History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I, Part 8

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 910

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In 1827 the new Rocky Mountain Fur Company had about four hundred

HISTORY OF IDAHO

men engaged in trapping in Wyoming, Northern Colorado and Utah. The gen- eral rendezvous of this year was on the Green River in Western Wyoming. That winter David E. Jackson remained in the valley south of the Yellowstone National Park, which valley is still known as "Jackson's Hole." The rendezvous was also in Wyoming for each of the next three years, but in 1832 it was transferred to what was known as "Pierre's Hole," in what is now Eastern Idaho. The Rocky Mouritain Fur Company came to an end in 1834.

NATHANIEL J. WYETH

One of the most disastrous failures in the whole history of the fur trade was that of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, who was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 29, 1802. His father, Jacob Wyeth, was a graduate of Harvard and it was his desire that his son should attend that historic institution. But Nathaniel was too restless and ambitious. After the failure of Astor's enter- prise on the Columbia, Hall J. Kelley, of Boston, wrote a number of articles on Oregon, beginning his agitation for the occupation of the country as early as 1815, and it is said that the first bills on that subject introduced in Congress bear the impress of his propaganda. Young Wyeth read Kelley's essays and determined to visit the West as a fur trader. In the winter of 1831-32 he began the organization of a company for that purpose, and made the follow- ing announcement :

"Our company is to last for five years. The profits are to be divided in such a manner that if the number concerned is fifty, and the whole net profits are divided into that number of parts, I should have eight parts, the surgeon two, and the remaining forty parts should be divided among the forty-eight persons."

Under this arrangement Wyeth was to furnish all the necessary capital. On March 1, 1832, the company of twenty men left Boston for St. Louis. At Baltimore they were joined by four others. Upon arriving at St. Louis, Wyeth met Sublette, Mckenzie, and other veterans of the fur trade and trav- eled with them to the rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company at Pierre's Hole. Says Chittenden : "With his perfect knowledge of conditions in the mountains, Sublette saw that he had nothing to fear from this new company and might very likely draw all the men and the outfit into his own business before he got through with them. He therefore lent them a ready hand, set them on their feet, and offered them the protection of his own party as far as he should go."

The caravan arrived at the rendezvous on July 6, 1832. Besides Wyeth's party, Sublette was accompanied by the remnants of two small parties ( Black- well's and Gant's) which he had picked up on the Laramie River, Vanderburgh and Drips of the American Fur Company, and a little later Lucien Fontenelle arrived from Fort Union with supplies. Here a majority of Wyeth's men deserted and returned east to their homes. On the 17th, with the few that remained, he went on down the Snake River and in October reached the mouth of the Columbia. Upon his arrival there he learned that the vessel he had sent from Boston around Cape Horn had been wrecked on a reef while coming up the Pacific coast. They passed the winter at the trading post of the Hud- son's Bay Company at Vancouver, a few miles above the mouth of the Columbia,

HISTORY OF IDAHO

where they were kindly treated and in the spring they were provided with sup- plies for the return journey, though Wyeth was discouraged in every possible way by the factor at Vancouver from engaging in the fur trade in that locality.

WYETH'S SECOND EXPEDITION

In 1833, while on his way east, Wyeth made a contract with Milton C. Sub- lette and Thomas Fitzpatrick to bring out to them their supplies in 1834. He then went on to Boston, where he organized the "Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company." Early in the year 1834 another vessel left Boston for the Pacific coast and on the 7th of March Wyeth left St. Louis on his second trip to the Rocky Mountain country. His company this year numbered seventy men, among whom were the naturalists, Thomas Nuttall and John K. Townsend, and the missionaries, Jason and Daniel Lee. On June 19, 1834, he established a camp on the Green River, in what is now Western Wyoming, and spent the remainder of that month in exploring the Green River Valley. Ascending Ham's Fork of the Green River, he crossed over to the Bear River on the 4th of July and entered Idaho.

Sublette and Fitzpatrick repudiated the contract they had made with Wyeth the year before, claiming that he had not fulfilled his part of the agreement. Wyeth attributed this and other failures of the expedition to an account of his first expedition which had been published in 1833 by his cousin, John B. Wyeth, who had accompanied him as far as the rendezvous in Pierre's Hole in 1832, and which account Nathaniel J. asserted was "full of white lies."

John K. Townsend wrote an account of the second expedition, which was published in 1835. He remained in Oregon for nearly two years, during which time he was employed as a physician at Fort Vancouver by the Hudson's Bay Company.

FORT HALL

On July 11, 1834, Wyeth encamped near the Teton Mountains. From that camp he moved the next day in a southwesterly direction -and struck the Snake River a few miles above the mouth of Henry's Fork. Townsend's Journal of the 14th says: "Capt. W. Richardson and two others left us to seek a suit- able spot for building a fort, and in the evening they returned with the infor- mation that an excellent and convenient place had been pitched upon, about five miles from our present encampment. * The next morning we moved early, and soon arrived at our destined camp. This is a fine large plain on the south side of the Port Neuf, with an abundance of excellent grass and rich soil. The opposite side of the river is thickly covered with large timber of cottonwood and willow, with a dense undergrowth of the same intermixed with»service-berry and currant bushes."

On the 15th "most of the men were put to work, felling trees, making horse pens and preparing materials for the building." It was at this place that the first religious services ever held in the present State of Idaho were con- ducted by Rev. Jason Lee. From Mr. Lee's diary is taken the following extract relating to the event: "July 27, 1834, we repaired to the grove near the fort about 3:30 P. M. for public worship which is the first we have had since we

HISTORY OF IDAHO

started. Our men and Captain McKay's men, French half-breeds and Indians, attended. Gave an exhortation from Ist Corinthians, Ioth and 21st."

There has been some question as to whether Wyeth raised the United States flag over his fort. The doubt seems to be set at rest by Townsend, who says in his journal of August 5, 1834: "At sunrise this morning the 'Star Spangled Banner' was raised on the flag staff at the fort and a salute fired by the men, who, according to orders, assembled around it."

This was probably the first time that "Old Glory" was ever unfurled to an Idaho breeze. It was on that occasion that Wyeth gave to the post the name of Fort Hall, in honor of Henry Hall, the senior member of the Boston firm that furnished the financial support for Wyeth's undertaking. The next day Wyeth left a Mr. Evans, with eleven men, to complete and remain in charge of the fort, while he, with twenty-nine men went on to Oregon. Fremont, in the report of his expedition of 1844, mentions Fort Hall as being located "nine miles above the mouth of the Port Neuf, on the narrow plain between that stream and the Lewis (Snake) River."

In establishing this post Wyeth was destined to encounter the bitter oppo- sition of the Hudson's Bay Company. That company erected Fort Boise on the Snake River, near the mouth of the Boise, soon after Wyeth built Fort Hall, and the Hudson's Bay trappers made it impossible for any independent trader to carry on a profitable business in the territory. In 1836 Wyeth sold Fort Hall to the Hudson's Bay people and returned to his home in Cambridge, where he died in 1856.

PIERRE'S HOLE

One of the historic spots in Eastern Idaho during the days of the fur traders was Pierre's Hole-now known as the "Teton Basin." It is situated directly west of the Teton Mountains, on the trail that led through the Teton Pass to Jackson's Hole, in what is now the State of Wyoming, and has been described by early writers as "a beautiful valley, thirty miles long from southeast to north- west, and from five to fifteen miles in width; a broad, flat prairie, with few trees except along the streams."

This valley first came into notice in the summer of 1829, when William L. Sublette and David E. Jackson encamped there for some time before beginning their season's trapping. In the summer of 1832 the "Hole" was made the general rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. William L. Sublette and Nathaniel J. Wyeth, with a large number of trappers and friendly Indians gath- ered there, the camp being located in the upper part of the valley, some fifteen miles from the Teton Pass. A little later several hundred Indians, chiefly of the Flathead and Nez Perce tribes came into the valley to trade with the white men. These Indians were all friendly to the traders and trappers, but farther east- ward, near the headwaters of the Snake River, were the Gros Ventre, who were particularly troublesome. Sublette had a skirmish with a party of this tribe on the way to the rendezvous. Thomas Fitzpatrick's horse was killed, but he managed to make his escape on foot, wandering for five days in the wilderness before reaching the camp in Pierre's Hole, in a famished condition.

About the middle of July, Milton G. Sublette and a party of trappers left the rendezvous for the Snake River, traveling in a southwesterly direction. Wyeth

HISTORY OF IDAHO

and his few men accompanied this party through the Blackfoot country. On the evening of the 17th they went into camp on the bank of a small stream, only about eight miles from the rendezvous. Next morning early they saw a band of Indians some distance from their camp. John B. Wyeth, in his narra- tive, says that at first they could not determine whether they were Indians, white men or a head of buffalo, but Wyeth's glass showed them to be a party of about one hundred and fifty Gros Ventres, carrying a British flag which they had captured from one of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts.

Milton G. Sublette immediately despatched a messenger to the rendezvous for reinforcements. William L. Sublette and Robert Campbell left with as large a force as could be spared. This force, under the command of Mr. Sub- lette, consisted only of seasoned trappers and Indian allies. Before they reached the camp the Gros Ventre war party came up and, finding the number of white men larger than they had anticipated, displayed a flag of truce, at the same time making signs of peace. The perfidy of this tribe was well known and Sublette placed no confidence in these friendly overtures, but decided to delay open hostilities if possible until the reinforcements arrived.

In the camp were two men especially hated by the Gros Ventre. One of these was Antoine Godin, whose father had been killed by these Indians, and the other was a Flathead chief, who had been persecuted by the tribe. It so hap- pened that these two men advanced for a parley. Just as Godin grasped the hand of the chief, the Flathead shot the Gros Ventre dead. Godin then seized the scarlet robe of the chief and the two beat a hasty retreat. The Gros Ventre then retired to the timber near and the squaws began intrenching. Milton G. Sublette with his trappers held them at bay, while Wyeth's men fortified the camp.

At this time William L. Sublette and Campbell arrived with their party and the former assumed command. He ordered his men to begin firing into. the thicket of willows, but the ineffectiveness of this plan was soon discovered and Sublette decided to charge. Taking about sixty men, half of whom were Indians, they crawled on their hands and knees through the dense thicket of willows until they came within plain view of the rude line of works. As they emerged into more open ground the Gros Ventre opened fire, with the result that a man named Sinclair was killed and Sublette wounded. While the atten- tion of the assailants was drawn to the movements of Sublette, Wyeth, with a party of friendly Indians gained the rear of the enemy and attacked from that quarter. The fight lasted all day and Sublette issued an order to "burn them out." To this the Indian allies objected, as they wanted to plunder the camp.

At this juncture a friendly Indian reported that one of the attacking party had told him a large force of Blackfeet and Gros Ventre was then on the way to attack the rendezvous. Sublette and Campbell, with their reinforcements, hurried back, but found the report to be false. Next morning the Indian fort in the thicket was found abandoned. In this "Battle of Pierre's Hole" the whites lost five killed and six wounded, the Indian allies lost seven killed and six wounded. The Gros Ventre loss was not ascertained, but they left nine dead, twenty-five horses and nearly all their camp equipage. Irving says they admitted that twenty-six of their warriors were killed during the action.

After this defeat of the Gros Ventre they made no further demonstrations

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against the traders and trappers in that locality, and the valley became the favorite resort of the white men. Several annual rendezvous were afterward held there and old documents of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company were dated at "Pierre's Hole under the Three Teton Mountains."

An aftermath of the battle of Pierre's Hole was the tragic death of Antoine Godin. Shortly after Fort Hall was built by Nathaniel J. Wyeth in 1834, a half- breed named Bird, with a party of Blackfeet Indians, appeared on the opposite side of the river and requested Godin to come over and look at some furs. Little suspecting treachery, Godin crossed over in a canoe and before examining the furs sat down to smoke. At a signal from Bird one of the Indians shot Godin in the back. Before he was dead Bird tore the scalp from his head and the whole party retreated beyond the range of the guns at the fort. Godin's body was afterward recovered with the initials "N. J. W." cut with the point of a knife in the forehead.

To the casual reader, the man who lives only in the present, much of this history of the fur traders may seem unnecessary and irrelevant in a History of Idaho. But it was their daring that overcame the savage tribes of the North- west, and their reports of the country that encouraged immigration. They paved the way for the civilization which followed and as the original pioneers of the Northwest are certainly entitled to an honorable place in the history they helped to make.

CHAPTER VI OVERLAND TRAILS-EMIGRATION

EARLY INDIAN TRAILS-WORK OF THE PIONEERS-THE SANTA FE TRAIL-THE OREGON TRAIL-CAMPING PLACES IN IDAHO-HISTORY OF THE TRAIL-REBECCA WINTER'S GRAVE-MARKING THE TRAIL-THE UTAH-CANADA TRAIL-THE NEZ PERCE TRAIL-THE MULLAN MILITARY ROAD.

Far back in the past, generations before the first white man gazed upon the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the untutored savage-Nature's oldest child-sought out pathways over the plains, through the forests and mountain passes, over the unbridged streams, and in time these dim trails became the tribal highways from village to village, or from the tribal settle- ment to the hunting grounds.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, long before the people of the United States even dreamed of a great transcontinental railway, the pioneers of western civilization began the work of locating lines of travel, which have been developed into the great avenues of commerce between the East and West. Without a practical knowledge of engineering, actuated in a majority of cases by the hope of personal gain, perhaps with no thought of the effect of his labors upon future generations, the old trail maker "followed the line of least re- sistance," in most instances the old trails so long known to the red man. Dodg- ing marshes, circling the hills, seeking the open places through the forest and the best crossing places of the streams, these hardy pioneers penetrated the "Great Unknown," always keeping in view suitable camping places where they would find grass and water for their animals and wood for their camp fires.

THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL

One of the oldest, as well as one of the most noted trails to the West was the Santa Fé Trail, which was declared a Government highway in 1824, through the efforts of Thomas H. Benton, then United States senator from 'Missouri. From 1825 to the beginning of the Civil war, the trade that passed over this old trail amounted to millions of dollars. The Santa Fé Trail did not touch Idaho, but its starting point was also the eastern terminus of Idaho's historic route of early days to the Oregon country and the Pacific Coast, viz. :

HISTORY OF IDAHO

THE OREGON TRAIL

This celebrated thoroughfare, over which thousands of emigrants and gold seekers passed on their way to California and the Northwest, began at Inde- pendence, Missouri, about ten miles east of Kansas City. Independence was the last white settlement of consequence west of St. Louis as late as 1832, when St. Joseph, Fort Leavenworth and Council Bluffs came into prominence as outfitting points for emigrant parties bound for the "Far West." From In- dependence the Oregon and Santa Fé trails were identical up the valley of the Kansas River to about where the present City of Lawrence, Kan., is situated. There the Santa Fé Trail turned to the southwest, while the Oregon Trail kept on up the river to where the City of Topeka now stands. This place was at first known as Papan's Ferry. At that point the trail left the river and pursued a northwesterly course until it struck the Platte River not far from Grand Island, Neb.

After St. Joseph and Fort Leavenworth became active competitors of Inde- pendence in the outfitting business, a trail from those places intersected the main road near the line between Kansas and Nebraska. Some writers have described this branch as the original Oregon Trail, not recognizing. that the Oregon and Santa Fé trails were one for a distance of some seventy-five miles west from Independence.

From Grand Island the trail followed the north bank of the Platte River to Fort Laramie (Wyoming). Another trail left the Santa Fe, not far from the present City of Great Bend, Kansas, followed the Arkansas River to Bent's Fort, where it turned northward and descended the South Platte nearly to the north line of the present State of Colorado. There it left the river and crossed over to the North Platte, striking that stream a little below Scott's Bluff, Neb. It then ascended the North Platte on the south side of the river to Fort Laramie, where it joined the main trail. From Fort Laramie the trail continued through Wyoming almost due west, up the valleys of the North Platte and Sweetwater rivers and through the South Pass, which has been called the eastern gateway to the Snake River Valley.

Just west of the pass are the Pacific Springs, once a favorite camping place for emigrant trains. On the ridge between the springs and the waters of the Green River, Joel Palmer, who led a party of emigrants over the trail in 1845, wrote in his diary "Here Hail Oregon !" At the Little Sandy River, some fifteen or twenty miles west of Pacific Springs, the trail forked, the southern branch running by old Fort Bridger and thence northwest to the Bear River, and the northern crossing the Green River some forty miles above. Near the boundary line between Idaho and Wyoming the two forks came together again. The northern route was nearly three days shorter than the other, the respective dis- tances from the Little Sandy to the Bear River being 70 and 157 miles.

CAMPING PLACES IN IDAHO

The following list of camping places in what is now the State of Idaho, all of which are easily recognized, with the number of miles from one place to the next, is taken from Joel Palmer's Journal, as published in Volume XXX of "Thwaites' Early Western Travels." Mr. Palmer had no way of measuring

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distances except by closely observing the country and its landmarks as he went along, but subsequent surveys have shown that in a majority of instances he was not far wrong in his estimate. Starting at the camp on the Bear River, where the two forks of the trail were united, Mr. Palmer notes the stopping places as follows :

Miles

To the crossing of Bear River via Smith's Fork. 10

To foot of Big Hill.

To Big Timber on Bear River 7

To Soda Springs 36

To Spring Branch IO

To Running Branch 9

To Lewis (Snake) River 38

To Fort Hall

To crossing of Port Neuf River 6

To American Falls I2

To Cassia Creek 8

To the Big Marsh 15

To the Lewis (Snake) River II

To Dry Branch via Goose Creek. 23

To Rocky Creek

To crossing of Rocky Creek.

To where road leaves creek

To Salmon Falls Creek. 20

To Salmon Falls 6

To first crossing of Lewis (Snake) River 23

To the Bois River (about) . 70

Down the Bois River to Fort Bois. 46

Cross Lewis River near Fort and to Malheur River. 15

The last stretch of fifteen miles lay beyond the western boundary of the state and in Oregon. From the Malheur River the trail ran up the Burnt River, crossed the Grande Ronde Valley, struck the headwaters of John Day's River and followed that stream to the Columbia, thence down that stream to Oregon City. The distance from Independence to Oregon City was 2,124 miles, of which 385 lay within the present limits of Idaho. At Cassia Creek, eight miles above the American Falls, the California Trail turned off and ran by way of the Great Salt Lake to the gold diggings in the Sacramento Valley. This road was also known as the "Mormon Trail" and the "Salt Lake Trail."

Near the present Town of Glenns Ferry, in the southeastern part of Elmore County, the Oregon Trail divided, the southern branch following the south side of the Snake River, through what is now Owyhee County. This road was longer than the northern branch, but many emigrants preferred it, as they thereby avoided the two crossings of the Snake River. The Oregon Short Line Railroad in many places touches the old trail through Idaho, and many of the present thriving towns along its line were once favorite camping places on this famous highway.

HISTORY OF IDAHO

HISTORY OF THE TRAIL

Some writers give to Wilson P. Hunt and his expedition of 1811 the distinc- tion of being the first white men to pass over the Oregon Trail, but this is only partly correct. Hunt ascended the Missouri to the Arikara villages, in what is now North Dakota, and there turned toward the southwest and did not strike the line of the trail until he reached the mouth of the Port Neuf River. That part of the trail between Independence and Grand Island was in use at a very early date, perhaps during the closing years of the eighteenth century, but no record of when or by whom it was first traveled can be found. That portion between the upper waters of the Green River and Grand Island was no doubt first traversed by the six Astorians who left the Walla Walla Valley in June, 1812, to return to St. Louis. Gen. William H. Ashley discovered the route through the South Pass in the fall of 1823 or early in 1824. In 1826 Jedediah S. Smith connected this part of the trail with Southern California by a trail from Salt Lake to the Colorado River and thence via the Mojave Desert to the Spanish settlements. The first written account of the trail was that of John B. Wyeth, published in 1833. The greater portion of the trail was known to the Indians long before the first white men passed over it on their way to the Northwest. Gen. H. M. Chittenden, in his "History of the American Fur Trade," says of the Oregon Trail:

"This wonderful highway was in the broadest sense a national road, although not surveyed or built under the auspices of the Government. It was the route of a national movement-the migration of a people seeking to avail itself of opportunities which have come but rarely in the history of the world, and which will never come again. It was a route, every mile of which has been the scene of hardship and suffering, yet of high purpose and stern determination. Only on the steppes of Siberia can be found so long a highway over which traffic has moved by a continuous journey from one end to the other. Even in Siberia there are occasional settlements along the route, but on the Oregon Trail in 1843 the traveler saw no evidence of civilized habitation except fur trading posts, between Independence and Fort Vancouver.

"As a highway of travel the Oregon Trail is the most remarkable known to history. Considering the fact that it originated with the spontaneous use of travelers ; that no transit ever located a foot of it; that no level established its grades; that no engineer sought out the fords or built any bridges or surveyed the mountain passes; that there was no grading to speak of nor any attempt at metalling the road-bed; the general good quality of this 2,000 miles of highway will seem most extraordinary. Before the prairies became too dry, the natural turf formed the best roadway for horses to travel on that has probably ever been known. It was amply hard to sustain traffic, yet soft enough to be easier to the feet than even the most perfect asphalt pavement.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I, Part 8

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 910

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 910