Beal, Merrill D.: _The Story of Man in Yellowstone_, The Caxton
Printers, Ltd., Caldwell, Idaho, 1949.
Harris, Burton: _John Colter, His Years in the Rockies_, Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York, 1952.
Mattes, Merrill J.: "Jackson Hole, Crossroads of the Western Fur Trade,
1807-1840," _The Pacific Northwest Quarterly_, Volume 37, April,
1946 and Volume 39, January, 1948.
Mattes, Merrill, J.: "Behind the Legend of Colter's Hell, the Early
Exploration of Yellowstone National Park," _Mississippi Valley
Historical Review_, September, 1949.
Mumey, Nolie: _The Teton Mountains, Their History and Tradition_, The
Artcraft Press, Denver, 1947.
Vinton, Stallo: _John Colter, Discoverer of Yellowstone Park_, Edward
Eberstadt, New York, 1926.
[Illustration: Beaver pond]
THE MOUNTAIN MEN IN JACKSON HOLE.
By Merlin K. Potts, _former Chief Park Naturalist_
MOUNTAIN MAN. The very term has an aura of romance, and the mountain man
of the Fur Trade Era was a romantic character, as he most frequently
appears in the novels of the wild Far West. He also appears as an
uncouth, illiterate, morally degenerate, lazy lout, addicted to
prolonged debauchery, often little better, sometimes inferior, to the
savages with whom he frequently associated. Between this extreme, and
the fearless, hardy, resourceful wanderer of the lonely plains and
mountain highlands, lies the true measure of these men of the mountains.
Some were as bad as they were painted, many were as fine as history
describes them. They were the products of their time, neither better,
nor worse, than any cross-section of the men of any time.
They were, none-the-less, unique even among the pioneers of their day.
Their chosen land was far beyond the outposts of the settlements, their
fellows were few, they moved through the most remote sections of
America, often alone, sometimes in the company of a handful of
companions.
Mountain men were the first to explore the Far West; beyond the
Missouri, through the Rockies, across the Great American Desert, from
the Southwest to Canada, and to the Western Sea. They came not as
explorers, such intent probably never occurred to them. Their sole
interest was in the quest for pelts, particularly the fine fur of the
beaver. Beaver hats were the vogue during the period of the Western Fur
Trade, roughly 1800-40. Until this headpiece was supplanted by the silk
hat, the trappers followed the fur, their trails crossing and recrossing
virtually every area where beaver were to be taken. Some were
independent trappers, some were attached to various fur companies. To
the organizers of the trade, the "business men" behind the enterprises,
fell the financial rewards. The trappers, except in rare instances,
barely made a living at their profession. Their rewards were, many
times, an unmarked grave or broken health, a maimed and crippled body,
or, if they survived to a ripe old age of perhaps 60 years, memories of
a lifetime of adventure multiplied many times beyond the normal
conception.
They were indeed a breed of men apart. It is in no way remarkable that
their story is one of the most fascinating in our history. Bridger,
Smith, Fitzpatrick, Carson, Meek, Sublette, Jackson; these are among the
famous names engraved upon the face of the land, markers to the
indomitable men who left behind these reminders of the days when the
beaver was king of the furbearers.
"Jackson's Hole," the great, mountain-encircled valley lying at the east
base of the Teton Range, was, as that excellent historian Mattes puts it
so aptly, the "Crossroads of the Western Fur Trade." Trapper trails led
into and out of the valley from all directions, through the passes to
the east, Two Ocean, Togwotee, and Union, along the Hoback River to the
south, through Teton and Conant Passes at either end of the great range
to the west, and along the valley of the Snake and Lewis Rivers
northward into the Yellowstone Country. From John Colter's memorable
trek in 1807-08 through 1840 there was much activity throughout the
region. With the decline of the fur trade the valley became once again,
and for many years thereafter, a place of solitude, unvisited, as far as
history records, by white men.
The name Jim Bridger is synonymous with mountain man. Few frontiersmen
from the time of Daniel Boone have so captured the imagination, or been
so voluminously treated in western lore. Bridger has been celebrated as
the greatest of them all, his true exploits tremendous, his fancied
feats fantastic. There were others who shared his fame, he was
overshadowed by none, perhaps equaled by a very few.
Bridger was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 17, 1804, his birthday
antedating by less than 2 months the departure of Lewis and Clark on the
first great western exploration. The family emigrated a few years later
to St. Louis, and Jim and his younger sister were left in the care of an
aunt when their mother and father died in 1816 and 1817. By the time he
was 14 young Jim was supporting himself and his sister by operating a
flatboat ferry, then he became an apprentice in the blacksmith's trade.
This mundane life was not for him. There were too many exotic influences
in the St. Louis of that time which had a tremendous attraction for a
teen-aged youngster. Indians on their ponies jogged along the streets;
Mexican muleteers and colorful Spaniards off the Santa Fe Trail strolled
through the town; there were boatmen, fur traders, and plainsmen with
their tales of buffalo, Indian fights, Lisa, Colter, Lewis and Clark;
what boy could resist the lure of adventure which beckoned so
importunately just beyond the skyline. Jim could not, he did not. Little
sister was growing up, expenses were mounting, and there was a fortune
to be made beyond the western horizon.
In March 1822, just after Jim had passed his eighteenth birthday, the
St. Louis _Missouri Republican_ carried the following notice:
To Enterprising Young Men. The subscriber wishes to engage one hundred
young men to ascend the Missouri River to its source, there to be
employed for one, two or three years. For particulars inquire of Major
Andrew Henry, near the lead mines in the county of Washington, who
will ascend with, and command, the party; or of the subscriber near
St. Louis.
(Signed) William H. Ashley
No mention was made as to the employment for one, two or three years,
nor was it necessary. What else but the quest for fur! Young Jim signed
on, and a month later he was on his way to the promised land, one of the
"enterprising young men" of Henry's company, bound up the river by
keelboat to become a trapper. He was in distinguished company among
experienced frontiersmen, though many of the crew were raw recruits, as
green as Jim himself. There were Sublette and Fitzpatrick, Davy Jackson
and old Hugh Glass, the latter to figure prominently in Jim's
introduction to the frontier.
The outfit lost their horses, which had been traveling overland with a
party under General Ashley's command, to the Assiniboines, however, and
as Ashley returned to St. Louis, the balance of the command "forted up"
at the mouth of the Yellowstone that fall. This was "Fort Union." Thus
Jim became a "Hivernant." He wintered in the mountains and was a
greenhorn no longer, when spring came he was a Mountain Man.
With the breakup of the ice that spring, Major Henry promptly started on
the spring hunt, intending to combine trapping with trading with the
Indians. The party was jumped by Blackfeet at or near the Great Falls of
the Missouri, and the Indians drove them into retreat. They made their
way back to the fort, losing four men killed, and with several wounded.
Bridger had his first taste of Injun fightin'. It was not a palatable
one.
In the meantime Ashley had not arrived at the fort, but some time after
the return of Henry's party Jedediah Smith (also recruited by Ashley in
the spring of 1822) arrived with one companion and the most unwelcome
news that the General's party had run into difficulty with the Arikaras,
and was in dire need of reinforcements. Henry, with about 80 of his men,
including Bridger, returned with Smith to aid Ashley, arriving in time
to achieve a doubtful and shortlived truce with the Indians, with the
help of Colonel Leavenworth and a force of soldiers, trappers, and
friendly Sioux, who had moved up from Fort Atkinson.
Major Henry and his men, having received their supplies from Ashley, set
out at once for the fort on the Yellowstone, intending to again proceed
from there into the wilderness in search of furs. Shortly after the
Arikara fight occurred an incident that was to have a pronounced and
lasting influence on young Jim. The aforementioned Hugh Glass was a
hunter for the party, an elderly, tough Pennsylvanian. On the occasion
which led to his claim to fame as a victim of one of the most tragic
"bear stories" ever related, he was ahead of the party on a hunt, when
he was attacked and mauled by a she-grizzly. So severely was the old man
mangled that his companions despaired of his life. Here was a knotty
problem. He could not be moved, he could not be left alone. Yet the
party wanted to get out of the hostile Indian country and go about the
business of collecting furs as speedily as possible. Major Henry decided
that two men must remain with old Hugh until he died. No one wanted to
stay, but the Major proposed that every man contribute a dollar as an
inducement to those left behind with the old man. The men were more than
willing to subscribe to the arrangement, Jim volunteered to stay, and
another, Fitzgerald by name, reluctantly consented to remain also. So it
was determined, and the Major and the rest of the party moved on.
Old Hugh clung tenaciously to life, while Jim and Fitzgerald sat and
fretted, constantly in fear of discovery and attack by the hostile
Arikaras. Fitzgerald found Indian sign on the third day. As far as he
was concerned that clinched it, they couldn't do the old man any good,
he was certain to "go under" anyway, in the meantime they were in
terrible danger. He finally persuaded Jim to leave the dying oldster,
taking with them Glass' rifle, powder, knife, all his "fixins," because
it wouldn't be reasonable to show up without them, they wouldn't leave
the things with a dead man, and their story to the Major would have to
be that Glass had died. The old fellow was barely conscious, and they
slipped away, catching up to the rest of the party just before it
reached the fort on the Yellowstone.
Jim was worried, memories of the old man haunted him, suppose he hadn't
died! Imagine his dismay when a few weeks later Glass appeared in the
trappers' camp. Jim expected death at the hands of the hunter, he
probably felt that he deserved it, but Glass seemed to be most
interested in the whereabouts of Fitzgerald, placing the blame on him.
Glass had an incredible story to tell. Realizing that he had been
deserted, he determined to save himself, and crawling, hobbling, barely
able to move at all, he started for Fort Kiowa, nearly 100 miles away.
He made it, and as soon as possible thereafter he started upriver again
to locate Henry's party. He wanted "Fitz." When he learned that
Fitzgerald had left the Major and gone downriver to Fort Atkinson, Glass
went after him, with the avowed intention of revenge. He found him, but
found also that he had joined the Army. The commanding officer at Fort
Atkinson heard his story, persuaded him that shooting a soldier would be
a serious matter, compelled Fitzgerald to make good the old man's
losses, and thus the matter was ended, perhaps not to the complete
satisfaction of the justly irate old hunter, but at least without
bloodshed. Jim never forgot. The rest of his life the lesson remained
with him, and his record of service to others, devotion to duty rather
than self-interest, is sufficient evidence that the lesson was well
learned.
Bridger's exploits in the years that followed were legion. In 1824 he
explored the Bear River, discovering the Great Salt Lake which at that
time he believed to be an arm of the Pacific. He advanced from a trapper
in the employ of others to a partnership in the Rocky Mountain Fur
Company with Fitzpatrick, Milton Sublette, Fraeb and Gervais, when in
1830 they brought out the company of Jedediah Smith, David Jackson, and
Bill Sublette. He is best known for his services as a guide. As his
knowledge of the Rockies increased with his years of wandering over the
west, he repeatedly served as a scout for the Army, in which capacity he
was invaluable, his knowledge of Indians and their ways was second to
none. He guided many notable expeditions, one of them the Raynolds
party, into Jackson Hole. It was said of him that he could brush clear a
patch of earth and inscribe thereon, with a twig, an accurate and
detailed map of any section of the Northern Rockies, depending only upon
a photographic memory of the terrain.
Bridger visited Jackson Hole for the first time in 1825, with Thomas
Fitzpatrick and 30 trappers, following Jedediah Smith's route of the
previous year, that is by way of the Hoback River from the south. They
passed through the Hole, going north along the Snake River into the
Yellowstone. This was probably the first trapping venture with Jackson
Hole as the center of operations. Mattes says, in _Jackson Hole,
Crossroads of the Fur Trade, 1807-1840_:
This was a notable occasion, for the full glory of the Tetons was then
revealed for the first time to these two young fur trappers who were
destined in later years to become famous as guides for the government
explorers and the emigrant trains, and as scouts for the
Indian-fighting armies.
Bridger's trails, and those of many others, crossed and recrossed the
valley at the foot of the Tetons many times in the ensuing several
years, as they moved to and from the rendezvous sites on Bear River, the
Green, Pierre's Hole, and the Wind. Through this period the Hole
justified its designation as the "crossroads." Traffic was heavy, and
upon at least one occasion, following the Pierre's Hole rendezvous of
1832, two men (not with Bridger) were killed by the Blackfeet near the
mouth of the Hoback. These men did not, for a time, attain even the
"unmarked grave" reward. Their bones were discovered and buried the
following August by men of the American Fur Company.
Bridger's fame as a Rocky Mountain guide was well established by 1859,
when he was employed by Captain W. F. Raynolds, of the Corps of
Engineers of the U. S. Army, to assist his expedition in the exploration
of the Yellowstone and all its tributaries. The Raynolds expedition left
St. Louis on May 28, 1859, and included about 15 scientific men, one of
whom was the later renowned Ferdinand V. Hayden. The expedition wintered
on the Platte near the present site of Glenrock, Wyoming.
During the several months that Raynolds and his men were idling away the
winter, Bridger's stories of the Yellowstone aroused in Raynolds an
intense desire to see these wonders for himself, and he determined to do
so. The old guide and his leader were both to suffer keen
disappointment. The party left the winter camp on May 6, 1860, and
headed for the Wind River country, eventually reaching Union Pass, so
named by Captain Raynolds because he thought it was near the geographic
center of the Continent, on May 31. Bridger and the Captain
reconnoitered to the north, but found the route discovered by Bridger in
previous years, Two Ocean Pass, blocked by snow too deep to negotiate.
They were thus forced, to their profound regret, to continue on down the
Gros Ventre, entering Jackson Hole on June 11. So Raynolds was unable to
verify Bridger's tales of the wonders of the Yellowstone, marvels that
Jim was as anxious for him to see as the Captain was to see them.
The Snake River was a raging torrent, but a boat was contrived of
blankets and a lodge-skin of Bridger's stretched over a framework of
poles. The animals were persuaded to swim the river, and the party
eventually managed the crossing. One man was drowned, however, while
trying to find a ford. Raynolds and his men left Jackson Hole by way of
Teton Pass and proceeded north through Pierre's Hole.
Although Bridger was engaged as a guide for many subsequent
explorations, including a survey of a more direct stage and freight
route between Denver and Salt Lake City, he did not come again to
Jackson Hole. He made his last scout for the Army in 1868.
Bridger's name appears on landmarks and features throughout the Rockies.
In Wyoming there is Bridger's Pass across the Continental Divide a short
distance southwest of Rawlins; Fort Bridger, a small town on U.S.
Highway 30 near the site of the Fort established by Bridger in 1843; the
Bridger National Forest, and Bridger Lake near the southeastern corner
of Yellowstone National Park, to name only a few.
Bridger's "home" was in the mountains he loved. He bought property near
Kansas City, a small farm and a home in Westport, where various members
of his family lived, but Jim spent little time there until his declining
years. He had a large family, was survived by four children from his
Indian wives. Jim didn't believe in the practice of plural marriage, as
many of the mountain men did. He was married three times, successively
to women of the Flathead, Ute, and Snake tribes, his third wife died in
1858. He was a good family man. His children were sent to school in the
east, except for one daughter, Mary Ann, who was placed in the Whitman
Mission School at Waiilatpu, Oregon, and who died tragically in the
Whitman Massacre of 1847.
Jim Bridger's yarns of the west have long been famous. He could supply
facts, when facts were needed, but he loved to embroider his facts into
fanciful tales for the edification and delight of the "greenhorns," to
some extent because his facts were sometimes doubted. One of his
greatest stories concerned the petrified forest of the Yellowstone.
According to Jim not only the trees were "peetrified," but there were
"peetrified birds asettin' on the peetrified limbs asingin' peetrified
songs." One time he was riding through this section when he came to a
sheer precipice. He was upon it so suddenly that he was unable to check
his horse, which walked off the cliff into space and proceeded on its
way because even gravity had "peetrified."
Jim died on July 17, 1881. His last years were not pleasant. He had a
goitre from which he suffered, rheumatic miseries plagued him, and his
sight failed. By 1875 he was totally blind. As his old eyes grew dim he
longed for his mountains, he said a man could see so much farther in
that country.
His old friend, General Grenville M. Dodge, had erected above his grave
in Mount Washington Cemetery in Kansas City a memorial monument which
bears the inscription:
1804-James Bridger-1881. Celebrated as a hunter, trapper, fur trader
and guide. Discovered Great Salt Lake 1824, the South Pass 1827.
Visited Yellowstone Lake and Geysers 1830. Founded Fort Bridger 1843.
Opened Overland Route by Bridger's Pass to Great Salt Lake. Was a
guide for U. S. exploring expeditions, Albert Sidney Johnston's army
in 1857, and G. M. Dodge in U.P. surveys and Indian campaigns 1865-66.
Jedediah Strong Smith, a contemporary of Bridger's, was another of
General Ashley's "enterprising young men" who came west with the General
and Major Henry in 1822. He was one of the rawest of the green hands,
yet was one of the first to attain stature. He was older than Bridger by
5 years, head of an Ashley party at the end of one year on the frontier,
in 2 years a partner with the General, and in 3 the senior partner of
the fur-trading company of Smith, Sublette, and Jackson.
To say that Smith was second only to Bridger in his prominence as a
mountain man, to attempt to place any of the leaders among the trappers
in any order of rank or importance, would be like trying to rate the
military commanders of history. Each in his own rugged individualistic
way moved toward his own destiny. Many would have risen to even greater
fame than they achieved, had they not met with misfortune early in their
careers. So, we may assume, it might have been with Smith. He was
already a famous figure in the West at the time of his untimely death in
1831.
He was an unusual type of man to be a frontiersman, most would have said
it was unlikely that he would last long or rise to any prominence in the
rough, brawling, blood-and-thunder ways of the west of that day. He did
not smoke or chew tobacco, was never profane, and rarely drank any
spirituous liquor. He was a profoundly religious man, always carried his
Bible with him, and allowed nothing to shake or alter his religious
beliefs. For his day he was also a well-educated man, and one of the few
who kept a journal, in which he recorded in some detail his experiences.
For all this divergence from the usual ways of his fellows, he was
respected and admired, accepted by the other trappers, affectionately
known as "Old Jed" or "Diah," and even upon occasion referred to as Mr.
Smith. He was the first of the trapping fraternity to reach California
overland from the Rockies, the first across the Sierras, and the first
to reach Oregon by way of the West Coast.
When Henry had established his fort at the confluence of the Yellowstone
and the Missouri in 1822, Smith was sent back to St. Louis to advise
General Ashley of the needs of Henry and his men for the following year.
Smith then accompanied Ashley west in the spring of 1823, and as
mentioned previously, was sent ahead to enlist Henry's aid when Ashley
ran into trouble with the Arikaras. He again returned with the General
to St. Louis, and in February 1824, Ashley sent him out again with a
party which traveled overland by pack train. On this occasion Smith and
his party made the first crossing, east to west, of the famous South
Pass at the head of the Sweetwater River, the pass which was to become
the crossing of the Great Divide on the Oregon Trail. This pass had been
used by the Astorians, traveling in the opposite direction, in 1812.
(General Dodge's memorial, crediting discovery of the pass to Bridger in
1827, was thus in error, although various routes were being "discovered"
and "re-discovered" at intervals by individuals who had no knowledge
that others had preceded them.) A new era in fur trade history was
opened when Smith's party found the rich beaver fields at the head of
Green River. As Smith and his contingent moved north from the Green,
they entered Jackson Hole by way of the Hoback, passed through the
valley, and crossed north of the Tetons by way of Conant Pass into
Pierre's Hole (the Teton Basin.) Thus Smith preceded Bridger into
Jackson Hole by a year.
Although Smith became possibly the greatest of the trapper-explorers, at
least with relation to the wide territory covered in the course of his
journeys, he did not return to Jackson Hole. He was killed by Comanches
only 7 years later on the Santa Fe Trail. Crossing desert country with a
wagon train, Smith was scouting ahead for water when he was slain. His
remains were never found, the story of his death came to light when
Mexican traders, who dealt with the Comanches, brought his pistols and
rifle to Santa Fe.
William "Bill" Sublette and David E. Jackson became Smith's partners in
the fur trade when they bought Ashley's interests in the business at the
rendezvous near the Great Salt Lake in 1826. Both of these men had been
among those who made up Ashley's 1822 expedition, Sublette at that time
was 24 years of age, a Kentuckian whose family moved to Missouri in
1817. Jackson has remained throughout the years an enigma, practically
nothing is known of him before his advent into the fur trade, or
following his activity as a mountain man.
Sublette was the entrepreneur of the trio. It was Bill who handled the
outfitting, the business contracts, the transportation of trade goods
and furs. That the partnership was successful is indicated by their
disposal of their interests to Bridger and his partners in 1830 for an
overall sum involving some $16,000. Sublette and his partners were
shrewd enough to anticipate the gradual dissolution of the fur trade,
which influenced their desire to get out of the business. It was
Sublette's wagon caravan from St. Louis to the Popo Agie and return in
1830 that proved the overland trail could be used by wheeled vehicles,
this was the caravan that pioneered the immigrants' route to Oregon.
Sublette later returned to the west as a trader, in partnership with
Robert Campbell, and built Fort William (later Fort Laramie) in 1834.
Sublette and Jackson first entered Jackson Hole in 1826, after the
rendezvous of that year near the Great Salt Lake. They crossed the lower
end of the valley on their way to Green River, while their new partner,
Smith, was headed with another contingent of trappers southwest across
the desert toward California.
The system of trading at annual summer "rendezvous," several of which
have been previously mentioned, was inaugurated by Ashley in 1825. The
rendezvous site of that year was on Henry's Fork of the Green River. By
such a method, more flexible than the previously used "fixed fort"
system, the trappers assembled at a previously determined place,
conveniently located for the widely separated trapper bands. The trader
brought his goods to the site where furs were exchanged for the trade
goods. It was a time of celebration, frolic, and general carousal for
all concerned. The rendezvous site can be likened to the hub of a wheel,
the trails followed by the trappers as they came in from the spring hunt
and departed for the fall hunt were the spokes. Thus rendezvous sites
were on the Green, Wind, Popo Agie Rivers, at the Bear and Great Salt
Lakes, in Pierre's Hole, and finally at Fort Bonneville. Jackson Hole
was never a rendezvous site because of the difficulty of access for the
traders over the high mountain passes surrounding the valley.
[Illustration: SKETCH BY PAUL ROCKWOOD
A fur brigade in Pierre's Hole (Teton Basin, Idaho), at the western
base of the Teton Range]
There is no positive evidence of trapping activity in the valley in
1827-28, although it is quite probable that the Hole received its share
of attention. In 1829, however, Sublette and Jackson joined forces again
in Jackson Hole, where by previous arrangement they were to meet "Diah."
Smith did not appear, and the partners were greatly concerned by his
absence. Tradition has it that Sublette named "Jackson's Hole" and
"Jackson's Lake" in honor of his associate while they were encamped on
the shore of the lake waiting for Smith. Smith was eventually located in
Pierre's Hole by one of the Sublette-Jackson party, Joe Meek, and the
partners were finally reunited there, Jackson and Sublette moving over
via Teton Pass.
Throughout the period 1811-40, nearly every mountain man prominently
connected with the fur trade visited Jackson Hole. It was an area
greatly favored by Jackson, which undoubtedly accounts for Sublette's
most appropriate name. Following Colter's discovery of the valley, it
was traversed in 1811 by three employees of the St. Louis-Missouri Fur
Company, John Hoback, Edward Robinson, and Jacob Reznor. These three, en
route to St. Louis in the spring, encountered the Astorian expedition
(John Jacob Astor's overland party of the American Fur Company) and
agreed to guide the party, commanded by Wilson Price Hunt, over a part
of the westward route. This group entered Jackson Hole that fall by way
of the Hoback River, then went west over Teton Pass. Robert Stuart
brought a returning band of Astorians back in the fall of 1812,
following the same general way and discovering the "South Pass," as they
moved eastward beyond the Green.
British interests took the initiative in the exploration of the fur
country following the War of 1812 and a general, and temporary, decline
of American interest. In 1819 Donald McKenzie of the Northwest Company
brought a large party through Jackson Hole and on north into the
Yellowstone.
The Americans again entered the picture with Smith's previously
mentioned venture of 1824, and from that time forward the list of
Jackson Hole visitors reads like a "Who's Who" of the western fur trade.
There were James Beckwourth (with Sublette), all of Bridger's partners
(Fitzpatrick, Milton Sublette, Fraeb, and Gervais), Nathaniel Wyeth,
Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, and probably on one occasion the
redoubtable Kit Carson.
The era of the mountain man was brief. It is doubtful that the trappers,
traders, and fur company men realized the significance of their exploits
in the expansion westward of a new nation. Yet without their activities
the exploration of the western lands might have been long delayed, and
the claim of the United States to the Pacific Northwest much less
secure.