A Fur Trader & Explorer in the American West II – Rendezvous

Jedediah Strong Smith (1799-1831) 

maternal 4th cousin 5x removed 

 

[Jedediah Smith and I share a common great-grandfather – John Smith (1637-1676). He Jedediah's 3rd great-grandfather and my 8th. A chart at the end of this post shows the relationship.]

 

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Jedediah Smith (Wikipedia)

Part I of Jedediah Smith's story tells of his early life, as well as his beginnings in the fur trade (posted Feb 2023). This post follows Jedediah as he is drawn farther west, driven by his intense curiosity and the possibility of new trapping grounds. Through all the challenges, many of them life-threatening, Jedediah still wrote regularly about his discoveries and drew maps of the places he and his men explored. His intention was to eventually publish both the maps and his journals.

 

Left: This portrait of Jedediah was sketched from memory by a friend around 1835 after his death in May 1831. "It is the only portrait known with any claim to authenticity." (Jedediah Smith Society)

 

~ 1824 ~

– FEBRUARY/MARCH: THE SOUTH PASS –

Jedediah's party spent the winter of 1823-24 with the Absarokas (Crow) near the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains. In February, they left the winter encampment to resume their search for new trapping grounds and to find the rivers the Absarokas told them about during the winter. But first they had to find a way to cross the mountains. With forty peaks over 13,000 feet high, numerous glaciers, and over two thousand alpine lakes, the Wind River Range was a formidable barrier. 

  

At first, the party attempted to cross the mountains through the Valley of the Green River at the north end of the range, but the snow was too deep and they had to turn around (see maps below). After making their way back to the Absarokas, they were told of an easier route at the south end of the mountains. Jedediah and his men made their way across the southern part of the Popo Agie River to the Sweetwater River in blizzard conditions.

Winter 1823-1824 – South Pass (Google Maps 2023 with added locations and labels)

The Smith party faced more than freezing cold and blowing, heavy snow, however. Game had become scarce due to the extreme weather conditions and the men were on the verge of starvation. Luckily, William Sublette and James Clyman, the man who stitched up Jedediah's face after the October 1824 grizzly attack, were able to kill a buffalo which saved the group. Little did this band of men realize as they fought to survive that they were about to make an historic discovery that would transform the West.

 

Left: James Clyman (1792-1881) 

(Wikimedia Commons)

 

In mid-March, Jedediah and his men found what became known as the South Pass, a 20-mile-wide, gently sloping area that ascends the Rocky Mountains from the east to the Continental Divide (marked by the white line on the map at the right). When combined with the easy descent on the western side of the divide, Jedediah found a passage where wagons and even livestock could cross the Rockies. The South Pass would eventually became part of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails.

 

 

Historians have estimated that between the mid-1840s and 1870, over 500,000 pioneers used the pass as they made the transcontinental journey to Oregon, California, and Utah. When pioneers on the trails saw the Oregon Buttes (see Google map above), they knew they were on the western side of the Continental Divide – the halfway point on the long journey west.

 On July 12, 1846, Edwin Bryant, an emigrant, wrote that he traveled

"up a very gentle ascent to the south pass of the Rocky Mountains, or the dividing ridge separating the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific. The ascent to the Pass is so gradual, that but for our geographical knowledge . . . we should not have been conscious that we had ascended to, and were standing upon the summit of the Rocky Mountains - the backbone . . . of the North American Continent." (National Park Service)

 

Historic marker near Lander, Wyoming (by Barry Swackhamer 18 Sep 2020, courtesy HMdb.org)

The marker reads, in part:

The South Pass, in which you are now located, is perhaps the most significant transportation gateway through the Rocky Mountains. Indians, mountain men, Oregon Trail emigrants, Pony Express riders, and miners all recognized the value of the passageway straddling the Continental Divide. Bounded by the Wind River Range on the north and the Antelope Hills on the south, the pass offered overland travelers a broad relatively level corridor between the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds.

[Although Jedediah and party "discovered" the South Pass in 1824, they were not the first to do so. In 1812, Robert Stuart of the Pacific Fur Company, owned by John Jacob Astor, was directed to the pass by his party's Shoshone guide. But the "Astorians" were traveling from west to east, searching for an overland route to use instead of transporting their furs via ship along the California coast. News of their discovery was overshadowed by the War of 1812, and knowledge of the pass was lost until the Smith party found it twelve years later. Jedediah and his men were the first Euro-Americans to cross the pass from east to west.]

– SPRING & FALL HUNTING SEASONS 1824 –

 

Thomas Fitzpatrick (1788-1837)

After crossing the pass, Jedediah's party descended into the Green River Valley. They found the valley to be laced with an abundance of long, winding rivers and beaver – it was a fur trapper's paradise. The party divided into two groups, one led by Jedediah, the other by Thomas Fitzpatrick. The next few months were spent exploring the Green River while trapping both up and downstream. 

 

In July, Jedediah and Fitzpatrick met on the Sweetwater River near South Pass. It was time to take their furs to St. Louis. They decided Fitzpatrick would take two men to St. Louis to deliver the furs to William Ashley and tell him about the discovery of the pass. Jedediah, William Sublette, and five other trappers would continue to explore the Green River Valley and surrounding regions in preparation for the fall hunt.
 
In September, Jedediah and his small brigade happened upon a party of Iroquois freemen (independent) trappers near present-day Blackfoot, Idaho. The group had broken off from the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) Snake Country brigade led by Alexander Ross. The men were now ill-equipped to make the 400-mile return trip to their home base, Flathead Post, near present-day Thompson Falls, Montana.

[HBC was a British fur trading company that dominated the Pacific Northwest fur market in the 1820s. Even though both the U.S. and British Empire laid claim to the Oregon Country, which would later become the states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Montana and Wyoming, HBC made a point of discouraging American trappers in the region.]

 

Google Maps (with added locations and labeling)

 

The Smith party traveled with the Iroquois trappers back to Flathead Post, following the Bitterroot River north through the treacherous Bitterroot Mountain Range. In early November, the group pressed on through Ross' Hole to avoid being delayed by deep snow as HBC's Alexander Ross and his trappers had been in the spring. Eventually, they followed the Clark Fork River, reaching Flathead Post by the end of November. (Wikipedia) At some point, Jedediah mentioned that American traders would pay a higher price for furs than the Hudson's Bay Company – something that likely played a part in a radical decision made by a number of HBC trappers months later.

 

The Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho and Montana looking north from El Capitan Peak (elevation 9,983 ft) in Montana. (Wikimedia Commons)

Below: Historic marker in Sula, Montana (by Barry Swackhamer 11 May 2018, courtesy HMdb.org)

The marker reads, in part: 

 

   Alexander Ross, of the Hudson Bay  

   Company, with 55 Indian and white

   trappers, 89 women and children  and 

   392 horses, camped near here on 

   March 12, 1824, enroute from Spokane 

   House near present Spokane, Washington 

   to the Snake River country of southern 

   Idaho. Nearly a month was spent here in 

   a desperate attempt to break through 

   the deep snow across the pass to the 

   Big Hole, and from their hardships and 

   tribulations, Ross called this basin 'The 

   Valley of Troubles.' 

 

Peter Skene Ogden (born ca.1790-1854)

 

During the time Jedediah's party stayed at the HBC post, he talked with the company's trappers, learning about HBC's operations and where they trapped. On December 19, HBC's Peter Skene Ogden and his clerk, William Kittson, began the 1824-1825 Snake expedition to what is now southeastern Idaho and northern Utah. HBC wanted to expand its presence to an area from 

the Snake River south to the Bear River and east to the Bitterroot River in Montana. 

 

Jedediah and his party of six men accom-panied them. Neither Ogden nor Kittson was enthusiastic about this for two reasons: Jedediah's group represented the competition and Ogden already had a large number of guns, traps, horses, and people – men, women, and even children – to manage and feed. 

 

In his journal, Ogden lists, "...58 men, 61 guns, 268 horses, and 352 traps." Kittson's journal has a more detailed accounting, stating, "The party is now together consisting of 22 lodges which contain besides Mr. Ogden and myself, Charles McKay an interpreter of the Piegan Language 10 Engages 53 fremen and lads, 30 Women and 35 Children, all well furnished in arms ammunition Horses and Traps, able in all appearances to face any War party brought into the plains."

 

L: Snake River Watershed (Wikimedia-User Shannon1 by GNU) & R: Bear River Watershed (Wikimedia-User Kmusser by CC 2.5 Generic) For orientation purposes, the modern city of Pocatello is marked by a red dot and highlighted in yellow on each map.

~ 1825 ~

– THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY SNAKE RIVER EXPEDITION –

Google Map (with additional locations and labeling)

Accompanying the Ogden expedition gave Jedediah an opportunity to explore more of the Oregon Country. By the end of April 1825, the expedition reached the Bear River in present-day Utah. Around that time, Jedediah's party left the HBC brigade to join some American trappers that had wintered in the area.

 

In late May, Peter Ogden was presented with a larger, more serious problem than competitors in his ranks. Near present-day Mountain Green, Utah, 23 freeman trappers who had been outfitted by HBC deserted Ogden's brigade to join a group of American trappers led by a man named Johnson Gardner. The trappers left with around 700 beaver pelts. 

 

It's believed that some of the Iroquois trappers Jedediah accompanied to Flathead Post the previous September were among the deserters. Since many HBC trappers were already unhappy with the company, Jedediah's remark about American companies giving the trappers a better price for their furs could have influenced a number of them. 

– THE 1^st ROCKY MOUNTAIN RENDEZVOUS –

During the months Jedediah traveled to Flathead Post and accompanied Peter Ogden's expedition, Thomas Fitzpatrick and his men followed the Platte and Missouri Rivers to St. Louis. Their news of the South Pass gave William Ashley an idea about how he could simplify the Ashley & Henry Company's operations. In addition to Ashley's political goals (recall from Part I that he was elected Lt. Governor of Missouri after the territory gained its statehood in 1821), he wanted to make money in the fur trade without spending extended periods of time in the mountains. In late 1824, Ashley departed St. Louis with a new group of trappers, supplies, and a plan.

 

Ashley's solution was to hold a rendezvous in the summer after the spring hunt. He likely based his idea on the HBC model, since that company had been holding the gatherings in the far northwest and southern Canada since its founding in 1783. Rendezvous became an annual event for the next fifteen years, attracting Ashley's trappers, free-trappers, and members of various tribes, such as the Shoshone, Absarokas, and Flathead. The two-week gatherings provided an opportunity for trappers and traders to conduct business and purchase supplies in a central location without traveling to trading posts scattered along rivers. Between the use of brigades and the creation of the rendezvous, William Ashley transformed the American fur-trading industry. 

 

[The two paintings that follow are part of a collection that represents events from the 1837 rendezvous. Since photography was in its infancy, these paintings are the only visual record of rendezvous gatherings. Read more about this unique collection and its origins at the end of the post.]
 

Catching Up by Alfred Jacob Miller, 1858-1860. Watercolor on paper. (The Walters Art Museum)

     

The point of view is from Monsr Proveau's Tent,- and the time near sunset. The men have been quietly preparing their evening meals. Mo'sieur P. adipose & rotonde - 'larding the lean earth as he walks along,'- now raises both hands to his mouth and with stentorian lungs bawls out something like 'Attrapez des Chevaux'- the men immediately rise and run towards a cloud of dust from which the horses are seen emerging,- these are being driven in by the horse-guards from their range, some 2 or 3 miles, and the men secure each their own by lariats trailing on the ground from their necks, extending some 15 feet,- thense they proceed to their pickets, where they are secured for the night, with sufficient range to permit their grazing until morning.

 

~ A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).

  

[Note: "Mo'sieur P. adipose & rotonde" refers to the man standing just to the left of the smoky campfire. Miller is saying that Mr. Proveau, fat and round, was shouting "Attrapez des Chevaux" or "Catch the horses." ]

Historical marker 1825 Rocky Mountain Rendezvous near McKinnon, WY. (by Barry Swackhamer, 10 Sep 2015, courtesy HMdb.org)

 The marker reads, in part:
 

... The annual event was actually begun as a time saving measure whereby trappers could replenish supplies and trade furs without traveling to St. Louis each summer. ... One-hundred twenty trappers gathered to barter their furs at Burnt Fork. Among those assembled were some of the industry's most colorful characters: General Ashley, Jedediah Smith, Bill Sublette, Davey Jackson, Tom Fitzpatrick, Etienne Provost, James Beckwourth and a still green Jim Bridger ....

 

 

James Beckwourth (1798-1866)

In the words of James Beckwourth, Ashley arrived at the 1825 rendezvous with "three hundred pack mules, well laden with goods and all things necessary for the mountaineers and the Indian trade." He continued, "Mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading, running, jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of extravagances that white men or Indians could invent. The unpacking of the medicine water contributed not a little to the heightening of our festivities." (Internet Archive, Beckwourth)

 

[Beckwourth was known to exaggerate, although his description of rendezvous in the passage above is consistent with many others.]

Google Map (with added locations and labeling)

 

After the Green River rendezvous, Major Andrew Henry, Ashley's partner, informed Ashley he was leaving the fur trading business. Ashley turned to Jedediah Smith to take Henry's place as his partner in the business. The men then transported "one hundred packs of furs ... to the Bighorn River, and then floated the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers where they met the Atkinson-O’Fallon Expedition. The furs were loaded on the steamboat and taken to St. Louis." (The Fur Trapper, Eddins)

 

~ 1826 ~

– THE CACHE VALLEY RENDEZVOUS & ANOTHER PARTNERSHIP –

  

In the spring of 1826, Jedediah and William Ashley returned to the mountains to prepare for the summer rendezvous that was to be held in the Cache Valley in northern Utah.

Cavalcade by Alfred Jacob Miller, between 1858 and 1860. Watercolor on paper. (Walters Art Museum)

After everyone had arrived at the rendezvous, the Snake Indians, led by Chief Ma-wo-ma, staged a grand entry in honor of Captain Stewart. 'Some of the dresses were magnificent,' Miller wrote as he recalled the parade, 'and although vermillion was worth four dollars per oz., a lavish use of that article was exhibited on their bodies and faces.' Miller's friend, the missionary William H. Gray, was otherwise impressed, noting that some of the marchers were naked or hardly clothed at all. Miller worked his sketches into a large oil version of this scene (now in the collection of the Oklahoma Historical Society) after he returned to Baltimore in 1839. He shipped it to New York for exhibition and transport to Liverpool. It was shown at the Apollo Gallery as a sequel to his spring and summer exhibition that had already been shipped to Murthly. This small watercolor was a part of the commission that Miller received from William T. Walters. (Wikimedia)

 

Google Map (with added locations and labeling)

 

After the rendezvous, William Ashley met Jedediah, David Jackson (Jackson's Hole is named after him), and William Sublette on the Bear River, where he sold his interest in the fur company to the three men. The new company was called Smith, Jackson, & Sublette; William Ashley became their supplier.  
 
The three partners split up the duties of the company – Jedediah would explore and trap to the south, while David Jackson and William Sublette would handle field operations and trap north along the Snake and Missouri Rivers. The partners and their respective brigades departed Bear River around mid-August.

 

NEXT: A Fur Trader & Explorer in the American West III - Explorer (posted May 2023)

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– THE RENDEZVOUS PAINTINGS OF ALFRED JACOB MILLER –

 
From The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland: 

In 1837, American artist Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874) was hired by Captain William Drummond Stewart, a Scottish adventurer, to accompany him to the 13th annual rendezvous. Stewart's fascination with the American West had led him to attend at least three of the previous gatherings. Believing this to be his last trip, Stewart wanted Miller to document the trip through drawings and paintings.
 
In July 1858, a wealthy Baltimore businessman and art collector named William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore-born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.

 

Alfred Jacob Miller's paintings from the 13th annual rendezvous are featured in the seven-minute video, "The Green River Rendezvous," that details the interactions, activities, and camaraderie that took place among trappers, traders, and Indigenous peoples.

 

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– FURTHER READING –

• The Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific, 1822-1829, With the Original Journals by William Henry Ashley, Jedediah Strong Smith, and Harrison G. Rogers, published in 1918, is a free ebook available on Google Books. It includes a detailed, documented account of events leading up to and including Jedediah Smith's death, where many other sources speculate. 

• James Clyman, American Frontiersman, 1792-1881. The adventures of a trapper and covered wagon emigrant as told in his own reminiscences and diaries. This is the former colonel's first-hand account of his experiences with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He's the man who stitched up Jedediah's head.
  

• Jedediah Smith's Travels Pictures Maps by Dr. O. Ned Eddins is an interesting, well-researched account of Jedediah's travels. It includes photos, maps, and excerpts from Jedediah's journals. Eddins' website, The Fur Trade Role in Western Expansion, is extensive, addressing a wide variety of topics related to the American West. 
  

• The Jedediah Smith Society and An Unforgettable Man: Hugh Glass websites have a wealth of information about life and times of these men, particularly on the Hugh Glass site. The Smith site has original letters written by Jedediah and his brothers (click on the "YouTube Videos & Links to Other Sites" tab), as well as maps of his travels. The Hugh Glass site is more extensive with a much wider range of information and many references to Jedediah. Both sites are well-researched and documented.
  

• The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians, written from Beckwourth's own dictation by Thomas D. Bonner in1856, provides another viewpoint. This is possibly an embellished version of events since Beckwourth was known for exaggeration. 

•  PJ Delhomme, author of The Ten Toughest Mountain Men and Women published in "Outdoor Life" in 2016, lists Jedediah Smith alongside Hugh Glass and eight others. Delhomme is a bit on the cheeky side but, as he says, if even half the stories about these men and women are true, they were tougher than tough.

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Bradish-Scott Family History - Feb/Mar 2023