Grand Teton Historic Resource Study

1. Russell, Journal of a Trapper, p. 42.

2. Merrill J. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," pp. 87- 108, Merril J. Mattes, "Jackson Hole Crossroads of the Western Fur Trade, 1830-1840," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 39 (1948): 3-32; and Hiram M. Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West: A History of the Pioneer Trading Posts and Early Fur Companies of the Missouri Valley and the Rocky Mountains and of the Overland Commerce with Santa Fe, 2 vols. (Stanford, CA: Academic Reprints, 1954), 1:306-307.

3. Paul Chrisler Phillips, The Fur Trade, with concluding chapters by J.W. Smurr, 2 vols. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961), 1:3-14.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid., 1:15-26.

6. Billington, Westward Expansion, pp. 370-371.

7. Ibid., p. 379.

8. Ibid.; and Chittenden, The American Fur Trade, 1:126.

9. For biographies of John Colter, see Stallo Vinton, John Colter. Discoverer of Yellowstone Park (New York: Edward Eberstadt, 1926); and Burton Harris, John Colter; His Years in the Rockies (Wyoming: Big Horn Book Company, 1952, reprint 1977).

10. Harris, John Colter, 36; and Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," p. 91. Dixon is also spelled as Dickson.

11. Harris,John Colter, p. 82. Quote from H.M. Brackenridge, Views from Louisiana Together with a Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri River in 1811 (Pittsburgh, 1814), p. 91.

12. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," p. 92.

13. Harris, John Colter, p. 91.

14. Ibid., p. 104.

15. Grand Teton National Park, Collections Accession File, "The Colter Stone," Accession File 63, 2 folders, F.M. Fryxell to National Park Service Director Arno Cammerer, May 8, 1934.

16. Paul Lawrence, John Colter: A New Look at an Old Mystery (Jackson, WY: Pioneer Press, 1978), pp. 13-14.

17. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, September 4, 1936, October 6, 1936, and June 5, 1937, Grand Teton National Park Files.

18.

19. Harris, John Colter, pp. 108-109; and Aubrey Haines, "John Colter," The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West, ed. LeRoy R. Hafen, 10 vols. (Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Company. 1965-1972), 8:78-79. This book is hereafter referred to as Mountain Men.

20. Haines, "John Colter," Mountain Men, 8:79-80.

21. Ibid., 8:76-80; Vinton, Colter: Discoverer of Yellowstone, pp. 58-61; Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," pp. 92- 93; Barry Maps, Grand Teton National Park Files; Harris, John Colter, pp. 73-114; and David J. Saylor, Jackson Hole, Wyoming: In the Shadow of the Tetons (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), pp. 8-34.

22. Harris, John Colter, pp. 152-165.

23. Mattes, "'Crossroads, 1807-1829," p. 93.

24. Ibid. Mattes made a reasonable inference that they crossed Togwotee Pass, based on their knowledge of the area, when they led the Astorians across the Rockies.

25. Washington Irving, Astoria, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, PA: Carey, Lea, and Blanchard, 1836; reprint, unabridged ed., Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott, 1961), 1:222.

26. Ibid., 1:227.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., 2:230-234.

29. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-;1829," pp. 97-;98; and Philip Ashton Rollins, ed., The Discovery of the Oregon Trail: Rohert Stuart's Narratives (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935), pp. 130-177. Stuart's party lost John Day, who went mad, but were joined later by Miller, who had left Hunt's party at Henry's Fort.

30. Irving, Astoria, 2:334; and Rollins, Discovery Oregon Trail, pp. 130-131.

31. Irving, Astoria, 2:337; and Rollins, Discovery Oregon Trail, pp. 134-135.

32. Rollins, Discovery Oregon Trail, p. 153.

33. Ibid., pp. 154-;186; and Mattes, "Crossroads, 1809-1829," pp. 97-98.

34. Chittenden, American Fur Trade, 1:221-223.

35. Billington, Westward Expansion, pp. 382-383.

36. Alexander Ross, The Fur Hunters of the Far West, ed. Kenneth A. Spaulding, reprint 1855 edition (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956), p. 135.

37. Ibid., p. 167; and Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," pp. 99-100.

38. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," pp. 99-100.

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid.

41. Edgar Stewart, "Finian McDonald," Mountain Men, 5:212-213; and Dale Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West (New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company), pp. 124-125.

42. Stewart, "Finian McDonald," Mountain Men, 5:213. According to Stewart, McDonald returned with 4,459 pelts, while Morgan cites a lower figure of 4,339 pelts. Either number represents a successful trapping season.

43. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," p. 100.

44. Phillips, Fur Trade, 2:35; and Chittenden, American Fur Trade, 1:246-262.

45. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," p. 101. See Dale Morgan's biography of Jed Smith.

46. Harrison Clifford Dale, The Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific, 1822-1829, revised ed., (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Co, 1941), pp. 92-93.

47. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," p. 102.

48. Morgan, Jedediah Smith, pp. 128-129.

49. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," pp. 102.

50. Phillips, Fur Trade, 2:396.

51. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," p. 102.

52. Ibid., pp. 103-105.

53. Ibid.

54. Chittenden, American Fur Trade, 1:288-289.

55. Frances Fuller Victor, The River of the West: Life and Adventure in the Rocky Mountains and Oregon (Hartford, CT: Columbian Book Col., 1870), p. 58.

56. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1807-1829," pp. 105-108.

57. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1830-1840," pp. 3-4.

58. Ibid.

59. Ibid; Russell, Journal of a Trapper; Warren A. Ferris, Life in the Rockies, ed. Paul C. Phillips (Denver, CO: Old West Publishing Co., 1940); and Mattes, "Crossroads," 1830-1840," p. 3.

60. Ferris, Life in the Rockies, p. 85; ed. F.G. Young, "The Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth, 1831-1836," Sources of the History of Oregon, Vol. 1, Parts 3-6 (Eugene, OR: University Press, 1899), p. 158; and Russell, Journal, p. 15.

61. Young, Sources of History, p. 158.

62. Ibid., pp. 158-159.

63. Ferris, Life in the Rockies, pp. 156-158.

64. Rev. Samuel Parker, Journal of an Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains, 4th ed. (New York: 1844), p. 88.

65. Russell, Journal of a Trapper, pp. 18-20.

66. Ibid., pp. 99-108; and Mattes, "Crossroads, 1830-1840," p. 29.

67. Ferris, Life in the Rockies, p. 156.

68. Russell, Journal of a Trapper, p. 90.

69. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1830-1840."

70. Russell, Journal of a Trapper, pp. 18-20.

71. Ibid., pp. 42-43.

72. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1830-1840," p. 10; and Washington Irving, Adventures of Captain Bonneville, 2 vols (New York: G.P Putnam's Sons, 1837), 1:76-84.

73. Victor, River of the West, pp. 253-255. This incident may well have occurred west of Teton Pass in Idaho.

74. Mattes, "Crossroads, 1830-1840," pp. 3-4.

75. Chittenden, American Fur Trade, 1:304-305.

76. Russell, Journal of a Trapper, p. 123.

77. Ibid.

78. Bernard DeVoto, Across the Wide Missouri (New York: Hougton Mifflin Co., 1947), pp. 158-160.

79. Phillips, Fur Trade, 2:574.

80. Chittenden, American Fur Trade, 1:7; and Billington, Westward Expansion, p. 355.

81. Richard J. Fehrman, "The Mountain Men—A Statistical View," Mountain Men, 10:9-15.

82. Ibid.; Chittenden counted 151 trappers killed by Indians between 1820-1831. One source claimed that Black feet and Gros Ventres were killing "an average of 50 Americans a year" by the 1830. I believe this is too high, but determining more accurate figures would be difficult, if not impossible. See Thomas F. Schiltz in "The Gros Ventres and the Upper Missouri Fur Trade, 1806-1835," Annals of Wyoming 56 (Fall 1984):21-28.

83. Fehrman, "Mountain Men—A Statistical View," Mountain Men, 10:9-15.

84. Carl D. Hays, "David E. Jackson," Mountain Men, 9:215-244; and Ferris, Life in Rockies, p. 157.

85. Harvey L. Carter, "Robert Campbell," Mountain Men, 8:49-60.

86. Harvey L. Carter, "Mark Head," Mountain Men, 1:287-293.

87. Harvey L. Carter, "Jed Smith," Mountain Men, 8:331-348.

88. Stephen H. Jenkins and Peter E. Busher, "North American Beaver," Mammalian Species (American Society of Mammalogists, June 8, 1979), No. 120; and Ed Park, The World of the Bison (New York: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1969), pp. 37-57.