Fur traders heavily exploited the Willamette River and its tributaries. During this period, the Siskiyou Trail (or California-Oregon Trail) was created. This trading path, over long, stretched from the mouth of the Willamette River near present-day Portland south through the Willamette Valley, crossing the Cascades and the Siskiyou Mountains, and south through the Sacramento Valley to San Francisco.
Fur trade
Willamette River
Willamette River | Fur trade
Fur trade Fur trading. fur trade Fur trade.
where is the headwaters of the willamette river
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Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest region of North America
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who were the first people to inhabit the area along the above-mentioned river?
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Native American community
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what was the major trade done on this river?
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Fur traders heavily exploited the Willamette River and its tributaries. During this period, the Siskiyou Trail (or California-Oregon Trail) was created. This trading path, over long, stretched from the mouth of the Willamette River near present-day Portland south through the Willamette Valley, crossing the Cascades and the Siskiyou Mountains, and south through the Sacramento Valley to San Francisco.
Willamette River | Fur trade
The Willamette River first appears in the records of outsiders in 1792, when it was seen by British Lieutenant William Robert Broughton of the Vancouver Expedition, led by George Vancouver. From the 18th to the mid-19th century, much of the Pacific Northwest and most of its rivers were involved in the fur trade, in which fur trappers (mostly French-Canadians working for the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, which later merged) hunted for beaver and sea otter on rivers, streams, and coastlines. The pelts of these animals commanded substantial prices in either the United States, Canada or eastern Asia, because of their "thick, luxurious and water-repellent" qualities.
Willamette River | Fur trade
The Willamette Trading Post or Willamette Fur Post was a fur trade facility owned by the North West Company established near the Willamette River in what would become the French Prairie in Oregon Country. Established around 1813 in what is now the state of Oregon in the United States, the post was a small fur station where trappers working in the Willamette Valley could exchange their pelts and hides for other trade goods.
Willamette Trading Post | Introduction
Later the HBC would start the Puget Sound Agricultural Company to supply food staples to the venture. By the 1830s the Hudson's Bay Company was worried about American expansion into the region and, in an attempt to forestall it, made a policy that fur trapping brigades operating south of the Columbia River, especially in the drainages of the Snake River and Willamette River, would work to create so-called "fur deserts", where beaver stocks were rapidly and deliberately depleted. This policy, although successful in making beaver rare in the Willamette Valley, did not prevent American settlement.
Oregon pioneer history | Fur trade
The fur industry was important in the region. The Tucannon River provided a profitable area for beaver and otter trapping, which were abundant. F. A. Shaver's 1906 book, "An Illustrated History of Southeastern Washington", said that prior to 1834 the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) (the British fur-trading company) personnel were "undisputed occupants since 1829." A party was led by John Work, who served as an agent of the HBC. Starting from Fort Nez Perce in September 1831, Work and a 56-person party followed the Nez Perce Trail to the Upper Snake River country.
Tucannon River | British fur trade
As the Columbian Plateau became included in the expanding North American fur trade, additional materials and goods additionally altered their means of living. Regional trade was focused on Fort Nez Percés, a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) post. These transactions didn't include livestock as the HBC station maintained a policy of keeping its supply of animals. Settlers from the United States of America began to emigrate to the Willamette Valley in the 1830s and traveled through the plateau. Small numbers of ox and cattle were purchased from them, adding to the large horse herds already established. Marcus Whitman reported to his superiors being lent two oxen from a Cayuse noble to establish Waiilaptu in 1836.
Walla Walla expeditions | Background
Starting with the arrival of the "Tonquin" and foundation of Fort Astoria in March 1811, the American Pacific Fur Company (PFC) gradually established a commercial presence along the Columbia River. The primary product sought by the company for sale in the Qing Empire were the fur pelts of the North American beaver. After the initial work was finished on Fort Astoria, additional trade posts were ordered to be established throughout the Pacific Northwest. At the time, the Willamette Valley had a sizable population of beaver, making it a suitable location for a secondary station.
Wallace House (fur-trade post) | Background
In 1821 the North West Company was absorbed by the giant London-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Fort Vancouver, built in 1824, replaced Fort Astoria as the regional fur trade headquarters. The HBC's trading network made extensive use of the Columbia River. The rapids of the Columbia River at The Dalles was the largest and longest of the four "great portages", where fur trading boats had to unload and transship their cargoes. Sometimes, during high water, boats traveling downriver would "shoot the rapids" instead of portaging, although the practice was dangerous and many people died as a result over the years.
The Dalles, Oregon | Fur trade
Farmers would grow wheat in the Willamette Valley, then bring it by wagon to river ports where it would be bagged and loaded onto steamboats bound downriver to Portland. One of the key centers to the wheat trade was the now-abandoned town of Lincoln, Oregon, in Polk County. Originally known as Doak's Ferry, Lincoln was about south of Salem, Oregon. Lincoln, was once the most important wheat port on the Willamette, as historian Corning describes:
Ruth (sternwheeler 1895) | The wheat trade
In 1832 Wyeth decided to proceed on his own with an independent expedition. With a company of 70-100 men, he intended to establish a fishery and trading post on the Columbia River near its confluence with the Willamette River (part of present-day Portland, Oregon). Related plans were to supply trade goods to trappers in the Rocky Mountains and possibly slaughter and dry bison for export to Cuba. A major investor in the fishery/trading post enterprise was Henry Hall, a partner of the Boston firm Tucker & Williams & Henry Hall. In addition to fur trading, they planned to export salmon to New England and Hawaii.
Fort Hall | Oregon Country
Built as a trade depot, the post was used by the North West Company for trading and as a game relay spot in support of their main outpost Fort George at the mouth of the Columbia River. In 1821, the North West Company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the HBC took control of the fur post. The HBC then used the facility as a rendezvous point for their traders forming fur brigades before traveling to points to the south. The Willamette Trading Post remained in use until the mid-1830s. In later years, former North West Company and HBC employee Pierre Belleque settled a land claim and began farming at the site around 1833.
Willamette Trading Post | Operations
The HBC then named Dr. John McLoughlin as Chief Factor for the region the HBC called the Columbia District which encompassed much of the drainage of the Columbia River. In 1822, McLoughlin had a new post built near where the confluence of the Willamette River and the Columbia. On the north shore of the Columbia a new headquarters, Fort Vancouver, became the centerpiece of a multi-post system where furs and supplies were funneled in and out of Fort Vancouver. Brigades of fur trappers would spend months in the wilderness trapping animals, then return with the pelts to fur posts such as Fort George, Fort Umpqua, Fort Walla Walla, Fort Nisqually, Fort Okanogan, and Fort Boise.
Oregon pioneer history | Fur trade
Their journals described lands amply stocked with thousands of buffalo, beaver, and river otter; and also an abundant population of sea otters on the Pacific Northwest coast. In 1807, explorer Manuel Lisa organized an expedition which would lead to the explosive growth of the fur trade in the upper Missouri River country. Lisa and his crew traveled up the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, trading manufactured items in return for furs from local Native American tribes, and established a fort at the confluence of the Yellowstone and a tributary, the Bighorn, in southern Montana. Although the business started small, it quickly grew into a thriving trade.
Missouri River | Fur trade
Thompson and four fellow fur traders arrived in 1808 to trade with the Lower Kootenais. The local natives gave Thompson's party dried fish and moss bread. Thompson returned the next year and established a trading post on Lake Pend Oreille. He was followed in 1846 by Jesuit Priest Father DeSmet, a missionary to the Kootenai Tribe. The Oregon Question was settled by Oregon Treaty of 1846 which established the 49th Parallel north as the boundary between the US and British North America. Government surveyors of the Boundary Commission came in 1858 to establish the border between the United States and British Columbia.
Bonners Ferry, Idaho | History
The fur trade envisioned by the American Pacific Fur Company and put into practice by the North West Company, and later Hudson's Bay Company, was a triangular trade that sent furs to China, Chinese goods such as tea to England, and manufactured goods to the Pacific Northwest for trade with the Native Americans. In 1813, during the War of 1812, the Pacific Fur Company representatives at Fort Astoria sold the fort and all other company assets in Oregon to the British-owned North West Company. This happened under threat from a British warship and without the confirmation of John Jacob Astor.
Oregon pioneer history | Fur trade
The Chinook territory encompassed the lower Columbia River valley and significant stretches of the Pacific coast on both the north and the south side of the Columbia's mouth. At times, however, the Chinook territory extended even farther south in the Willamette Valley. The total native population was estimated at about 15,000. The indigenous peoples of the Willamette River practiced a variety of life ways. Those on the lower river, slightly closer to the coast, often relied on fishing as their primary economic mainstay. Salmon was the most important fish to Willamette River tribes as well as to the Native Americans of the Columbia River, where white traders traded fish with the Native Americans.
Willamette River | First inhabitants
Dakota and Ojibwe men would kill and skin the animals, while the women would prepare the hides by stretching and drying them. The hides were typically regarded as the women's property, so they would arrange the sales with the clerk of the trading post. In return, the clerks would supply the Indians with trade goods, such as firearms, blankets, and cooking utensils. The fur trade, which had been going on for more than 100 years further east, was mutually beneficial, since the Indians received the products of early industrialization. The furs were sold to Europeans who made felt hats and fur coats.
Snake River Fur Post | History
In the late 18th century, a private American ship became the first non-indigenous vessel to enter the river; it was followed by a British explorer, who navigated past the Oregon Coast Range into the Willamette Valley. In the following decades, fur trading companies used the Columbia as a key transportation route. Overland explorers entered the Willamette Valley through the scenic but treacherous Columbia River Gorge, and pioneers began to settle the valley in increasing numbers. Steamships along the river linked communities and facilitated trade; the arrival of railroads in the late 19th century, many running along the river, supplemented these links.
Columbia River | Introduction
In search of furs, explorer David Thompson sent out two trappers, Jacques Raphael Finlay and Finan McDonald, to construct a fur trading post on the Spokane River in Washington and trade with the local Indians. In operation from 1810 to 1826, it was ran by the British North West Company and later the Hudson's Bay Company, and the post was the headquarters of the fur trade between the Rocky and Cascade mountains for 16 years.
Economy of Spokane, Washington | Trade
Following the French victory over the Natchez in 1731 which resulted in the destruction of the Natchez people, the French were able to begin fur trading down the Arkansas river and greatly expanded the Arkansas Post to take advantage of the fur trade.
North American fur trade | Mississippi river valley
The fur trade era was from 1825-1840. It was caused by the popularity of beaver skin hats on the east coast of the United States and Europe. In response to the high demand fur trappers and traders headed west to hunt for beaver. In the fall and winter the beavers would be hunted and their pelts would be scraped, stretched and salted for shipment. Then in the spring and summer these trappers would travel over 1,000 miles one way to St. Louis so they could sell their product for supplies. The suppliers decided it would be more effective coming to the mountain men and trading supplies for the furs there instead of St.
Fort Bridger Rendezvous | History
As early as the 18th century, fur trappers entered the extreme northern basin of the Missouri River in the hopes of finding populations of beaver and river otter, the sale of whose pelts drove the thriving North American fur trade. They came from many different places – some from the Canadian fur corporations at Hudson Bay, some from the Pacific Northwest ("see also": Maritime fur trade), and some from the midwestern United States. Most did not stay in the area for long, as they failed to find significant resources. The first glowing reports of country rich with thousands of game animals came in 1806 when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark returned from their two-year expedition.
Missouri River | Fur trade
The English responded by sending agents inland. In 1756-58 Joseph Smith and Joseph Waggoner made two trips to the Swan River and upper Assiniboine.
Assiniboine River fur trade | French Period
Upper-river tribes caught steelhead and salmon, often by building weirs across tributary streams. Tribes of the northern Willamette Valley practiced a generally settled lifestyle. The Chinooks lived in great wooden lodges, practiced slavery, and had a well-defined caste system. People of the south were more nomadic, traveling from place to place with the seasons. They were known for the controlled burning of woodlands to create meadows for hunting and plant gathering (especially camas).
Willamette River | First inhabitants
Young and Kelley arrived at the Hudson's Bay Company post Fort Vancouver on October 17, 1834, center of the Columbia District. The HBC was the preeminent economic force in the region's fur trade. At the time the Oregon Country was jointly occupied by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States of America. Young decided to settle permanently on the west bank of the Willamette River, near the mouth of Chehalem Creek, opposite Champoeg. His home is believed to be the first house built by European Americans on that side of the river. Dr. John McLoughlin of the HBC tried to discourage American settlers in the region.
Ewing Young | Oregon Country
It was California's early fur trade, more than any other single factor, that opened up the West, and the San Francisco Bay Area in particular, to world trade. The Spanish, French, English, Russians and Americans engaged in the California fur trade before 1825, harvesting prodigious quantities of beaver, river otter, marten, fisher, mink, fox, weasel, harbor and fur seals and sea otter. When the coastal and oceanic fur industry began to decline, the focus shifted to California's inland fur resources. Between 1826 and 1845 the Hudson's Bay Company sent parties out annually from Fort Astoria and Fort Vancouver into the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys as far south as French Camp on the San Joaquin River.
Alhambra Creek | Beavers
In October 1856, "Portland" was taken from the lower Willamette river around Willamette Falls, to run on the upper river to serve in the trade between Canameh and Dayton, on the Yamhill river "Portland" was able to reach Dayton most of the year, except when there was extreme low water on the Yamhill river bar, where the Yamhill flowed into the Willamette.
Portland (sidewheeler 1853) | Transfer to upper Willamette river
Europeans mainly traded along the coast of North America with Indigenous people. The early fur trade with Indigenous people, which developed alongside the coasts of North America, was not limited to beaver pelts. Beavers were not particularly valued and people preferred "fancy fur" or "fur that is used with or on the pelt". The fur trade was viewed as secondary to fishing during this era. The earliest North American fur trading did not include long distance transportation of the furs after they were obtained by trade with the First Nations; it started with trading near settlements or along the coast or waterways accessible by ship.
Voyageurs | History
Lisa's men started construction of Fort Raymond, which sat on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn, in the fall of 1807. The fort would serve primarily as a trading post for bartering with the Native Americans for furs. This method was unlike that of the Pacific Northwest fur trade, which involved trappers hired by the various fur enterprises, namely Hudson's Bay. Fort Raymond was later replaced by Fort Lisa at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone in North Dakota; a second fort also called Fort Lisa was built downstream on the Missouri River in Nebraska.
Missouri River | Fur trade
This trade outpost was established around 1813 by the North West Company, a British owned fur trading concern. It was built southeast of the current city of Newberg on the eastern shore (or southern due to an east-west stretch of the river at this location) of the Willamette River. The location was a few miles west of Champoeg.
Willamette Trading Post | Founding
The Lewis and Clark Expedition helped expand interest in the Pacific Northwest. Although seaborne traders had been engaged in the fur trade along the coastline for many years, Lewis and Clark's news and descriptions of the region spurred others in the United States to seek fortunes in the fur trade business in Oregon Country. The first Americans to return were members of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company as part of an expedition that established Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1811. However, some of the first British traders overland include members of the North West Company that crossed the Rocky Mountains in 1808 and traveled down what they named the Fraser River in modern British Columbia.
Oregon pioneer history | Fur trade
It was an anchor roughly a quarter of the way to either California or Oregon on the famous Oregon Trail. To the west, the common trail leaving Fort John-Laramie later spins off to the Mormon and California trails further west along the road to the Rogue River Valley. The main trail passed northwest to Oregon's Willamette Valley and Oregon City. One of the early principal owner-trappers was William Sublette, and the fort was called Fort William before being sold to the American Fur Company in 1841. (John Jacob Astor, the founder, had left his company a decade before.) The name was changed to Fort John after John B.
Fort Laramie National Historic Site | The fur trade
Gray was the first to do so. He named the river after his ship. The event was later used by the United States in support of their claims to the Pacific Northwest. Other notable American maritime fur traders include William F. Sturgis, Joseph Ingraham, Simon Metcalfe and his son Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe, Daniel Cross, John Boit, and James Magee, among many others. One of the most successful American firms involved in the Northwest Trade was Perkins and Company.
Maritime fur trade | United States
The Hudson Bay Company was the first newcomer to trap the area in the 1830s and trade with various Indigenous groups. A first Fort Umpqua was built in 1832 close by North on the Umpqua River. French Canadian Jean-Baptiste Gagnier ran the isolated post and had partnered with the Umpqua chief's daughter Angélique. The area became quickly trapped out but Gagnier had built self-reliance cultivating "about 50 acres of land, wheat, corn potatoes and most kinds of vegetables" with the help of the local Siuslaw people. Numerous fur trade engagés had gone by en route to Northern California via the Siskiyou fur brigade Trail.
French Settlement, Oregon | History
Robert Gray, captain of the ship "Columbia" rediscovered the mouth of the Columbia River in 1792 on his second voyage to the Pacific Coast. Although the Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta came to the river's mouth in 1775, no other explorer or fur trader had been able to find it since. By the 1790s American ships dominated the coastal fur trade south of Russian America. In fact, Bostonian ships dominated the fur trade between California and China through the 1820s, when the sea otter supply was exhausted, and well before the first American mountain man, Jedediah Smith pioneered overland to California in pursuit of beaver pelts in 1826.
California Fur Rush | Coastal or maritime fur trade
Unable to succeed commercially against the powerful Hudson's Bay Company, he sold both fur trading posts to it in 1837. At the time, both Great Britain and the United States had fur trading companies, settlers and others in the Pacific Northwest. After they settled the northern boundary in 1846, both forts were considered part of the United States and its territories. After returning to Boston, Wyeth managed his business affairs and amassed a considerable fortune. The Fort Hall site has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is considered the most important trading post in the Snake River Valley through the 1860s.
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth | Introduction
Wyeth and crew attempted various commercial interests from their outpost in the Pacific Northwest. They cut lumber and exported it to the Hawaiian Islands, built boats and canoes, and built a -long building to use in processing fish. They intended to ship salmon to the East and to Hawaii. Wyeth and his employees also attempted to trap animals in the Deschutes River watershed of central Oregon. They were unsuccessful and the young company was unable to survive against the HBC and, in the Rocky Mountains, the American Fur Company, made a monopoly by John Jacob Astor. John Ball, one of Wyeth's men, wrote that they were no match for the HBC, which up fur trade prices as much as ten to one whenever any American trader appeared on the lower Columbia River.
Fort William (Oregon) | Operation
Humans began living in the watershed over 10,000 years ago. There were once many tribal villages along the lower river and in the area around its mouth on the Columbia. Indigenous peoples lived throughout the upper reaches of the basin as well. Rich with sediments deposited by flooding and fed by prolific rainfall on the western side of the Cascades, the Willamette Valley is one of the most fertile agricultural regions in North America, and was thus the destination of many 19th-century pioneers traveling west along the Oregon Trail. The river was an important transportation route in the 19th century, although Willamette Falls, just upstream from Portland, was a major barrier to boat traffic.
Willamette River | Introduction
The first use of the name "Dalles", according to "Oregon Geographic Names," appears in fur trader Gabriel Franchère's "Narrative", on April 12, 1814, referring to the long series of major rapids in the river. Starting in the 1810s, Americans and Europeans passed by what became The Dalles, active in the North American fur trade as employees of either the American Pacific Fur Company (PFC) or the Canadian North West Company (NWC). Men like NWC officer David Thompson voyaged both down and up the Columbia, traveling through Celilo Falls. The War of 1812 led to the 1813 liquidation of the PFC, its properties like Fort Astoria sold to the North West Company.
The Dalles, Oregon | Fur trade
In the fall of 1824, Work accompanied Governor George Simpson and Chief Factor John McLoughlin down the Columbia River to the company's headquarters at Fort George (now Astoria, Oregon). In November 1824, Work joined an expedition led by Chief Trader James McMillan that explored the lower Fraser River looking for a site to establish a major trading post. On the return trip, his party discovered the Cowlitz Portage, which became an important route between the Columbia River and Puget Sound. In the spring of 1825, Work helped move the company's headquarters from Fort George to the newly established Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia facing the mouth of the Willamette River.
John Work (fur trader) | Career
In the late 1830s the HBC instituted a policy intended to destroy or weaken the American fur trade companies. The HBC's annual collection and re-supply Snake River Expedition was transformed to a trading enterprise. Beginning in 1834, it visited the American Rendezvous to undersell the American traders—losing money but undercutting the American fur traders. By 1840 the fashion in Europe and Britain shifted away from the formerly very popular beaver felt hats and prices for furs rapidly declined and the trapping almost ceased.
Oregon Trail | Fur traders, trappers and explorers
The natives of the Red River district were primarily of the Saulteaux nation, known today as the northern or plains Ojibwa. They traded with both the NWC and HBC and, despite frequent attempts by the NWC to pit them against its rival, remained neutral in the dispute between the fur companies. The Red River District was also home to a small community of retired NWC voyageurs, called "freemen" because they were free of their contracts with the company.
Pemmican War | Pemmican trade
Despite only having six traps, the men were able to gather 80 beaver skins. The post was abandoned after that season, with no record of it until 1832, when Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth depicted it on a map of the Willamette Valley. In the early 1840s, the Methodist Mission in Oregon began work on the Oregon Institute in vicinity of where Wallace House was located.
Wallace House (fur-trade post) | North West Company
The residency of the HBC trader was made to be wide by long. Along with two minor buildings, there was a small warehouse. While ordering a lowering of exchange rates for skins in 1829, Chief Factor John McLoughlin focused on maintaining commercial ties with the Chinookan peoples through "forcing our Competitors to reduce their prices." This continued value placed in the Chinookans by the British subjects went extended beyond a major source of fur pelts. For instance, the surrounding tribes of Fort George were frequently employed to man the post canoes.
Fort Astoria | British Fur Companies
Richardville began his career as a trader and operated a successful trading post at Kekionga (Miamitown), near present day Fort Wayne, Indiana, while his mother ran a trading post at the Forks of the Wabash. These two outposts along the Maumee River and Wabash Rivers dominated trade between the two waterways, which connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River Valley. Richardville and his mother made most of their income from the fur trade, but they also established a profitable business charging fees to transport goods over and control of a portage connecting the Maumee River to the Little River (known in the present-day as the Little Wabash River).
Jean Baptiste Richardville | Fur trader and entrepreneur
French fur traders had settled seasonally in the Willamette Valley by the beginning of the 19th century. Their settlements were concentrated in the "French Prairie" community in Northern Marion County but may have extended south to the Eugene area. Having already developed relationships with Native communities through intermarriage and trade, they negotiated for land from the Kalapuyans. By 1828 to 1830 they and their Native wives began year-round occupation of the land, raising crops and tending animals. In this process, the mixed race families began to impact Native access to land, food supply, and traditional materials for trade and religious practices.
Eugene, Oregon | Settlement and impact
The fur trade was Oregon's first major industry. Beginning in the 1840s, settlers began displacing Native Americans and setting up farms. Though growth was slow for the coastal region there was rapid growth in the Willamette Valley and Portland in particular. With the discovery of gold in 1861-62 in Baker county and Grant County in Eastern Oregon had begun establishing itself as a major shipping hub with a focus on wheat. With the railroad's arrival to Oregon, Portland has sealed its position as the economic center of the state. In the following decades, loggers and salmon fishers joined the miners.
Economy of Oregon | History
Consistently small stockpiles of foodstuffs at Fort Astoria created the need for frequent transactions with Chinookans for sustenance. Seasonal fish runs provided the major nutritional sources for the Columbian River-based Natives. After ceremonial rituals during each major fish run, trade for caught fish would begin in earnest with the Astorians. A constant task for Hawaiians would be to perform fisherman duties. Major fish populations active in the Columbia included the Candlefish smelt, White sturgeon, Sockeye salmon and Chinook salmon. This dependence on fish made it a primary food source for the Astorians, which caused some discontent among employees desiring a more familiar diet.
Pacific Fur Company | Commercial ties
As men from the old fur trade in the Northeast made the trek west in the early nineteenth century, they sought to recreate the economic system from which they had profited in the Northeast. Some men went alone but others relied on companies like the Hudson Bay Company and the Missouri Fur Company. Marriage and kinship with native women would play an important role in the western fur trade. White traders who moved west needed to establish themselves in the kinship networks of the tribes, and they often did this by marrying a prominent Indian woman. This practice was called a "country" marriage and allowed the trader to network with the adult male members of the woman's band, who were necessary allies for trade.
North American fur trade | Métis people
Willamette Falls is an important location for many tribes. The abundance of salmon brought tribal members from all over to fish, trade, and interact at the falls and created an economic hub for the region. Despite the removal of natives from the area, the importance of Willamette Falls continues to this day. Each year the Grand Ronde Tribe harvests ceremonial salmon from a fishing platform at Willamette Falls and collects lamprey during the summer. Native Americans from other Tribes, such as Warm Springs, also harvest Pacific Lamprey at the falls. European fur traders became aware of the falls in 1810.
Willamette Falls | Human history
Throughout the 17th century, European fishermen and First Nations engaged in the fur trade. These fishermen would not trade directly with hunters. Rather, they would trade goods with First Nation middlemen. Prior to the HBC's formation, French settlers and Indigenous traders exchanged goods for furs near the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers. In 1670 England chartered the HBC. At that time, the company set up a number of trading posts, and by 1718, it had a monopoly on all trade in the basin of Hudson Bay. The British did not use a standardized currency for over 250 years after settling in Canada.
Made beaver | History
European exploration began about 1688. French explorer Jacques de Noyon wintered along the Rainy River. But it was the demand for beaver pelts that brought the fur traders. As competition in the east depleted the beaver, the voyageurs expanded their range into the northwest territories of North America. Here along the modern border of the United States and Canada, the Cree, Monsoni, and Assiniboine tribes were first Native American contacts. By the mid-18th century these people had abandoned the Rainy Lake area, to the Ojibwe. By 1780 the Ojibwe were the primary residents on the border. They filled key roles as suppliers of food, furs, and canoes.
Voyageurs National Park | The Fur Trade
The Willamette River flows northwards down the Willamette Valley until it meets the Columbia River at a point from the mouth of the Columbia. In the natural condition of the river, Portland was the farthest point on the river where the water was deep enough to allow ocean-going ships. Rapids further upstream at Clackamas were a hazard to navigation, and all river traffic had to portage around Willamette Falls, where Oregon City had been established as the first major town inland from Astoria.
Steamboats of the Columbia River | Willamette River
American traders developed the "Golden Round" trade route around the world. Ships sailed from Boston to the Pacific via Cape Horn, then to the North West Coast, arriving in the spring or early summer. They would spend the summer and early autumn fur trading on the coast, mainly between Sitka and the Columbia River. In late autumn they sailed to the Hawaiian Islands, where they typically spent the winter, then from Hawaii to Macau on the Pearl River Delta, arriving in autumn. Trading in Canton did not begin until November, when tea shipments were ready. The Americans had to hire pilots to take their ships up the Pearl River to Canton's "outport" of Whampoa.
Maritime fur trade | American methods and strategies
The English recognized Oswego as a key position in waterway traffic which they must possess if they hoped to dominate the growing Western fur trade market as well as try and convert the local Iroquois to the cause of the English Crown. The fur trade at Oswego subsequently boomed mainly due to the items exchanged at its port. The fur trade being conducted at the Port of Oswego during The Fur Trade Era was primarily an exchange of beaver pelts for rum. When the Native American groups from the west got word that a fully loaded canoe would bring twice the amount of "fire water" at Oswego than other ports like the one at Niagara, they quickly ditched their French beneficiaries and flooded the port at Oswego with canoe after canoe of pelts.
Port of Oswego | Fur Trading Era (1610-1796)
Starting in 1792 the NWC had beaver furs shipped to China by American firms. After the acquisition of Fort George (Astoria) in 1815 the NWC began to supply the Columbia District by sea through the Boston-based firm of Perkins and Company. After arriving at Fort George the American ship took a cargo of NWC beaver furs to Canton, exchanged them for China goods and conveyed them to Boston for sale. Even though Perkins and Company took 25% of the proceeds the arrangement was still about 50% more profitable than using British ships and selling furs in Canton through the EIC for bills payable on London and returning from China with no cargo.
Maritime fur trade | Hudson's Bay Company
Lewis and Clark, who opened up the market on the fur trade in the Upper Missouri, brought with them many Métis to serve as engagés. These same Métis would become involved in the early western fur trade. Many of them settled on the Missouri River and married into the tribes there before setting up their trade networks. The first generation of Métis born in the West grew up out of the old fur trade and provided a bridge to the new western empire. These Métis possessed both native and European skills, spoke multiple languages, and had the important kinship networks required for trade.
North American fur trade | Métis people
They usually traveled in small groups for mutual support and protection. Trapping took place in the fall when the fur became prime. Mountain men primarily trapped beaver and sold the skins. A good beaver skin could bring up to $4 at a time when a man's wage was often $1 per day. Some were more interested in exploring the West. In 1825, the first significant American Rendezvous occurred on the Henry's Fork of the Green River. The trading supplies were brought in by a large party using pack trains originating on the Missouri River. These pack trains were then used to haul out the fur bales.
Oregon Trail | Fur traders, trappers and explorers
American fur traders quickly moved up the Missouri River following the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark's exploration. The first American fur post established in the region now known as Montana was completed in November 1807, and located at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Big Horn rivers by Manuel Lisa and his party of traders. Lisa called it Fort Remon for his son, but it was variously known as Lisa's Fort, or Fort Manuel. From this post Lisa hoped to build a small empire for his fledgling Missouri Fur Company. His dream did not last, as he and his men were the first of many American fur traders to be attacked by groups of Piegan, Blood, and Gros Ventre.
Fur trade in Montana | Manuel Lisa
By 1914, business on the Willamette River had fallen off sharply. Only 5 percent of the freight shipped from the region went by water. There was little support among the business community for proposed expensive dredging operations on the Willamette. However, the government was then in the process of purchasing the Willamette Falls Locks. Captain A.B. Graham of O.C.T.C. was quoted in February 1914:
Pomona (sternwheeler) | Business falls off
that a deal was reached whereby People's would stay off the Columbia river, O.S.N. would stay off the Willamette, People's would get a cash subsidy from O.S.N., and the two companies would swap boats, O.S.N. to receive People's boats on the Columbia, and People's to gain O.S.N.'s boats on the Willamette, which included "Onward".
Onward (sternwheeler 1858) | Transfer to People's Transportation Company
In the spring of 1850, Miller began running a flatboat between Canemah just above Willamette Falls on the Willamette River and Dayton, on the Yamhill River. Miller built a flatboat 65 feet long, which was capable of hauling 350 bushels of wheat. He hired four members of the Klickitat First Nation as crew and poled and rowed the boat up the Yamhill River to Dayton and Lafayette. It took two days to go up from Canemah, and one day to return. Miller charged $35 a ton to haul cargo to upriver farmers, mostly consignments from merchants on the lower Willamette (the part of the river below Willamette Falls).
James D. Miller | Flatboat navigation on the Willamette
At the time of the arrival of the Europeans to the region in the 1820s, the area was inhabited by the Shoshone and various related tribes. The lushness of the Teton Basin provided prime area for the fur trade, attracting many other tribes to region, including the Nez Perce, Flathead and the Gros Ventre. At the time, the basin was part of the disputed Oregon Country. The resulting friction between the trading groups led to recurring skirmishes in the basin. In 1832, a trade rendezvous gone awry resulted in the Battle of Pierre's Hole between the Gros Ventre and a party of American trappers, led by William Sublette and aided by their Nez Perce and Flathead allies.
Teton River (Idaho) | History
All four vessels had a common agent, Capt. Theo. Wygant. In November 1859, when the water level in the river permitted, one of the lines boats would depart Canemah twice a week for Corvallis, and, once a week, for Eugene City. This arrangement continued until July 1860.
Relief (sternwheeler 1858) | Transfer to upper Willamette River
In the wake of the NWC's forced merger into the HBC, George Simpson reorganized operations in New Caledonia and the Columbia Department. His efforts and keen fiscal sense, combined with a resurgence of American traders on the coast after the Russo-American Treaty of 1824, resulted in the HBC's decision to enter the coast maritime fur trade and drive out the Americans. By the early 1820s American traders were taking 3,000 to 5,000 beaver skins, mostly from New Caledonia, to Canton every year. By the early 1830s the number had reached 10,000 annually, which was as many as the HBC itself was acquiring from New Caledonia and half of the total output of the entire Columbia Department.
Maritime fur trade | Hudson's Bay Company
For the settlers living near the Red River on the edge of the prairie, the Pemmican Trade was an important source of trade for the Red River Valley, almost comparable to what the beaver-pelt trade did for the Natives farther north. This trade was a major factor in the emergence of a distinct Métis society. Pemmican was made of dried buffalo meat pounded into a powder and mixed with melted buffalo fat in leather bags. Packs of pemmican would be shipped north and stored at the major fur posts. Ultimately, as the Pemmican trade began to establish its position within the Red River and other parts of the prairies, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and North West Company (NWC).
Pemmican Proclamation | Pemmican Trade
In 1832, the paddle steamer "Yellowstone" was the first to reach Fort Union. Steamboats, being able to haul larger loads, provided a decided transportation advantage to the AFC thereafter. Astor's company dominated the trade in the entire Missouri River region, wresting the lucrative Upper Missouri trade from the Hudson's Bay Company traders to the north who had traded with the Piegan for decades. Unable to match the resources of the AFC, their main American rival, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company sold out in 1834.
Fur trade in Montana | American Fur Company
The previous people of the Fanno Creek watershed were the Atfalati or Tualaty tribe of the Kalapuya, said to have displaced even earlier inhabitants, the Multnomahs, prior to European contact. The valleys of the Willamette River and its major tributaries such as the Tualatin River consisted of open grassland maintained by annual burning, with scattered groves of trees along the rivers and creeks. The Kalapuya moved from place to place in good weather to fish, to hunt small animals, birds, waterfowl, deer, and elk, and to gather nuts, seeds, roots, and berries. Important foods included camas and wapato. In addition to fishing for eels, suckers, and trout, the Atfalati traded for salmon from Chinookan tribes near Willamette Falls.
Fanno Creek | History
When they returned, they brought a flotilla of Native Americans with fur pelts, beginning interest in the fur trade in the Lake Superior region. Conflicts between native tribes began to escalate toward war during this period when an alliance of Anishinaabe tribes was formed and defeated the Dakota in a battle west of Sault Sainte Marie in 1662. This warfare between the tribes along Lake Superior prevented European trade in the area for several years.
North Shore (Lake Superior) | Fur trade
John C. Frémont traveled along the Sevier River on his 1844 exploration of the Great Basin, which confirmed that the Sevier and other Great Basin streams had no ocean outlet and the rumor of a "Buenaventura River" was no more than a myth. During the 1830s and 1840s the fur trade was in full force with thousands of beaver and otter taken from the Sevier River and its tributaries; most trappers were Native Americans although there were also many of British, French and Spanish origin. The slave trade also remained a major if controversial business and only ended after the Mexican–American War in 1848, after which the Sevier River became part of Utah Territory.
Sevier River | Explorers and traders
In 1822 Joshua Pilcher of the Missouri Fur Company built a fur trading post on the west bank of the Missouri River to trade with the local Native American tribes of Omaha, Otoe, Missouri and Pawnee. Fur trading in the United States was not regulated by governments, and fur traders competed madly for the lucrative business, enticing the American Indians with various trade goods and often liquor. At first Pilcher competed with John Jacob Astor's Cabanné's Post of the American Fur Company (AFC) north of Bellevue. In 1823 Astor bought Pilcher's, bringing it into his monopoly of the fur trade under the American Fur Company.
Fontenelle's Post | History
American Fur spent years negotiating, and finally met McKenzie's demands in 1827 to buy Columbia Fur. It was renamed the "Upper Missouri Outfit" division of American Fur, and in 1828, McKenzie went up the river to lead the fur trade, building Fort Union near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Fort Union was ideally situated to dominate the final years of the beaver pelt trade and the beginning of the buffalo hide trade, and many tribes dealt with McKenzie. In 1831, McKenzie succeeded in beginning trade with the native Piegan Blackfeet, eventually building Fort McKenzie in their territory as another trading post.
Kenneth McKenzie (fur trader) | Career
Timmen reports that in 1867, Portland's exports totaled $6,463,793, of which about $4 million was gold dust and ingots mined from Idaho and Montana mines to be taken to the San Francisco mint. In 1870, the situation was similar. Other commodities hauled included lumber, agricultural products, salted salmon, and livestock. Once gold mines started winding down, the steamboats on the upper Columbia and Snake rivers carried wheat.
Steamboats of the Columbia River | Commodities shipped
Henry and Ashley established operations on the upper Missouri River at Fort Henry, and most of the men stayed there through the winter of 1822-23. Smith and some other men had continued up the Missouri to the mouth of the Musselshell River in central Montana where they camped and trapped through the winter and spring, without any notable encounters with indigenous groups. However, in the spring of 1823, Henry took a party further up the Missouri to the Great Falls to try to establish a trading post, but an attack by the Piegans pushed him back. They retreated to Fort Henry but soon abandoned it and established a post two miles up the Yellowstone from the old Fort Remon near present-day Custer, Montana to trade with the more amicable Crow.
Fur trade in Montana | Andrew Henry, William H. Ashley, and Jedediah Smith
The first Europeans to arrive in the area were Sieur du Lhut and his men in the fall and winter of 1679–1680. For the next eighty years, the area was primarily under French influence, and the fur trade grew throughout the first half of the 18th century, with beaver pelts as the prize trade good. French trade in the upper valley was dominated by the Ojibwe and tied to Lake Superior traders, whereas in the lower valley the Dakota assisted in trading with merchants based out of St. Louis downstream. After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, British traders entered the area and grew in numbers and influence with the help of the powerful North West Company.
St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota) | Fur trade
According to Reyes, it was in the 1840s that the Sinixt experienced a major die-off, shrinking from about 3,000 to about 400 during the period of chief Kin-Ka-Nawha, nephew of See-Whel-Ken. In addition to suffering diseases and incursions on their land, they found the salmon runs began to diminish because of the development of commercial fisheries at Astoria, Oregon near the mouth of the Columbia River. Some saw the die-off as a failure of the powers of their traditional religion; Kin-Ka-Nawha was among the eventual converts to Catholicism.
Sinixt | Fur trade, missionaries, and border dispute
In fur trade days the Missinaibi was the main route between James Bay and Lake Superior. The route was: James Bay, Moose Factory, Moose River (Ontario), Missinaibi River, Missinaibi Lake, portage probably via Crooked Lake, Dog Lake, Michipicoten River to Fort Michipicoten on Lake Superior. Trade was contested by the English from the north and the French from the south. In 1774 the Hudson's Bay Company began building posts in the interior. In 1775-76 Edward Jarvis from Henley House went up the Kenogami River, crossed to the Missinaibi and went down to Michicopicten. In 1781 Philip Turnor surveyed the Missinaibi route to Michicopicten.
Missinaibi River | History
During this period, the trappers, also called mountain men, blazed trails through the wilderness that would later form the paths pioneers and settlers would travel by into the West. Transport of the thousands of beaver pelts required ships, providing one of the first large motives for river transport on the Missouri to start.
Missouri River | Fur trade
The fur traders on their return trip carried the traded furs back east at the end of the summer trading season. This fur trade route continued to be used to about 1840. By about 1832 the trail along the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater Rivers had been improved by the fur traders to a rough wagon trail from the Missouri River to the Green River in Wyoming where most of the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous occurred. Following the fur traders, the major emigration trails established along the north and south banks of the North Platte River were the Oregon (1843–1869), California (1843–1869), Mormon (1847–1869) and the Bozeman (1863–68) Trails.
North Platte River | History as a trail west
The fur trade in Montana was a major period in the area's economic history from about 1800 to the 1850s. It also represents the initial meeting of cultures between indigenous peoples and those of European ancestry. British and Canadian traders approached the area from the north and northeast focusing on trading with the indigenous people, who often did the trapping of beavers and other animals themselves. American traders moved gradually up the Missouri River seeking to beat British and Canadian traders to the profitable Upper Missouri River region. Indigenous peoples reacted to fur traders in a variety of ways, usually seeking to further their own interests in these economic dealings.
Fur trade in Montana | Introduction
In June 1910, when low water barred navigation on the Willamette River above Newberg, Oregon, and government dredging operations had ceased, there was talk among the farmers along the river between Newberg and Wheatland of securing the steamer "Etna", then running on the Lewis River, to carry freight on the Willamette.
Etna (sternwheeler) | Proposed transfer to Willamette River
The United States Exploring Expedition passed through the Willamette Valley in 1841 while traveling along the Siskiyou Trail. The expedition members noted extensive salmon fishing by natives at Willamette Falls, much like that at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. In the middle part of the 19th century, the Willamette Valley's fertile soils, pleasant climate, and abundant water attracted thousands of settlers from the eastern United States, mainly the Upland South borderlands of Missouri, Iowa, and the Ohio Valley. Many of these emigrants followed the Oregon Trail, a trail across western North America that began at Independence, Missouri, and ended at various locations near the mouth of the Willamette River.
Willamette River | 19th-century development
The fort's ownership passed to the North West Company, then the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort Colvile, near Kettle Falls, was another important fur trading outpost. The Okanogan River was used by fur brigades traveling between Fort Okanogan and Kamloops. In the late 1850s this route became known as the Okanagan Trail and was widely used as an inland route to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. In the 1850s, European-Americans settled in the area that is now Omak and built houses and inaugurated mining, logging and agricultural activities. As more white settlers arrived, a dispute about land ownership arose between them and the Native Americans.
Omak, Washington | Origin
Guns and other modern weapons were essential trading items for the Native Americans to protect themselves from slave raids; motivation which drove the intensity of the deerskin trade. The need for Indian slaves decreased as African slaves began to be imported in larger quantities, and the focus returned to deerskins. The drive for Indian slaves also was diminished after the Yamasee War to avoid future uprisings. The Yamasees had collected extensive debt in the first decade of the 1700s due to buying manufactured goods on credit from traders, and then not being able to produce enough deerskins to pay the debt later in the year.
North American fur trade | Beginning of the 18th century
In July 1854, Capt. A.S. Murray (1827-1914), Capt. Richard Hoyt, and the Brock & Ogden concern bought "Wallamet" and, on August 2, had the boat lined over Willamette Falls to the lower Willamette river. Just one man, Capt. George Jerome (1823-1886), was on board "Wallamet" while the dangerous lining operation was occurring, Once below the falls, "Wallamet" took the place of the "Lot Whitcomb" on the route from Portland to Astoria, Oregon. "Wallemet" ran in opposition to "Multnomah", which held the mail contract, and the competition between the vessels reduced rates on the Astoria route to $8 per passenger and the same for a ton of freight.
Wallamet (sidewheeler 1853) | Sent to lower river
In the late 1830s the Hudson's Bay Company instituted a policy intended to destroy or weaken the American fur trade companies. The Hudson's Bay Company's annual collection and re-supply Snake River Expedition was transformed to a trading enterprise. Beginning in 1834, it visited the American Rendezvous to undersell the American traders—losing money but undercutting the American fur traders. By 1840 the fashion in Europe and Britain shifted away from the formerly very popular beaver felt hats and prices for furs rapidly declined and the trapping almost ceased. Fur traders tried to use the Platte River, the main route of the eastern Oregon Trail, for transport but soon gave up in frustration as its many channels and islands combined with its muddy waters were too shallow, crooked and unpredictable to use for water transport.
History of the Oregon Trail | Fur traders, trappers and explorers
The growth of the fur trade in the early 19th century laid much of the groundwork as trappers explored the region and blazed trails. Pioneers headed west "en masse" beginning in the 1830s, first by covered wagon, then by the growing numbers of steamboats that entered service on the river. Settlers took over former Native American lands in the watershed, leading to some of the most longstanding and violent wars against indigenous peoples in American history.
Missouri River | Introduction
Most of the posts lasted less than ten years because the area became depleted of beaver and because the wooden stockades tended to rot. The major or permanent posts on the North Saskatchewan River were Cumberland House, Fort Pitt, Fort Carlton, Edmonton and Rocky Mountain House. Especially in the east there were a number of minor temporary posts that left few or no records. Until 1811, fur traders affiliated with the NWC and HBC maintained very amicable relations to the extent that the rival posts were often enclosed within the same palisades for mutual protections. After 1811, however, competition between the HBC and the NWC became increasingly intense (Blondal et al.
Saskatchewan River fur trade | Map and table
Beavers were also hunted for their fur. They were particularly easy to find for trappers as they stayed in one place. Trappers will kill entire families in a lodge. The fur trade in North America was mainly built on the beaver and pelts were valuable enough to cause or contribute to the Beaver Wars, King William's War and the French and Indian War. Fur traders were the main driver of the westward expansion of Europeans into the continent and fur traders were the first to meet and negotiate with the native peoples, who capitalized on trading with the Europeans. Between 1860 and 1870, the peak of the fur trade, the Hudson's Bay Company as well as the fur companies in the US, bought over 150,000 beaver pelts per year.
Beaver | Commercial use
Fur trading on the Assiniboine River and the general area west of Lake Winnipeg began as early as 1731.
Assiniboine River fur trade | Introduction
After the general meeting in 1806, Thompson travelled to Rocky Mountain House and prepared for an expedition to follow the Columbia River to the Pacific. In June 1807 Thompson crossed the Rocky Mountains and spent the summer surveying the Columbia basin; he continued to survey the area over the next few seasons. Thompson mapped and established trading posts in Northwestern Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Western Canada. Trading posts he founded included Kootenae House, Kullyspell House and Saleesh House; the latter two were the first trading posts west of the Rockies in Idaho and Montana, respectively. These posts established by Thompson extended North West Company fur trading territory into the Columbia Basin drainage area.
David Thompson (explorer) | Columbia River travels
In the natural condition of the river, Portland was the farthest point on the river where the water was deep enough to allow ocean-going ships. Rapids further upstream at Clackamas were a hazard to navigation, and all river traffic had to portage around Willamette Falls, where Oregon City had been established as the first major town inland from Astoria. The first steamboat built and launched on the Willamette was "Lot Whitcomb", launched at Milwaukie, Oregon, in 1850. "Lot Whitcomb" was long, had beam, of draft, and 600 gross tons. Her engines were designed by Jacob Kamm, built in the eastern United States, then shipped in pieces to Oregon.
Steamboats of the Willamette River | Route and early operations
The Chipewyan began trading fur in exchange for metal tools and instruments with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1717, which caused a drastic change in their lifestyle, going from a people engage in daily subsidence activities to a people engaging in far-reaching trade as the Chipewyan become the middlemen between the Hudson's Bay Company and the other Indians living further inland. The Chipewyan guarded their right to trade with the Hudson's Bay Company with considerable jealousy and prevented peoples living further inland like the Tłı̨chǫ and Yellowknives from crossing their territory to trade directly with the Hudson's Bay Company for the entire 18th century.
North American fur trade | Chipewyan: drastic changes
Largely avoiding lands known to be within the Louisiana Purchase, the Nor'Westers, led by the Welsh-born geographer, David Thompson, worked their way to the headwaters of the Saskatchewan River and then turned southwestward into the headwaters of the Columbia River, the western boundary of the Columbia District of the British fur trade. Thompson's men came into present-day northwestern Montana in 1808 and founded a post on the Kootenai River (near present-day Libby, Montana) to trade with the Native Americans of the same name. In November 1809, Thompson himself established the most important post in the area, Saleesh House, on the Clark Fork River near present-day Thompson Falls, Montana, named for the explorer.
Fur trade in Montana | British and Canadian traders
After many travels and amazingly accurate map-making in the area of the Clark Fork, Kootenai and Flathead rivers, Thompson left the region for good in 1812. Through Thompson's efforts and the continuing work of North West Company, and the later efforts of Hudson's Bay Company men like Alexander Ross and Peter Skene Ogden, this region came to be dominated by the British and Canadian fur trade for decades to come.
Fur trade in Montana | British and Canadian traders
For these people on the edge of the prairie, the pemmican trade was as important a source of trade goods as was the beaver trade for the First Nations further north. This trade was a major factor in the emergence of a distinct Métis society. Packs of pemmican would be shipped north and stored at the major fur posts (Fort Alexander, Cumberland House, Île-à-la-Crosse, Fort Garry, Norway House and Edmonton House).
Voyageurs | Food
The 270-pound bundle of furs would be placed in a large press and wrapped in elk or bear hide to create overseas fur bales. The large 270-pound bales were then placed on boats on the Columbia River for shipment to London via the Hudson's Bay Company trade routes. The furs would then be auctioned off to textile manufacturers in London. A large demand came from hatters who produced popular beaver felted hats.
Fort Vancouver | Fur trade operations
It also encouraged "free trappers" to explore new regions on their own. At the end of the gathering season, the trappers would "rendezvous" and turn in their goods for pay at river ports along the Green River, Upper Missouri, and the Upper Mississippi. St. Louis was the largest of the rendezvous towns. By 1830, however, fashions changed and beaver hats were replaced by silk hats, ending the demand for expensive American furs. Thus ended the era of the mountain men, trappers, and scouts such as Jedediah Smith, Hugh Glass, Davy Crockett, Jack Omohundro, and others. The trade-in beaver fur virtually ceased by 1845.
American frontier | The fur trade
During this period, the river became a major link in the fur trade route from Tadoussac to Hudson Bay since its source is just east of Lake Mistassini on the Rupert River. The vestiges of the post are considered some of the most valuable and best preserved relics from the era. After the fur trade, the Ashuapmushuan River was used by logging companies to drive logs downstream.
Ashuapmushuan River | History
At the start of the 19th century, the North American fur trade was expanding toward present-day Montana from two directions. Representatives of British and Canadian fur trade companies, primarily the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, pushed west and south from their stronghold on the Saskatchewan River, while American trappers and traders followed the trail of the Lewis and Clark Expedition up the Missouri River from their base in St. Louis. These traders competed not only in trapping fur-bearing animals, particularly the American beaver, but also in arranging trade relations with the many indigenous groups in the region, hoping to corner the market on these rich resources.
Fur trade in Montana | Fur trade and indigenous people in Montana