY DISSOLVED
• - Beaver almost gone
• - Price of pelts falling rapidly
• - Most trappers left Colorado for other
  occupations

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• BUT On Western Slope
• - William Becknell, Antoine Rubidoux
• Built
• Fort Uncompahgre

X
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EARLY FUR TRADE

• In Browns Hole (NW Colorado)
• Trappers built Fort Davy Crockett
• - Conditions so bad, Fort Misery

X
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EARLY FUR TRADE

• With the end of the beaver trade, the Mountain
  Men came to an end as well.
• Legend holds that the fur trade was a Mans
  Business
• conducted by Anglo-Europeans who came from the
  East to avoid former wives, bad business, or
  prosecution.
• Nothing is further from the truth.

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• Relationships with Mexican and Native American
  women were critical for success
• Relationships were indeed sexual
• Relationships went beyond sex
• Indian and Mexican women prepared skins
• Indian and Mexican women were cultural mediators
• Indian and Mexican women provided familial
  connections that made trade possible
• Indian women secured aid and protection
• Mexican women provided access to land grants

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• RELATIONSHIPS LONG-LASTING
• 40 of Mountain Men married Indian women as first
  marriages
• 20 of Mountain Men married Mexican women as
  first marriages
• Average length of marriage 15 years
• Average number of children 3

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EARLY FUR TRADE

• BY THE 1830s
• - TRADE IN COLORADO SHIFTED FROM BEAVER TO
  BUFFALO
• - TECHNIQUES, LOCATIONS AND PRINCIPAL PLAYERS
  SHIFTED AS WELL
• - THE BUFFALO TRADE WILL RADICALLY ALTER
  COLORADO AND THE WEST